What this site is, and why you can trust it
TenantRecourse does one thing: when a landlord keeps money the law says is yours — a security deposit, an illegal late fee — we turn your situation into a formal demand letter that cites the exact statute they broke, and, if you want, send it by USPS Certified Mail with the delivery record that holds up in court. The letter is free. You pay ($25–$34.99, depending on which letter) only if you want it printed, mailed, and tracked for you.
Who runs this
My name is Kendall Sorenson, and I built TenantRecourse because I have been on the wrong end of this myself. A landlord kept money that was mine, and it felt like I had no choice and nowhere to turn — no help, no one to ask, and no way to do anything about it without paying a lawyer with money I did not have.
That is the whole reason this exists: to give people a real chance at getting back what is theirs, at a price they can actually pay. The letter itself is free because the information should not be the part you have to buy.
I am not a lawyer. I have no legal training and I am not qualified to tell you what to do about your situation — and I won't pretend otherwise. What I do is read the statutes. Every deadline, cap and penalty on this site was checked by me against the legislature's own published text, and when the law doesn't clearly say what a website claims it says, I write down what it actually says instead. That is the work, and it is the only expertise I'm claiming.
Every citation is verified against the legislature's own text
Most landlord-tenant websites repeat each other, and they repeat each other's mistakes — we found statutory caps attributed to the wrong states, self-storage laws quoted as housing law, and pending bills described as enacted. So we set one rule: no statute goes on this site, or into your letter, unless it has been checked against the state legislature's published text. The verification date is printed at the bottom of every law page. Where a state simply has no statute, we say that plainly instead of inventing a percentage.
We won't sell you a letter that has no legal footing
If the facts you enter don't actually cross a statutory line — your late fee is within your state's cap, say — the generator tells you so and stops, rather than producing an empty threat. A demand letter only works because it's right. We'd rather lose a sale than send your landlord a letter they can laugh at.
Our guarantee
If your landlord doesn't respond within 30 days of delivery, reply to your confirmation email and we'll write and send a second, sterner notice at no charge. If your letter can't be delivered at all, you get an automatic full refund.
What we are not
We are not a law firm, we don't give legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by using this site. We prepare documents based on the information you provide and mail them for you. If your situation is complicated, talk to a lawyer or your local tenants' union — and take our letter with you; it'll save you a billable hour.
Questions? Email hello@tenantrecourse.com — a person reads everything.