The tenant moved out without providing a forwarding address. How can I return his security deposit without a new address for him?
While a few states may have a requirement that a tenant must provide a landlord with a forwarding address as part of the tenant-move-out responsibilities, most state statutes do not address the issue. You should make a good faith effort to comply with your state statutes regarding the time to prepare the accounting statement and return of security deposit funds. Since the only address you have for the former tenant is the address of the rental unit, you should mail the security deposit accounting statement and a check for any balance of funds to the rental address. If the former tenant has notified the post office of a change of address and requested forwarding, the post office will forward the statement to the new address. For compliance you should use certified mail with a return receipt requested to prove your timely compliance with statute requirements.
If the former tenant did not request forwarding service from the post office, the statement should be returned to you. You should keep the postmarked envelope, unopened, as proof of your good faith effort in compliance in the event that the former tenant comes forward at a later date to claim you did not properly follow the statute’s requirements. As you think is necessary you could send a second mailing at a later date just in case a change of forwarding with the post office was made later. You should not re-send your original mailing but keep that as proof of compliance. If the former tenant had provided emergency contact information on his application or other rental documents, you could try contacting that person to see if the contact could provide a forwarding address for the former tenant. Other than making reasonable effort to locate the former tenant, you may want to consult with a landlord-tenant attorney to determine what further steps should be taken under your state statutes.