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A return letter is the landlord's side of the same document a demand letter starts. It is the dated statement that goes out with the money: every deduction named, the total subtracted, the balance returned, and the statute that set the date. Fill the fields below and this page totals the itemized deductions, works out the balance and the deadline for Connecticut or Florida, and gives you the letter to copy.
Return letter — Connecticut, tenancy ended September 30, 2026
Balance to return after $325.00 of itemized deductions — due by October 21, 2026
A line with an amount but no description is still counted, and the statement prints it as an unnamed deduction — which is the one thing an itemized statement is supposed to prevent. Write the item before you write the number.
The deadline is calendar days counted from the tenancy end date: September 30 plus 21 days is October 21. The money is carried to the cent and nothing else is rounded. A deduction larger than the deposit is capped at the deposit, so the balance never goes below zero here.
This is the whole document, written from the landlord's side. Square brackets are the only parts you replace; the itemized block in the middle is the part a statute actually asks for, so it stays even when there is only one line in it.
A move out letter to landlord is the tenant's notice of the date they will leave, not a deposit return letter; this page is the landlord's statement that goes with the money.
[Landlord or property manager name] [Management company, if any] [Street address] [City, state, ZIP] [Date] [Tenant name] [Forwarding address] [City, state, ZIP] Re: Return of security deposit — [property address], tenancy ended [move-out date] Dear [tenant name], I rented [property address] to you from [start date] to [move-out date]. You paid a security deposit of $[deposit] on [date paid], and I received the keys back on [move-out date]. I have inspected the unit since then. This letter is the written statement of what is being withheld and of the balance being returned with it. Itemized statement of deductions: 1. [item] — $[amount] — [what was found, where, and the date of the inspection] 2. [item] — $[amount] — [what was found, where, and the date of the inspection] Total deductions: $[total deductions] Deposit paid: $[deposit] Balance returned with this letter: $[balance] [State] law requires this statement and the balance to reach you by [deadline date] — [number of days] days after the tenancy ended, under [statute citation]. This letter and the payment are being sent on [date sent], inside that deadline, by [method that leaves a dated record]. If you dispute any line above, write to [address] or email [email] by [date], and I will send the receipts and the photographs for that line. Sincerely, [signature] [printed name]
Send it by a method that leaves a dated record. The two sections quoted below turn on the date the statement and the money arrive, and a record of delivery is the only thing that proves that date later.
Connecticut's section asks for the “nature and amount” of the damages, which is two facts per line and not one. A notice that states a single total gives the reader nothing to check, and a number with no item behind it is the first thing a tenant disputes. Four fields per line make the statement complete; the last one is what decides the argument.
| Field | What goes in it | A line without it |
|---|---|---|
| The item | What was damaged, and which room or fixture | “Repairs — $325.00” |
| The amount | The charge for that item alone, not a share of a total | “$325.00 for the unit” |
| When it was found | The inspection date, and the move-out date it followed | “Found during turnover” |
| The evidence | The receipt, the invoice or the photograph kept for that line | Nothing attached |
The left column is a total; the right column is a statement. Both come to $325.00, and only one of them can be answered line by line.
| As a lump sum | As an itemized statement | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| “Damages and cleaning — $325.00” | Interior paint, second bedroom — scuffed below the window, found at the October 1 inspection, paint invoice attached | $250.00 |
| — | Cleaning, kitchen — oven interior, found at the same inspection, cleaner's receipt attached | $75.00 |
| Total $325.00 | Total deductions $325.00, balance returned $1,475.00 | $325.00 |
Nothing here decides whether $250.00 of paint is a fair charge — that is the question a tenant disputes first, and it turns on how long the paint had been on the wall rather than on how the line is written. What the itemization does is put the charge somewhere it can be answered: an item, a date and a receipt. A single total cannot be answered at all, which is why the sections that name a statement also name what it has to contain.
Two states were read for this page, from the statute text on each state's own legislative site. The deadline column is the section's own number, not a summary of it, and the last column is what the section asks the letter to contain.
| State | Section read | Deadline after the tenancy ends | What the letter has to contain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | Fla. Stat. §83.49(3)(a) | 15 days if nothing is withheld30 days to give a claim notice, by certified mail | The claim notice: the amount and the reason for itno itemized statement is named in this subsection |
| Connecticut | Conn. Gen. Stat. §47a-21(d)(2) | 21 daysor 15 days after written notice of a forwarding address, whichever is later | A written statement itemizing the nature and amount of the damagesdelivered with the balance or the full deposit |
Fla. Stat. §83.49(3)(a), The 2026 Florida Statutes, leg.state.fl.us: “if the landlord does not intend to impose a claim on the security deposit, the landlord must return the security deposit, together with interest if otherwise required, within 15 days after the termination of the rental agreement.” Where a claim is coming, the landlord must give written notice “within 30 days after the termination of the rental agreement,” and the same subsection says that a landlord who fails to give that notice “forfeits the right to impose a claim upon the security deposit and may not seek a setoff against the deposit but may file an action for damages after returning the security deposit to the tenant.”
Conn. Gen. Stat. §47a-21(d)(2), 2026 Supplement revised to January 1, 2026, cga.ct.gov: “Not later than twenty-one days after termination of a tenancy or fifteen days after receiving written notification of such tenant's forwarding address, whichever is later, each landlord other than a rent receiver shall deliver to the tenant or former tenant at such forwarding address either (A) the full amount of the security deposit paid by such tenant plus accrued interest, or (B) the balance of such security deposit and accrued interest after deduction for any damages suffered by such landlord by reason of such tenant's failure to comply with such tenant's obligations, together with a written statement itemizing the nature and amount of such damages.” The penalty sits in the next sentence: “Any landlord who violates any provision of this subsection shall be liable for twice the amount of any security deposit paid by such tenant, except that, if the only violation is the failure to deliver the accrued interest, such landlord shall be liable for ten dollars or twice the amount of the accrued interest, whichever is greater.”
