Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Texas

Re: No Contract-Security Deposit Issue

If you have been paying rent on a monthly basis, then you had a month to month lease. Therefore, you should have given thirty days advance written notice of your intent to move/vacate. You should also have given the landlord, in writing, your forwarding address. Filling out a forwarding request at the post office does not count.

The general rule is that the landlord has thirty days after a tenant moves out to refund a security deposit or mail an accounting of how the security deposit has been applied. The thirty days does not start to run, however, until the landlord has received notice of the tenant's forwarding address.

If the landlord has the tenant's forwarding address and thirty days has passed, he will not be able to make any deductions from the deposit and there is a presumption of bad faith which would allow you to recover $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld, court costs and attorney fees.