Normal wear and tear
Also called: wear and tear, ordinary wear and tear, reasonable wear and tear, tenant damage vs wear and tear
The gradual decline in a rental's condition from ordinary use — faded paint, minor scuffs, worn carpet in traffic lanes, small nail holes — that a landlord can't deduct from a security deposit. Damage, neglect and dirt beyond it can be; dated move-in and move-out photos are how the line is argued.
Every state’s security-deposit law lets a landlord deduct for damage and for cleaning needed to return a unit to its move-in condition, and every one of them excludes normal wear and tear from that. What the phrase means is settled mostly by examples. Wear and tear: paint faded by sunlight, small nail holes from hanging pictures, minor scuffs on walls and floors, carpet worn in doorways and hallways, a loose door handle, grout that’s dulled, appliances that aged. Damage or neglect: large holes, crayon or unauthorized paint on walls, burns, pet stains and odors, broken blinds, a cracked counter, mold from a leak that was never reported, a grease-caked oven.
Cleaning sits on the line. A unit returned reasonably clean — the standard most statutes use — can’t be charged for a landlord’s routine turnover cleaning; a unit returned with a full fridge, a filthy oven and hair in every drain can. Some states cap or forbid mandatory professional-cleaning clauses in leases; others enforce them. The difference between “the carpet is worn” and “the carpet is stained” is the difference between a deposit returned and $300 withheld, and it’s decided by photos.
Which is why the move-in inspection report and dated photos at both ends are the whole case. A landlord must itemize deductions on the deposit statement; a tenant disputes them in small claims with the pictures. Age matters too: carpet and paint have expected lives (often 5–10 years for carpet, 2–3 for paint), and a landlord can only charge the remaining value.