Free Iowa Security Deposit Itemization (Auto-Calc PDF)
Thirty days, two months’ cap, no wear and tear — the written statement of the specific reasons for withholding that an Iowa landlord must furnish under Iowa Code §562A.12 within thirty days. It adds up your deductions, subtracts them from the deposit, and writes the refund or balance straight into the PDF.
An Iowa security deposit itemization is the written statement of the specific reasons for withholding that Iowa Code §562A.12 requires a landlord to furnish before keeping any part of a tenant’s rental deposit. Iowa’s rule is anchored to a single, firm deadline: within thirty days after the tenancy ends and the landlord receives the tenant’s mailing address, the landlord must either return the deposit or furnish the written statement of reasons. A landlord who is late with that statement forfeits all rights to withhold and must return the deposit in full. The generator below does the arithmetic: enter the deposit and each deduction, and it totals them, subtracts, and prints a ready-to-sign statement. Two figures unique to Iowa — the deposit is capped at two months’ rent and bad-faith retention exposes the landlord to punitive damages up to twice the monthly rent — so verify the current text at the Iowa Legislature, and pair this with the Iowa return letter that transmits it.
Iowa Deposit Itemization at a Glance
Governing law
Iowa Code §562A.12 (Iowa URLTA)
Deadline
Thirty days from termination & mailing address
Deposit cap
Two months’ rent §562A.12(1)
Bad-faith penalty
Punitive damages up to twice the monthly rent
Ordinary wear and tear is never a deduction in Iowa
Iowa Code §562A.12 lets a landlord charge the deposit only for restoring the dwelling unit to its condition at the commencement of the tenancy, ordinary wear and tear excepted. Faded paint, small nail holes, and carpet worn thin along a walkway are the cost of doing business, not damage. A landlord who itemizes ordinary wear risks the whole statement: because the statute measures a lawful deduction against the unit’s move-in condition minus normal aging, an inflated list that pads in wear-and-tear charges is exactly the overreach an Iowa small claims court treats as evidence of bad faith — which can turn a routine dispute into an award of punitive damages up to twice the monthly rent.
How the Iowa Deposit Itemization Works
The itemization is one equation wrapped in a statutory deadline. You begin with the original rental deposit the tenant paid — which in Iowa may not have exceeded two months’ rent under Iowa Code §562A.12(1) and must have been held for the tenant in a federally insured bank, savings and loan association, or credit union, never commingled with the landlord’s own money. From that figure you subtract every lawful deduction, each listed on its own line with a specific reason and a dollar amount. What remains is the refund you enclose. If the deductions add up to more than the deposit, the equation goes negative and the statement instead shows the balance the tenant owes you. This document is the heart of Iowa deposit compliance: the statute does not merely ask you to explain yourself, it requires a written statement showing the specific reason for withholding the deposit or any portion of it, delivered inside the thirty-day window.
What makes Iowa distinctive is the hard thirty-day deadline paired with a forfeiture penalty. Rather than an open-ended “return within a reasonable time,” §562A.12(3) tells the landlord to act within thirty days from the later of the termination date and the date the landlord receives the tenant’s mailing address or delivery instructions. Miss it, and the landlord forfeits all rights to withhold any portion of the deposit — a self-executing consequence that does not depend on proving the deductions were wrong. The generator on this page handles the money side flawlessly: it sums the deduction lines as you type, subtracts, and prints matching numbers into the PDF, so the arithmetic on the page and on the statement never disagree, leaving you free to focus on getting the statement out on time.
Start the thirty-day clock correctly
Iowa Code §562A.12(3) runs the clock from the later of the tenancy termination date and the date you receive the tenant’s mailing address or delivery instructions. Note both dates on the file.
Carry over the capped, separately held deposit
Enter the original deposit, which under subsection 1 may not exceed two months’ rent and must have been held for the tenant in a federally insured institution without commingling.
Itemize only lawful deductions
List each deduction on its own line with a specific reason, limited to unpaid rent, restoring the unit to its move-in condition beyond ordinary wear, and remedying the tenant’s noncompliance.
Let the form calculate the balance
The generator totals the deductions, subtracts them from the deposit, and shows the refund due or the balance owed.
