Getting Your Austin Security Deposit Back: Texas 30-Day Rules and Local Help
Texas gives landlords 30 days after you move out to refund your deposit or explain what they kept. But the clock only matters once you've given a written forwarding address. Austin renters also have local help that most Texans don't: a free tenant counseling line, a new city fee-disclosure law, and five Justice of the Peace courts that handle deposit cases for a modest filing fee.
AT A GLANCE
|
Who to contact in Austin
Most deposit problems get resolved, or at least sorted out, before anyone goes to court. These are the local offices the City of Austin's Renter Resources page points renters to, plus the county courts where deposit cases end up.
Office | What they do for deposit problems | How to reach them |
|---|---|---|
Austin Tenants Council (TRLA project) | Free phone counseling on Texas Property Code rights, self-help forms and referrals. Advocates aren't attorneys and can't give legal advice. | 512-474-1961, or the online intake form on trla.org/atc |
Austin Equity and Inclusion | Investigates complaints under the new Rental Fee Transparency Ordinance, which covers undisclosed fees | 512-974-3251; 505 Barton Springs Road, Suite 515 |
Travis County Justice of the Peace courts (5 precincts) | Hear small claims cases, including suits to recover a deposit | E-filing is accepted at every JP office. Check the county's precinct map. |
Travis County Law Library & Self-Help Center | Forms, legal information and law books | 1700 Guadalupe Street, 2nd Floor |
Texas Attorney General | Publishes a Tenant's Rights pamphlet and accepts consumer complaints | Linked from the City's Renter Resources page |
Austin Housing, the city's housing department, also lists Volunteer Legal Services and the Texas Legal Services Center as sources of legal help for low-income households.
---
The Texas rules in plain language
Chapter 92, Subchapter C of the Texas Property Code covers every residential lease. Here's what it says, section by section:
Section | The rule |
|---|---|
92.102 | A security deposit is any advance of money meant mainly to secure the lease. It doesn't include a rental application deposit or prepaid rent. |
92.103 | Refund on or before the 30th day after you surrender the premises. A lease rule requiring advance notice of move-out as a condition of the refund only counts if it's underlined or in conspicuous bold print. |
92.104 | The landlord may deduct damages and charges you're legally liable for under the lease, but nothing for normal wear and tear. Deductions need a written description and an itemized list. |
92.1041 | A refund or accounting counts as on time if it's mailed and postmarked by the deadline. |
92.107 | No refund or accounting is due until you give a written forwarding address. You don't lose the deposit just because you didn't give one. |
92.108 | You can't skip the last month's rent and tell the landlord to "use the deposit." Doing so is presumed bad faith, and you could owe three times the rent withheld plus attorney's fees. |
92.109 | Bad-faith retention costs the landlord $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld, plus attorney's fees. |
One exception to itemizing
The landlord can skip the itemized list in one situation: when you owed rent at move-out and there's no dispute about how much (92.104(c)). If you disagree with the rent figure, the landlord still has to itemize.
Notices by email
A 2025 change to the Property Code, effective September 1, 2025, says deposit notices and other communications under this subchapter can go by email if you and the landlord or its agent have already been emailing each other (92.113). The landlord can designate a specific email address for this. Another change from the same law makes the managing agent, leasing agent or resident manager the landlord's agent for these notices (92.112). In practice, you can send your forwarding address to the leasing office, by email if that's how you've been communicating, and keep a copy.
In Texas, the 30-day clock doesn't protect you until the landlord has your forwarding address in writing.
---
Moving out: a short plan that protects the money
Reread your lease for bold or underlined move-out rules. If the lease requires written notice before you leave and that rule is underlined or in conspicuous bold, follow it exactly. Otherwise it can't be used to deny your refund.
Keep paying rent through the end. Section 92.108 makes "use my deposit as last month's rent" a costly mistake.
Document the unit. Take dated photos and video of every room on move-out day, and compare them with any move-in inspection form you signed.
Return keys and get proof of the date you surrendered the unit.
Give your forwarding address in writing to the landlord or leasing office. Send it by email if you've used email before, or by certified mail, and keep a copy.
Mark day 30 on a calendar. Count from the day you surrendered the unit.
