Q: Gave notice 8/21 moved 10/19 lease ended 10/19. Called 3 times to discuss deposit was told 1900 refunds still nothing.

A: If you provided notice on August 21, moved out on October 19, and your lease officially ended on the same day, you are entitled to the return of your security deposit. Despite multiple attempts to discuss the deposit, you only received information during a face-to-face meeting on December 12. During this meeting, you were informed that your refund would be $2100 instead of the previously stated $1900 due to waiving the carpet cleaning fee. However, as of now, you haven't received the payment. To address this issue, you should consider sending a written request for the return of your security deposit, detailing the agreed-upon amount and referencing the face-to-face conversation on December 12. If the landlord continues to delay or refuses to return the deposit, you may need to explore legal options available under Texas landlord-tenant laws to recover the owed amount.

A: As long as a tenant provides the landlord with the tenant's forwarding address, the landlord must refund the tenant's security deposit, along with a written description and itemized list of all deductions, within 30 days of the date the tenant surrenders the premises. A landlord who fails to do so is presumed to have acted in bad faith and can be held liable for $100 + three times the portion of the deposit wrongfully withheld, plus attorney fees in a suit to recover the deposit.

But a landlord is not obligated to refund the deposit UNTIL the tenant provides the tenant's forwarding address. Don't make the mistake of refusing to give your landlord your forwarding address. You will lose your leverage.