Free Georgia Security Deposit Itemization

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Georgia Security Deposit Itemization — Step-by-Step Guide

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Covers the thirty-day statement deadline, the three-business-day move-out list, deductible versus wear-and-tear items, and the treble-damages bad-faith penalty

A Georgia security deposit itemization is the line-by-line accounting a landlord must produce whenever any portion of a tenant’s deposit is kept back. It is not a friendly cover note and it is not optional paperwork: under O.C.G.A. 44-7-34, once the landlord has cause to retain part of the deposit, the landlord must deliver a written statement identifying the exact reasons for the retention, and that statement must incorporate the comprehensive damage list prepared under 44-7-33. The itemization on this page is that statutory statement, structured so each deduction stands on its own line with its own reason and amount.

The itemization is where a deposit dispute is usually won or lost. A specific, receipt-backed statement that subtracts documented damage from the deposit and hands back the balance rarely ends up in court. A vague statement that lumps charges together, or that quietly buries ordinary wear and tear among real damage, is the one a Georgia magistrate reads under 44-7-35 and multiplies by three. This page gives you a working generator that builds the statement and computes the refund automatically, plus a full guide to the four moving parts of Georgia deposit law: the thirty-day statement duty under Georgia security deposit law, the three-business-day move-out list under 44-7-33, the ban on itemizing wear and tear, and the treble-damages penalty under 44-7-35.

Build Your Georgia Security Deposit Itemization

Complete the fields below to build a state-appropriate itemized statement ready to print, sign, and deliver with any refund balance. Enter the deposit, add each deduction with a specific description, and the generator subtracts the total deductions from the deposit to compute the refund balance automatically. If the deductions exceed the deposit, the tool reports the additional balance the tenant owes instead of a refund. The live summary updates as you type, and the same math is written into the PDF statement.

What a Georgia Itemization Statement Is

Georgia’s security deposit rules live in Title 44, Chapter 7, Article 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, spanning O.C.G.A. 44-7-30 through 44-7-37. The itemization duty is embedded in 44-7-34. That section gives the landlord two options once the tenancy ends and possession returns: hand back the full deposit, or, if there is cause to keep part of it, deliver a written statement identifying the exact reasons for the retention. The statute expressly requires that statement to include the comprehensive list of damages prepared under 44-7-33. The itemization is the vehicle that carries those exact reasons, line by line, to the tenant.

Two duties travel together in the same envelope. First, the itemization accounts for the money: it shows the original deposit, subtracts each documented deduction, and arrives at the balance. Second, the deposit balance itself must accompany the statement. A landlord who delivers the itemization but holds the undisputed balance pending some further step, or who pays the balance without the statement, has not complied with 44-7-34 even if the numbers are correct. Both the statement and any refund must reach the tenant inside the thirty-day window. The generator above keeps the two aligned by computing the balance directly from the deductions you enter, so the number on the statement is the number you send.

Because the statement is a legal document rather than a courtesy, its tone matters less than its precision. A Georgia magistrate reviewing a contested deposit reads the itemization first, and the specificity of each line does most of the persuading. For the broader framework of escrow, notice, and interest that sits alongside the itemization duty, our Georgia security deposit laws guide walks through the full statutory scheme, and the sibling Georgia security deposit return letter gives you the cover letter that transmits this statement to the tenant.

How the Georgia Thirty-Day Deadline Works

The return-and-statement clock in 44-7-34 runs from a specific event: the landlord obtaining possession of the premises. Within thirty days after that, the landlord must return the full deposit or deliver the itemized statement of deductions together with any balance owed. The deadline is not measured from the lease-end date printed in the contract, and it is not measured from when the landlord finishes the repairs. It runs from possession, which is why the statement should record the possession date explicitly and why the generator above captures it as a separate field.

The trigger event shifts with the facts. A tenant who returns the keys and vacates early starts the thirty-day clock early; a tenant who holds over past the lease term starts it late. Georgia counts the thirty days as calendar days, and weekends and holidays do not pause the count. A landlord who is still gathering contractor estimates on day twenty-eight does not get extra time; the better practice is to itemize from the move-out inspection and dated photographs, attach the estimates that are available, and deliver on time rather than deliver late in search of a perfect number.

Delivery is more forgiving than many landlords expect. Under 44-7-34 the landlord is deemed to have complied by mailing the statement and any payment to the tenant’s last known address by first-class mail. Certified mail is not required by the statute, but it is the strongest documentation choice because it produces an independent record of timely mailing that a landlord can put in front of a judge. The itemization you generate here defaults to certified mail for that reason, while still letting you select plain first-class mail if you prefer to rely on the statutory safe harbor.

The Three-Business-Day Move-Out List Behind the Itemization

The itemization does not spring from thin air; it is built on the paired inspection duty in 44-7-33, the feature that most distinguishes Georgia from other states. Before the tenancy begins, the landlord must present the tenant with a comprehensive written list of any existing damage to the premises, for the tenant’s permanent retention, and the tenant has the right to inspect and either sign or note written dissent. That move-in list fixes the baseline condition of the unit and is the reference point against which every later deduction is measured.

Then, within three business days after termination of the tenancy and the tenant’s vacating of the premises, or the surrender and acceptance of the premises, whichever occurs first, the landlord must inspect the unit and compile a second comprehensive list of any damage that forms the basis of a deposit deduction, with the estimated cost of each item. That move-out list is the raw material of the itemization: each documented item on it becomes a line on the statement. The tenant then has the right to inspect the premises within five business days after termination and vacating to check the accuracy of that list. A tenant present at the inspection may sign the list to confirm it, or may state specifically in writing the items dissented from and sign that statement of dissent.