---
Fees, fee-in-lieu plans and Austin's new disclosure law
More Austin complexes now offer a monthly fee instead of a deposit. Texas regulates these plans in section 92.111. Before you sign one, know these rules:
The landlord must also offer a regular deposit, and can't treat your choice between the two as a factor in approving your application.
You must be told in writing that you can end the fee arrangement at any time and pay a deposit instead, and what each option costs.
The agreement must be in writing and signed by both sides. When the fee buys insurance, the agreement must state that, unless it says otherwise, the fee isn't refundable and doesn't reduce what you owe for rent or damage.
Before filing an insurance claim over your damages or unpaid rent, the landlord must send you an itemized notice no later than the 30th day after you surrender the unit. If you challenge it and the landlord or a court finds the notice incorrect, that debt is void.
A landlord may not charge you for normal wear and tear, deposit or no deposit.
Austin added its own layer in 2026. The Rental Fee Transparency Ordinance (20260528-045), approved May 28, 2026 and enforced by Austin Equity and Inclusion, requires housing providers to give prospective tenants a written, itemized list of mandatory, optional and estimated variable fees before quoting rent or accepting an application. It applies to providers with 50 or more dwellings starting October 1, 2026. It applies to providers with 5 to 49 dwellings, and to mobile home and RV spaces, starting January 1, 2027.
The ordinance doesn't cover fees for damage or lease violations during your tenancy, and it doesn't put money back in your pocket. The City says it can penalize providers but doesn't compensate tenants. Still, a written fee list makes it far easier to show later which move-in charges were deposits and which weren't.
---
Day 31: your options
If the landlord has your forwarding address and 30 days have passed with no refund and no itemized list, the law presumes bad faith (92.109(d)). If you sue, the landlord has the burden of proving that keeping any part of the deposit was reasonable (92.109(c)).
If you got a list but it includes normal wear and tear or charges you don't owe, start with a written demand. Explain which items you dispute, cite sections 92.104 and 92.109, and set a deadline. The Austin Tenants Council can walk you through your options over the phone.
If the building was sold, the new owner is liable for returning deposits from the date it took title. It must give you a signed statement acknowledging the deposit and its exact amount (92.105). There's an exception for a mortgage lender that takes the property through foreclosure.
---
Filing in a Travis County Justice of the Peace court
Item | What the county says |
|---|---|
Case type | Small claims: a suit for money damages, civil penalties or personal property, governed by Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 500–507 |
Limit | $20,000, excluding statutory interest and court costs but including attorney fees |
Cost (2026 schedule) | $54 filing fee plus $90 to serve one defendant, for a $144 total |
Can't afford it? | File a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs. The court must provide the form. |
Forms | Plaintiff's Original Petition and the Justice Court Civil Case Information Sheet |
Service | A constable or sheriff serves the citation. You can't serve the papers yourself. |
Answer deadline | The landlord has 14 full days after service to answer. If no answer is filed, you can ask for a default judgment hearing. |
Collecting | The court doesn't collect the judgment for you. Texas law protects many kinds of property from seizure. |
Name the defendant correctly. Precinct 5's filing guide warns that naming the wrong defendant can cost you the case or make a judgment impossible to collect. For corporate landlords, the guide says to call the Texas Secretary of State's Charter Division at 512-463-5555 for the registered agent. For an assumed business name, call the Travis County Clerk's Assumed Names Department at 512-854-9188.
Show your math. The judge will want to see how you arrived at the amount. For a bad-faith claim, that's the amount wrongfully withheld, times three, plus $100, plus any attorney's fees. As long as the total, including attorney's fees, stays within $20,000, it fits in small claims.
---
Before you call
☐ Your lease, with any bold or underlined move-out rules marked
☐ Proof of the date you surrendered the unit and returned the keys
☐ A copy of your written forwarding address and how you sent it
☐ Move-in inspection form, plus move-in and move-out photos
☐ Any itemized list or partial refund, with the envelope or email
☐ Rent receipts showing you paid through the end of the lease
☐ The landlord's exact legal name, or the management company's
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK
|
More help in Austin
Related guides
Official sources
Last checked: October 23, 2026. Deposit rules are from Texas Property Code Chapter 92. Austin offices and the fee ordinance are from austintexas.gov. Court limits and fees are from the Travis County Justice of the Peace pages and the 2026 fee schedule.
Comments