Denial of deposit refund

[Andrew Durosola]

Hello BP,

I recently had a lease come to an end on 12/31/19. The lease states that a 30 day written notice of termination must be provided or the lease goes month to month. I received a call from the tenant on 12/12/19 stating their intent to move at the end of the month, at that time I advised that a 30 day notice had to be in writing. Later that day I received an e-mail notification from the tenant that they would vacate in 18 days. I responded with a kind e-mail notifying of move out instructions and where to place keys upon vacating the property and got a response asking about when they can come pick up the deposit. In Texas the landlord has 30 days to return the deposit and a forwarding address is necessary. For some reason they are reluctant to give me that. On 1/1/20 I go to perform the move out inspection and the tenants keys are not in the drop box... No big deal right? I'll just use the master key to get in. Wrong!! The tenant changed the locks without notifying me another violation of the lease agreement. After a couple hours the tenant finally gets back to me and says "oh the lock that was on there was loose so I had a neighbor help me change the lock". Mind you this is someone who made a maintenance request about an outlet not working why wouldn't you make a request to fix a "faulty" lock? Once I finally get in to the unit it's only been cleaned half assed and personal belongings are still present. Given all this I don't plan on returning any of the deposit. Since the tenant did not leave a forwarding address can I notify via email? I don't want to do it over the phone because I want a paper trail.