Deliver inside thirty days with proof
Return the deposit or furnish the written statement of the specific reasons for withholding within thirty days, and mail any refund to the tenant’s address with proof of delivery.
Generate Your Iowa Itemization Statement
Fill in the parties, the deposit, and one line for each deduction. As you type, the calculator at the bottom updates in real time; when you click generate, the same totals are written into a formatted Iowa itemized statement you can print, sign, and mail. Every field below reaches the document, and the refund or balance is computed for you under Iowa Code §562A.12. If you also want a cover letter to transmit it, use the companion Iowa deposit return letter form.
What this statement does
It produces a signed, itemized Iowa statement that accounts for the deposit dollar for dollar and states the specific reasons for withholding under §562A.12. It handles the arithmetic and the format; you supply the dates and the deductions, and you confirm the current statute in the codified Iowa Code before delivering it inside the thirty-day window. This is the statutory written statement itself, not the cover letter — keep the two forms distinct so each does its job.
1. Parties & Property
From (Landlord / Property Manager)
To (Tenant)
2. Deposit & Account
Under §562A.12(1) the deposit is capped at two months’ rent and must be held for the tenant in a federally insured bank, savings and loan association, or credit union, never commingled with the landlord’s personal funds. Interest earned during the first five years belongs to the landlord, so leave the interest field at zero unless a written lease term requires you to credit it.
3. Itemized Deductions
List each deduction on its own line with a specific reason. Deduct only for unpaid rent and amounts due under the lease, restoring the unit to its move-in condition beyond ordinary wear and tear, and remedying the tenant’s noncompliance.
| Description | Amount ($) | |
|---|---|---|
A positive figure is the refund you owe the tenant. If deductions exceed the deposit and any credited interest, the figure turns red and becomes the balance the tenant owes you.
4. Statement Details
5. Signature
What Iowa Code §562A.12 Requires
Iowa’s residential security deposit rules live in a single statute, Iowa Code §562A.12, which is part of the state’s Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law and, unlike the local-option version some states use, applies across Iowa. The section opens in subsection 1 with two structural rules. First, a landlord shall not demand or receive a rental deposit in an amount or value in excess of two months’ rent — a hard cap tied to the rent rather than a flat dollar figure. Second, the deposit must be held for the tenant in a bank, savings and loan association, or credit union insured by an agency of the federal government, and it may not be commingled with the landlord’s personal funds. The same subsection provides that any interest earned on the deposit during the first five years of a tenancy is the property of the landlord, which is why the interest field on this form ordinarily stays at zero.
The heart of the statute is the thirty-day return-or-account rule in subsection 3. Within thirty days from the date the tenancy terminates and the landlord receives the tenant’s mailing address or delivery instructions, the landlord must do one of two things: return the rental deposit, or furnish to the tenant a written statement showing the specific reason for withholding the deposit or any portion of it. The clock is keyed to the later of the two triggering events, so a tenant who moves out but supplies a forwarding address a week later starts the thirty days on the day the address arrives, not on the day the keys came back. This is the rule the itemization on this page satisfies: it is the written statement of the specific reasons for withholding.
Subsection 3 also supplies the enforcement teeth, and they are unusually sharp. A landlord who fails to provide the written statement within the thirty days after termination and receipt of the tenant’s mailing address forfeits all rights to withhold any portion of the rental deposit. Separately, the bad-faith retention of a deposit, or any portion of it, in violation of the section subjects the landlord to punitive damages not to exceed twice the monthly rental payment, in addition to actual damages. And the statute closes the loop on absent tenants: if no mailing address or delivery instructions are provided within one year from the termination of the tenancy, the deposit reverts to the landlord and the tenant is deemed to have forfeited all rights to it. Confirm the exact current text at the Iowa Legislature.
A note on the punitive-damages figure
Some older forms and secondary summaries still describe Iowa’s bad-faith penalty as two hundred dollars. That figure comes from the pre-amendment text of §562A.12 and is out of date. The current statute measures the penalty as punitive damages not to exceed twice the monthly rental payment, in addition to actual damages. For a unit renting at, say, twelve hundred dollars a month, that is up to twenty-four hundred dollars in punitive exposure rather than a flat two hundred — a meaningful difference that makes prompt, good-faith compliance worth far more than it once was. Always rel