Free North Dakota Security Deposit Itemization Statement

A North Dakota Security Deposit Itemization Statement is the written, line-by-line accounting a landlord must furnish whenever any part of a security deposit is applied rather than returned. Under N.D.C.C. Section 47-16-07.1, any portion of the deposit the landlord keeps must be itemized, and that itemization, together with the amount due and written notice, must be delivered or mailed to the tenant at the last address furnished within thirty days after the lease terminates and the tenant delivers possession. Because North Dakota holds the deposit in an interest-bearing account, the accounting starts from the deposit plus any interest owed. Withhold money without reasonable justification, and the landlord is liable for treble damages. This statement is different from the cover return letter: it is the detailed deduction schedule the letter transmits.

Complete the builder below to generate a state-compliant North Dakota Security Deposit Itemization Statement, ready to print, sign, and send by certified mail with any refund due. Enter the deposit held and any interest owed, itemize each deduction with its specific description and the evidence backing it, and the generator adds the interest to the deposit, subtracts the total deductions, and computes the refund balance automatically — both live on the page and in the downloaded PDF. It also handles the case where documented deductions exceed the deposit and the tenant owes an additional balance.

Watch: North Dakota Security Deposit Itemization Statement explained

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A North Dakota Security Deposit Itemization Statement is the written schedule of deductions a landlord must produce whenever any portion of a deposit is kept at the end of a tenancy. It is the substance behind the North Dakota return letter: the letter is the cover transmittal, and the itemization is the line-by-line accounting it carries. Under N.D.C.C. Section 47-16-07.1, any portion of a deposit the landlord applies rather than returns must be itemized, and that itemization, together with the amount due, must be delivered or mailed to the tenant with written notice within thirty days after termination of the lease and delivery of possession. The statute does not treat that itemization as optional paperwork; it treats it as the record that shows a withholding was reasonably justified.

The stakes are high in North Dakota because the statute pairs a firm deadline with a stiff penalty. A landlord who withholds any deposit money without reasonable justification is liable for treble damages — three times the amount wrongfully withheld. Layered on top of that penalty is the interest rule: because the deposit sits in a federally insured interest-bearing account, a tenant of nine months or longer is owed the interest as well as the principal, and forgetting it understates what the tenant is due. A careless or missing itemization is therefore not a clerical slip; it can convert a legitimate deduction into a treble-damage exposure and shortchange the tenant on interest the law says is theirs.

Because the itemization is where the landlord shows the withholding was justified, its quality decides most deposit disputes before they ever reach a courtroom. A statement that names each charge, ties it to a specific damaged or unclean item, states an amount, and attaches the invoice, estimate, or receipt behind it gives a tenant little to argue with. A statement that lists a single lump sum with no description and no document invites the opposite result. This page builds the strong version: an itemized, evidence-anchored statement that computes the deposit-plus-interest math for you and prints ready to sign.

The spine of Section 47-16-07.1 is a single deadline: the itemization, together with the amount due, must be delivered or mailed to the tenant within thirty days after termination of the lease and delivery of possession by the tenant. The statement and the refund travel together, so at thirty days the landlord must have both the accounting and any money owed in the mail. Thirty days is a middle-of-the-road deposit clock nationally, but North Dakota measures it from two events that must both occur: the lease must have terminated, and the tenant must have delivered possession.

The clock is tied to termination and the surrender of possession, not to the tenant’s supplying a forwarding address. The statute directs the landlord to send the statement to the last address the tenant furnished, which means a landlord should preserve whatever address the tenant last gave and use it, rather than wait indefinitely for a new forwarding address before preparing the itemization. A landlord who lets thirty days pass while waiting for a better address risks a late statement and the treble exposure that follows an unjustified withholding. The safest practice is to treat the day possession is delivered as day one, confirm the last address on file, and mail the statement and any refund well before day thirty.

Section 47-16-07.1 is specific about the mechanics. When a landlord applies any part of the deposit rather than returning it, that application must be itemized by the lessor, and the itemization, together with the amount due and a written notice, must be delivered or mailed to the tenant at the last address furnished. The itemization is, in other words, the written account that justifies each dollar kept — not a bare demand for money. Because the penalty for withholding without reasonable justification is treble damages, the itemization doubles as the landlord’s evidence file.

That is why the builder above pairs every deduction line with a description field and an evidence field. Each line should name what was damaged or cleaned, state why the charge was necessary, give the amount, and identify the document that proves the cost — an invoice number, an estimate, or a receipt. Vague, lump-sum entries are the ones most easily attacked as lacking reasonable justification, which is the exact finding that triggers the treble penalty. A landlord who itemizes tightly and attaches the paper behind each figure gives a reviewing court nothing to disallow.

The permitted deductions themselves come from the statute’s list of purposes for which a deposit may be applied. The generator lays out the accounting in a clean order: the deposit actually held, plus any interest owed to the tenant, minus the itemized, evidence-backed deductions, equals the refund balance owed — or the balance the tenant owes when documented deductions run higher than the deposit and interest combined.