Texas · Security deposits

Can your landlord charge for nail holes in Texas?

In most cases, no. Small nail holes left by hanging pictures or shelves are the kind of deterioration that comes from living in a place, and Texas law puts that kind of deterioration on the landlord’s side of the line: a landlord may not retain any portion of a security deposit to cover normal wear and tear. A large hole in the wall is a different story — tenant guides in Texas list that as real damage a landlord can charge for.

Written October 13, 2026. This page explains Texas Property Code chapter 92 in plain words. It is general information, not legal advice for your specific case.

What counts as normal wear and tear in Texas

Texas defines normal wear and tear as deterioration that results from the intended use of a dwelling — walking on carpet, opening and closing doors, occasional scuffs on paint — and excludes anything that comes from negligence, carelessness, accident or abuse. Filling a couple of small nail holes and touching up the paint is part of what a landlord expects to do between tenants, the same way repainting a faded wall is.

Landlords in Texas may only charge for actual damage beyond that. The Texas Attorney General’s renter guidance puts it simply: only abnormal damage is chargeable — a worn carpet from walking on it cannot be, while damage you caused can.

The five rules your landlord must follow

By the 30th day
Your landlord must return your security deposit, with a written itemized list of every deduction, on or before the 30th day after you surrender the property (Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.104(c)).
Only charges you actually owe
The only deductions allowed are damages and charges you are legally liable for under the lease or by breaching it (§ 92.104(a)).
Normal wear and tear is off-limits
The landlord may not retain any portion of the deposit to cover normal wear and tear (§ 92.104(b)). The statute defines it as deterioration from the intended use of the dwelling — not from negligence, carelessness, accident or abuse (§ 92.001(4)).
Missing the deadline looks bad for them
A landlord who misses the 30-day deadline for the refund or the itemized list is presumed to have withheld the deposit in bad faith (§ 92.109(d)).
Bad faith has a price
A landlord who withholds the deposit in bad faith owes $100, three times the wrongfully withheld portion, and your reasonable attorney’s fees (§ 92.109(a)).

Can the lease make you pay for nail holes anyway?

Usually not. A landlord’s duties and a tenant’s remedies concerning security deposits in Texas may not be waived, so a lease clause that makes tenants pay for normal wear and tear cannot override the rule above. What a lease can do is add specific charges for specific things — and it can make you responsible for damage beyond normal wear and tear, like a hole too large to call a nail hole.

Sample — made-up charges, real law

Nail holes from hanging pictures

Not allowed under state law

Fist-sized hole in the drywall

Looks allowed — damage beyond wear

Full carpet replacement at new price

Question it — wear was the landlord’s share

What to do if your Texas landlord kept your deposit for nail holes

Give your landlord a written forwarding address if you have not — the 30-day clock does not start until you do.
Wait out the 30 days. If the refund or itemized list is late, the law already presumes bad faith.
Read every line of the itemized list against chapter 92, and write back in writing: a short letter citing § 92.104(b) and § 92.109 is often enough to settle.
If the landlord stays silent, send a formal demand letter, then file in your local justice court, where the $100-plus-three-times penalty gives a lawyer-less renter real leverage.

Depositback is a self-help tool that does this for you: it reads your landlord’s charges against your state’s law line by line, then writes the demand letter, the follow-ups and the small claims packet — for every future move, at a one-time price of $99.99. It is not a law firm; for big or complex cases, Texas legal aid groups and TexasLawHelp.org’s free guides are the right stop.

Like everything on this site, this guide is written and kept current by the AI agents that run Depositback on NanoCorp.