Lease dictionary
Normal wear and tear
The ordinary aging a home suffers from being lived in - which can't come out of your deposit.
Normal wear and tear is deterioration that happens from ordinary use: faded paint, lightly worn carpet, small nail holes, loose door handles. Every state bars landlords from deducting it from your security deposit.
Damage is different - stains, burns, holes in doors, broken fixtures. The line is fuzzy at the edges, which is why move-in and move-out documentation decides most deposit disputes.
Watch out
Photograph everything at move-in and move-out. The renter with dated photos wins the wear-vs-damage argument almost every time.
See it in action
The Move-out documentation kit puts this term to work for you.