Five moves between the keys
and the refund check.
Deposit Docket is a single spine for the California security deposit turnover — designed so the move-in photos, deduction receipts, and 21-day accounting letter are all the same document, ready for the tenant and ready for court.
Free toolCalifornia 21-day deadline calculatorMove-out date in, statutory deadline and a .ics reminder out. No signup.Under California Civil Code §1950.5, landlords have 21 days to return the security deposit or deliver an itemized written statement of deductions — with receipts attached. Miss the deadline and you forfeit every deduction. Withhold one in bad faith and a court can award the tenant up to twice the deposit in statutory damages. Since AB 2801 the photographs are mandatory too — before repairs from April 1, 2025, and at move-in for tenancies starting on or after July 1, 2025 — and they have to go out with the itemized statement. Arrive in small claims court without a court-ready security deposit deduction packet and the judge fills in the gaps. Deposit Docket builds that packet from the first key handoff.
Walk the unit before the keys change hands.
The baseline is the only documentation that ever gets harder to take later. Deposit Docket prompts you through every room on move-in day so the photos you'll lean on a year from now actually exist — and are tagged. Then it asks the tenant to sign them.
- Room-by-room prompts — We suggest the rooms; you confirm or add.
- Auto-thumbnail — Photos normalize and compress automatically — no 12MB iPhone shots clogging the packet.
- The tenant signs it — One private link, no account. You get a signed PDF and a certificate recording who signed, when, and from where.
On move-out day, side-by-side capture.
The mobile capture flow pulls the move-in shot of the same wall as you're holding the phone up. New issues get tagged before the shutter clicks. Two taps from the front door to a tagged photo on the right tenant.
- Tag-before-shutter — Room + issue pre-filled by your position in the walk.
- Side-by-side comparison — Move-in shot of the same wall, automatically.
- Offline-tolerant — Basements, back rooms — photos sync when you're back on cell.
Three outcomes. No grey area.
Each issue resolves to one of three things: charge the tenant, note-but-don't-charge, or flag for follow-up. The 'noted' items still appear in the packet — transparency is what disarms disputes.
- Charge tenant — Amount, vendor, photos, receipt — all in one place.
- Note, don't charge — Absorb with a reason. Optional 'show in packet' toggle.
- Flag for follow-up — Out of v1 packet, into your escalation queue. Nothing falls off the radar.
Receipts attach to deductions, not folders.
The contractor invoice belongs with the burner damage. The vendor quote belongs with the carpet line. Receipts that are still estimates stay flagged with a ⁂ in the packet — disclosed, not hidden.
- Drag-and-drop attach — From email or your phone, straight onto the deduction.
- Estimate-only? ⁂ — We footnote it in the packet so disputes don't surprise you.
- Vendor history — Pull a previous vendor's rate sheet onto a new tenant in one click.
The packet you'd want, if you were the tenant.
A 12-page accounting: cover letter, itemized table, before/after spreads, and a receipts appendix. The same document, every time. Transparent. Boring. Defensible.
- Formal accounting cover — Letterhead, statute reference, signed, dated.
- Itemized table — Every line cross-referenced to its evidence pages.
- Receipts appendix — Vendors and amounts in one tidy spread.
Read the field guide, section by section.
What §1950.5 requires the statement to contain, when it is due, and what happens if you miss the deadline.
Itemized deductions, receipts over $125, and the evidence pages a tenant — or a judge — expects to see.
Move-out and post-repair photos since April 1, 2025; move-in photos for tenancies from July 1, 2025 — and what a compliant set contains.
The 2× bad-faith exposure landlords face — and the defense record that guards against it.
Enter the move-out date, get the exact statutory deadline and a calendar reminder.
What California requires before you deduct more than $125 for repairs or cleaning.
Pay per packet you actually send.
No seat fees, no per-property fees. Draft tenants stay free until you click export.
See full pricingPay only when you send the PDF. Draft, edit, and re-export at no extra cost.
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