Two states, read this round. The other 48 were not read, and neither row above is a national rule. If your state is not here, read its section before you date the letter — the deadline on this page is only as good as the state you selected.
Four cases, all of them reproducible on the calculator above by typing the same numbers. The second and third rows are the same deposit and the same deductions in the same state — only the amount withheld changes, and it moves the deadline by 15 days.
| Case | Working | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Connecticut, deposit $1,800.00, $250.00 + $75.00 withheld, ended 2026-09-30 | 1,800.00 − (250.00 + 75.00), then +21 days | $1,475.00 to returndeadline 2026-10-21; 2 × 1,800.00 = $3,600.00 |
| Florida, deposit $1,800.00, nothing withheld, ended 2026-09-30 | 1,800.00 − 0.00, then +15 days | $1,800.00 to returndeadline 2026-10-15; no claim, so no claim notice |
| Florida, deposit $1,800.00, $250.00 + $75.00 withheld, ended 2026-09-30 | 1,800.00 − (250.00 + 75.00), then +30 days | $1,475.00 to returnclaim notice due 2026-10-30; miss it and the claim is forfeited |
| Connecticut, deposit $2,400.00, $1,200.00 withheld, ended 2026-09-30 | 2,400.00 − 1,200.00, then +21 days | $1,200.00 to returnpenalty 2 × 2,400.00 = $4,800.00, not 2 × 1,200.00 |
The last row is where the arithmetic stops matching intuition. Connecticut multiplies the deposit that was paid — $2,400.00 — not the balance being returned, because the section reads “twice the amount of any security deposit paid by such tenant.” Withholding half the deposit lowers what goes back to $1,200.00 and leaves the statutory figure at $4,800.00. The second and third rows show the Florida split: the same $325.00 withheld that costs a landlord nothing extra in Connecticut moves the Florida deadline from 15 days to 30, because a claim notice is the longer clock and it has to go by certified mail.
A deposit produces two documents, and they are written by opposite sides. This page writes the one a landlord sends with the money or with the statement of what is being kept. The security deposit demand letter writes the one a tenant sends when neither has arrived — it names the balance, the deadline the statute already set, and the consequence of letting the date pass. The numbers in the two letters should meet: the balance this page computes is the balance that letter asks for, and the deadline this page prints is the deadline that letter cites.
Three other pages on this site go further on the parts this one only totals. Security deposit laws walks California Civil Code 1950.5 clause by clause, including the inspection right and the 21-calendar-day deadline in that state. Security deposit calculator puts the deposit in months of rent and carries it through a lease term. Security deposit interest handles the case where the deposit was supposed to earn interest and the statement has to show it.
None of them replaces the statute in your state. Where this page and a section disagree, the section controls and this page is only the arithmetic on top of it.
It does not tell you what your state's deadline is unless your state is Florida or Connecticut. It does not decide whether a deduction is legitimate, and it does not value damage against ordinary wear — that is a separate question with its own evidence, and it is the question a tenant will dispute first. It does not decide who is right when the two letters cross, it does not file anything, and it is not legal advice: the two sections quoted above are the whole of what was read. It also does not add interest, because whether interest is owed at all depends on a section this page did not read for either state.
Five things: the deposit that was paid, each deduction with what it was for and how much, the total of those deductions, the balance being returned, and the date the statement and the money are going out. Connecticut's section adds a sixth — the statement has to itemize “the nature and amount” of the damages, which means a total on its own does not satisfy it. A letter that says only “$325.00 withheld for damages” names neither the nature nor the item.
Connecticut's section does not require a separate document: it requires the balance to be delivered “together with a written statement itemizing the nature and amount of such damages,” which one letter satisfies. Florida's subsection, as quoted above, names no itemized statement at all — it sets a 15-day return and a 30-day claim notice, and the notice has to state the amount and the reason. The letter on this page is written so that it works as both: the itemized block sits inside it.
Leave every deduction line blank. The balance then equals the deposit, the Florida deadline is 15 days rather than 30 because no claim is being made, and the letter's itemized block should say plainly that nothing is being withheld. A zero-deduction letter is the shortest version of the document and the easiest one to defend, because there is nothing in it to argue with.
Both sections set the latest date, not the earliest: 15 or 30 days in Florida, 21 days in Connecticut. Nothing in the text quoted here stops a landlord from sending the statement and the balance the week the keys come back. The deadline matters when the letter is late, not when it is early — but the date it was sent is what has to be provable, which is why the letter names the method.
Because Florida runs two clocks off the same move-out. If no claim is being made, the deposit has to be back within 15 days. If a claim is being made, the landlord has 30 days to give written notice of it, and the subsection requires certified mail for that notice. Withholding nothing and withholding $325.00 are therefore not the same letter in Florida, even though the arithmetic on the balance is the same shape.
Direction. A return letter is written by the landlord and travels with the money or with the statement of what is being kept; a demand letter is written by the tenant when neither has arrived, and it asks for a balance and cites the deadline the statute already set. The two should agree on the numbers. If they do not, the difference is usually a deduction one side counted and the other did not.