Your landlord kept your deposit?
Or sent a bogus itemization?
Every state sets a statutory deadline for returning a security deposit — and a separate penalty for landlords who ignore it or itemize improperly. ClaimGap organizes your information into a demand-letter format with the correct statute citation for your state, the deadline math, and an itemized calculation of what should have been returned. You review, edit, and send the letter; the recovery outcome is determined by your landlord and, if you file, the court under the applicable state law. In strict-UPL states (AZ, FL, OH, TX, LA, PA, NC), our letter stays statute-recital only — legally safer for you, less aggressive by design.
The three mistakes that kill deposit-recovery letters
- 1
Wrong deadline math
Every state starts the return-deadline clock on a different event — end of the lease, day you vacate, day you send a forwarding address. Miss the trigger and the statutory damages multiplier doesn't apply. We compute from the correct date for your state and flag the statutory 2x / 3x multiplier where the landlord has already triggered it.
- 2
Missing the statute citation
A demand letter that cites no statute is just a complaint. A letter that cites the wrong statute is worse. We pull the correct citation for your state (Cal. Civ. Code §1950.5, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 186 §15B, Tex. Prop. Code §92.109, NY Gen. Oblig. Law §7-103, …) and put it in the opening paragraph where the landlord's lawyer reads it first.
- 3
No itemized calculation
When the landlord has sent an itemization, the tenant has to respond to each line. We take the landlord's line-by-line deductions, apply HUD depreciation schedules where relevant (carpet, paint, appliances), and produce a side-by-side of what was claimed vs what is actually recoverable against your deposit. Normal wear-and-tear billed as tenant damage becomes a line the landlord cannot justify.
ClaimGap is not a law firm. Our security-deposit demand package is informational — you are the sender, and the recovery outcome is determined by your landlord and, if you file, the court under the applicable state law. We do not represent you in any dispute or proceeding.