The timing is strict for a reason: an itemization assembled weeks later from memory carries far less weight than one drawn from a list compiled while the unit was fresh and the damage was visible. Because both lists share the same evidentiary purpose, the Georgia move-in and move-out checklist is the natural companion to this itemization form; the checklist captures the condition, and the itemization converts documented damage into dollars.

What May and May Not Be Itemized

Georgia limits deposit deductions to a short, defensible list, and the itemization must respect it. A landlord may retain deposit funds for the tenant’s failure to fulfill the lease, such as unpaid rent, and for physical damage to the premises that goes beyond ordinary wear and tear. What the landlord may never itemize is the natural aging of the unit. Georgia courts treat normal wear and tear as the gradual, expected deterioration that comes from ordinary living: faded paint, minor carpet wear along walking paths, small nail holes from hanging pictures, and light scuffing near door handles.

Damage is the opposite: harm outside ordinary use that a reasonable tenant could have avoided. Large holes in drywall, burns or heavy staining in carpet, broken fixtures, pet urine saturation, smoke damage from indoor smoking, missing appliances, and unauthorized alterations all sit on the damage side of the line and may be itemized. The discipline the itemization enforces is to keep the two categories apart on the page. A statement that lists a genuine drywall repair alongside a charge for faded paint invites a magistrate to distrust the whole document, because the wear-and-tear line signals that the landlord did not draw the line the statute draws.

Specificity is not a stylistic nicety in Georgia; it is the difference between a defensible deduction and a forfeited one. Each line should name the location, describe the specific condition, state the cost, and reference the supporting receipt or photo. When a line is vague, a court reviewing the deposit under 44-7-35 can read the vagueness itself as evidence that the withholding was improper, and that reading opens the door to treble damages. Our companion Georgia security deposit return letter pairs a cover letter with this statement so the accounting reaches the tenant in a complete, court-ready package.

Deductible versus non-deductible at a glance

Tenant Remedies: Treble Damages and Attorney Fees

The enforcement teeth are in 44-7-35. Subsection (c) provides that any landlord who fails to return any part of a deposit that is required to be returned is liable to the tenant for three times the sum improperly withheld plus reasonable attorney fees. That treble multiplier is what makes a sloppy itemization expensive: a modest improper deduction, once identified by the court, is not merely reversed but tripled, and the tenant’s legal costs are added on top. A statement that overreaches by a few hundred dollars can produce a judgment several times larger.

The statute does give the landlord a narrow escape from the treble portion. A landlord who can show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the withholding was not intentional and resulted from a bona fide error that occurred despite procedures reasonably designed to avoid such errors, is liable only for the amount actually owed rather than three times that amount. In practice, that defense rewards landlords who keep disciplined records: the move-in list, the timely move-out list, an itemized statement with a line for each documented item, and proof of mailing are exactly the procedures that turn an honest miscalculation into a bona fide error rather than bad faith. The itemization is therefore not just a compliance chore; it is the evidence that anchors the bona fide error defense if a number is ever challenged.

There is also a wind-down rule in 44-7-34. If the letter containing the payment is returned to the landlord undelivered, and the landlord is unable to locate the tenant after reasonable effort, the payment becomes the property of the landlord ninety days after the date it was mailed. That provision protects a diligent landlord from an unreachable tenant, but it does nothing for a landlord who missed the thirty-day deadline or never mailed a complete statement in the first place.

The Small-Landlord Exemption Under 44-7-36

Georgia carves out an exemption that catches many landlords by surprise, and getting it right matters for the itemization. Under 44-7-36, Code Sections 44-7-31, 44-7-32, 44-7-33, and 44-7-35 do not apply to rental units owned by a natural person when that person, the spouse, and the minor children collectively own ten or fewer rental units. The exemption is void, however, for any unit whose management, including rent collection, is performed by a third party for a fee.

Read carefully, the exemption reaches the escrow duty, the move-in and move-out list duty, and, importantly, the treble-damages penalty of 44-7-35. It does not reach 44-7-34. Even an exempt small landlord who keeps any part of a deposit must still return the deposit or deliver a statement of deductions within the thirty days. The practical upshot is that a genuinely exempt small landlord faces a lighter procedural load but is still bound by the core statement-and-return deadline, so producing a clean itemization remains the right move. Because unit counts change, family ownership can be counted in surprising ways, and hiring a manager flips the exemption off, you should verify current O.C.G.A. 44-7-30 et seq. against your exact ownership and management facts before relying on the exemption. When in doubt, itemize as though every section applies; the disciplined paperwork protects you either way.

Common Georgia Itemization Mistakes

The deposit disputes that end badly for Georgia landlords tend to repeat the same handful of itemization errors. Avoiding them is largely a matter of process rather than legal sophistication.

• Lumping charges together. A single line for cleaning or repairs, with no breakdown, is the classic vague itemization that a court can treat as an improper withholding in whole.
• Itemizing wear and tear. Adding a line for faded paint or ordinary carpet wear is not just unrecoverable; it can taint the entire statement and look like the bad faith the treble penalty targets.
• No move-in list. Skipping the required list of existing damage at move-in quietly forfeits the right to itemize damage later, no matter how real the damage is.
• Missing the three-business-day inspection. An itemization built from a late or absent move-out inspection loses the evidentiary weight the statute intended it to carry.
• Holding the balance. Delivering the itemization but withholding the undisputed refund balance violates 44-7-34 even when the deductions are correct.
• Blowing the thirty-day deadline. A late statement is the single most common trigger for a bad-faith claim under 44-7-35.
• No backup for a line. A deduction with no receipt, invoice, or dated photograph is the first line a tenant challenges and the hardest to defend.

Georgia Deposit Statutes at a Glance

The table below maps each governing section to the duty it imposes on the itemization. Use it as a quick reference while completing the statement, and confirm the current text of each section on Georgia’s official portal before you rely on it in a dispute.