Delaware security deposit law: the 20-day deadline and your rights
Within 20 days of expiration or termination, the landlord must either remit the full deposit or provide an itemized list of damages with repair costs and remit the balance.
What Delaware law says
- Return deadline
- 20 days
- Statute
- 25 Del. C. § 5514
Double the amount wrongfully withheld for failure to remit within 20 days, or double the full deposit for failure to disclose the escrow account's location within 20 days of the tenant's written request (25 Del. C. § 5514(g)). Per Milbourne v. Swinton (Del. Super. 2025), a bare escrow violation alone carries no statutory penalty — doubling attaches only to those two triggers. § 5514(h): no forwarding address = no double damages.
Verification pending. Our attorney-reviewed deep-dive for Delaware — with the full case builder, damages calculator, and demand letter generator — isn't live yet. The summary above is drawn from the statute but hasn't completed our legal review; always confirm against the current text of 25 Del. C. § 5514.
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