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SKILL.md
Security Deposit Recovery Skill
Deposit disputes are won at move-out, weeks before the landlord decides anything: the tenant with timestamped photos of every wall, a completed walkthrough, and a forwarding address in writing collects; the tenant with memories negotiates. This skill runs both phases — the evidence protocol while there's still access, and the challenge-and-escalate ladder when deductions arrive — anchored on the distinction that decides almost every dispute: normal wear and tear (the landlord's cost of doing business, in most jurisdictions not deductible) versus damage (yours).
What This Skill Produces
The move-out protocol — the photo/video sweep, the walkthrough ask, the cleaning-receipts file, the forwarding-address letter
The deduction challenge — each claimed deduction sorted wear-vs-damage-vs-unsubstantiated, with the response
The escalation ladder — the itemization request, the demand letter, and the deadline math (jurisdiction-flagged)
The small-claims prep sheet — when the amount justifies it, what to bring, and how these hearings actually go
Required Inputs
Ask for these if not provided:
The phase — still in the unit (run the protocol — the highest-value case), moved out awaiting the deposit, or holding an itemized deduction list (the challenge case)
The paper so far — lease clauses on the deposit, move-in inspection report if one exists (its absence is itself useful), photos from move-in and move-out, any communication
The numbers — deposit amount, deductions claimed, time elapsed since move-out (return deadlines are jurisdiction-specific and often short — the clock may already be the tenant's best argument)
The landlord shape — individual owner vs. property management company; the ladder's tone is identical, but companies respond to process and owners to specifics
Framework: The Wear-vs-Damage Rules
The line, drawn concretely: faded paint, minor scuffs, worn carpet paths, small nail holes = wear (time did it — generally not deductible). Stains, burns, holes, broken fixtures, unapproved paint = damage (an event did it). Grout dulling is wear; a cracked tile is damage. Every deduction gets sorted against this line, with the jurisdiction-varies flag on the edge cases.
Depreciation applies to damage too: a landlord charging full replacement for 8-year-old carpet a stain killed is charging for an upgrade — useful-life proration is the standard counter, and the challenge letter makes it with arithmetic.
Evidence beats adjectives: the move-out sweep is systematic — every room, every wall, inside appliances, meters, timestamped, backed up off-phone. The paired move-in photos (or the landlord's missing move-in report, where one was required) frame every later argument.
Procedure is a weapon that cuts both ways: deadlines to return or itemize, receipts requirements, forwarding-address rules — jurisdiction-specific, often tenant-favorable, sometimes with multiplied damages for bad-faith withholding. The letters cite the categories of these rules with verify-locally flags; blown deadlines get cited by elapsed days.
The ladder escalates on schedule, not on anger: (a) written itemization-and-receipts request, (b) the challenge letter — deduction-by-deduction, evidence attached, amount demanded, deadline given, next step named, (c) the formal demand letter that reads like the small-claims filing it becomes, (d) small-claims — designed for exactly these amounts, no lawyer expected, and the prep sheet is mostly the evidence file already built.
[The sweep checklist by room · the walkthrough request wording · receipts to keep · the forwarding-address letter, dated]
The Deduction Challenge
Claimed deduction
Amount
Wear / damage / unsubstantiated
The response (with depreciation math where it applies)
The Ladder
[Each rung with its letter drafted verbatim, its deadline, and the elapsed-time citation where the clock has run · the multiplied-damages category flagged verify-locally]
Small-Claims Prep (if it gets there)
[The economics (filing cost vs. amount) · the evidence binder order · how the hearing runs · the settle-on-the-courthouse-steps pattern to expect]
Deposit deadlines, deduction rules, and penalty provisions are jurisdiction-specific — verify the local specifics before citing exact numbers; the letters here cite rule categories for exactly that reason. Not legal advice.
Quality Checks
Every deduction is sorted wear/damage/unsubstantiated with reasoning, not lumped
Depreciation math appears wherever full-replacement is charged on aged items
Letters escalate in firmness while staying courtroom-readable throughout
Jurisdiction-specific rules appear as flagged categories, never asserted numbers
The small-claims section includes the honest economics, not just the how-to
Anti-Patterns
Do not concede wear-and-tear items to seem reasonable — that line is the whole dispute
Do not write angry — every letter is Exhibit A; the facts carry the heat
Do not cite specific statutes or day-counts as fact — categories with verify-locally flags
Do not skip the itemization request rung — many withholdings collapse at the first ask for receipts
Do not let sunk anger drive the small-claims call — the prep sheet's first line is the arithmetic
