Under Texas Property Code §92.103, landlords must return the security deposit with an itemized list of deductions within 30 days of move-out. Withhold in bad faith and a court can award the tenant three times the deposit amount — plus attorney's fees. Amavera creates the documentation that makes every deduction defensible.
Texas landlords must return the security deposit, less any lawful deductions, within 30 days of the tenant surrendering the unit (once the tenant has given a forwarding address). Any deductions must be accompanied by a written, itemized description of each charge. Deductions are only permitted for damages beyond normal wear and tear. Miss the 30-day deadline, or fail to provide the written itemization, and Texas law presumes you acted in bad faith — and a landlord found to have retained a deposit in bad faith is liable for $100 plus three times the wrongfully withheld amount, plus the tenant's reasonable attorney's fees.
In a security deposit dispute, Texas law puts the burden on the landlord to prove the retention was reasonable. Without documentation showing the unit's condition at move-in, that burden is very hard to meet — and separately, missing the 30-day deadline or the written itemization requirement creates a rebuttable presumption of bad faith on its own, which is what actually triggers the $100-plus-triple-damages-plus-attorney's-fees exposure. The case doesn't have to be large to be expensive.
Most Texas landlords use a paper condition checklist at move-in. Tenants sign it, it goes in a file, and no one looks at it again until there's a dispute. The problem is that a checklist saying "walls: good" is not evidence. A tenant can claim the checklist was inaccurate, the landlord filled it out after the fact, or the damage predated their tenancy. Without photos, you have no way to prove otherwise.
Texas courts regularly see cases where landlords have a signed checklist but no photos, and tenants have a dispute about whether damage existed at move-in. Judges and juries weigh visual evidence far more heavily than written summaries. A timestamped, AI-organized photo report is a fundamentally different class of documentation.
Amavera lets you invite tenants to document each unit's condition at move-in using a guided mobile app — or complete the walkthrough yourself. You manage credits, reports, and comparisons from the web portal. Every report becomes documentation you can rely on if a tenant disputes your deductions.
Texas is home to one of the largest rental populations in the country, with millions of renter households across Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio alone. Combined with a strict 30-day return deadline and treble damages for bad faith, that scale creates real exposure for landlords managing multiple units.
If you manage more than a handful of units, you're running move-in and move-out inspections constantly. Buy a Pro 30 bundle on the portal and invite tenants as each new lease begins — 30 inspection reports at a significant discount, enough to cover a full year of turnovers for most portfolios.
Single reports available at $30 each. Bundles of 3, 5, and 10 also available.
Buy report credits, invite your tenants, and review inspection reports — all from the portal.
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