Tennessee security deposit law: deadlines and your rights
No fixed statutory deadline to return the deposit. The 30/7-day figures cap only late-discovered ADDITIONAL damages; after the landlord sends the refund notice, a tenant who does not respond within 60 days forfeits the deposit.
What Tennessee law says
- Return deadline
- No fixed deadline
- Statute
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-301 (URLTA counties only, § 66-28-102)
Forfeiture only: no multiplier, no flat penalty, no fee award. The landlord loses the right to retain any portion if the escrow-account or damage-listing requirements were not met (§ 66-28-301(c)). CRITICAL: URLTA applies only in counties over 75,000 population (2010 census) — 17 counties incl. Davidson, Shelby, Knox, Hamilton; elsewhere there is NO state deposit statute.
Verification pending. Our attorney-reviewed deep-dive for Tennessee — 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 Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-301 (URLTA counties only, § 66-28-102).
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