How Much Can a Landlord Deduct for Door or Frame Damage?
How security-deposit deductions for a damaged interior door, jamb, or frame are calculated — the 20-year useful-life rule, depreciation, and damage versus normal wear.
Short answer
A landlord can deduct only the depreciated value of a damaged interior door or frame, not full replacement at new price. Interior doors and frames run on a roughly 20-year useful life, so a $200 repair on a frame already 8 years old has about 60% of its life left — around $120 chargeable. Ordinary scuffs, minor dings, and old paint are normal wear and not deductible.
Worksheet preset: Door and frame damage deduction
Source: InterNACHI Standard Estimated Life Expectancy Chart. Model actual repair cost for split jambs, chewed trim, or broken casing; do not charge for ordinary scuffs.
Formula: chargeable = max(0, replacement_cost x remaining_life / useful_life) - wear_allowance, then multiplied by documented damage share.
How door and frame depreciation works
A tenant pays for the remaining value they destroyed, not for a new door that leaves the landlord better off. A 20-year useful life (InterNACHI's estimated life chart) removes about 5% of chargeable value each year. Take the documented repair cost for the split jamb, broken casing, or holed door, multiply by the share of life left, and that is the fair ceiling. The calculator above does this for your numbers.
What counts as damage versus normal wear
Deductible: a split or kicked-in jamb, a hole punched through a hollow-core door, a broken strike plate that tore the frame, or a door off its hinges from force. Not deductible: minor surface scuffs, small dings, sticky latches, scuffed paint, and ordinary handle marks. Doors take normal contact over a tenancy — that baseline is the landlord's cost.
Repair, don't replace, where you can
A split jamb or chipped casing can often be repaired or have one piece of trim replaced for far less than a whole new door-and-frame set. The fair deduction follows the repair cost when repair is feasible — billing a full pre-hung door replacement for a cracked casing usually overstates the tenant's share.
Worked example
A tenant's slammed door splits the strike-side jamb. The carpenter's repair quote is $200, and the frame is 8 years into a 20-year life. Remaining life is 12 of 20 years (60%), so the depreciated value is $120. With no separate wear allowance, the defensible deduction is about $120 — not the full $200, and not a brand-new pre-hung door.
FAQ
Is a hole in a hollow-core door normal wear?
No. A punched or kicked hole is damage and is deductible at depreciated value. Surface scuffs and minor dings from ordinary use are wear and are not.
Can a landlord charge for a whole new door if only the frame is damaged?
Only if replacing the frame genuinely requires it. If the jamb or casing can be repaired, the fair deduction follows the repair cost, depreciated for age.
Worksheet preset: Door and frame damage deduction
Source: InterNACHI Standard Estimated Life Expectancy Chart. Model actual repair cost for split jambs, chewed trim, or broken casing; do not charge for ordinary scuffs.
Formula: chargeable = max(0, replacement_cost x remaining_life / useful_life) - wear_allowance, then multiplied by documented damage share.