Tenwell Help & Support
Contact: drfloor1@gmail.com we read every message and normally reply within two business days.
GETTING STARTED
Add your rental, pick your state, and enter the deposit you paid. Tenwell offers to add the usual rooms for you living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and the rest so you can start photographing straight away.
Do the move-in photos now, not on the day you leave. This is the single most useful thing the app asks of you.
ARE YOU COVERED?
The evidence that settles a deposit case is the pair: the same room at move-in and at move-out. A move-out photo on its own has nothing to be compared against. The Photos tab scores every room and tells you which pairs are missing.
While you still live there, a room with move-in photos counts as covered. Once you set a move-out date, the same room counts as a gap until you photograph it again. That is deliberate before you leave it is a reminder, afterwards it is a hole in your case.
If a room shows "No baseline", check your phone gallery for anything from the week you moved in. The original date is what matters, and those photos are often still there.
THE CLOCK
Set your move-out date and Tenwell counts down your state's deadline. Fourteen days in Arizona and New York, sixty in Alabama and Arkansas, most commonly twenty-one to thirty. When it lapses the app tells you, and tells you what your state says follows in several states a landlord who misses the deadline loses the right to deduct anything at all.
Tenwell lists only states whose rules we could verify from a primary source, and every entry is dated with a link so you can check it yourself. See Settings, State rules in this app. If your state is not listed, Tenwell will not put a number on your deadline rather than guess one.
Some cities differ from their state. Chicago is the clearest example, with stronger tenant remedies than Illinois state law. If you rent in a city with its own ordinance, check that too.
WHICH CHARGES ARE ALLOWED
Landlords may charge for damage. They may not charge for ordinary wear and tear.
Type what they charged you for and Tenwell sorts it. Repainting between tenants, worn carpet and small nail holes are normally wear. Holes in walls, pet staining and breakage are normally damage. Cleaning fees, rekeying and aged appliances genuinely depend on the detail, and the app says so rather than pretending otherwise.
Every classification comes with a sentence you can send back. Use it most disputes are settled by a clear, specific reply, not by going to court.
Mark the lines you accept. Anything you do not accept is treated as disputed and flows into your claim and your letter.
REPAIRS
Log every problem you report and how you reported it. Written beats spoken keep the text or the email. If a landlord later charges you for damage that grew out of something you told them about and they never fixed, that dated record is what you point to.
THE DEMAND LETTER
Tenwell drafts a letter from your own figures: what you paid, what you dispute, your state's deadline, and the specific pushback for each questionable charge. Copy it, read it, edit it in your own words, and send it. Most guidance recommends a written demand before small claims, and it is often enough on its own.
WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN
"Still owed" is your deposit minus the deductions you have accepted, minus anything already returned.
Where a state statute allows a court to award a multiple of what was wrongfully withheld, Tenwell shows that figure only after the deadline has actually passed, and labels it as what the law permits. It is not a prediction. Courts decide whether a landlord acted in bad faith.
YOUR DATA
Everything stays on your device. No account, no ads, no analytics, no tracking, and the app makes no network requests at all. Your photos are never uploaded.
Deleting the app deletes your data. Export your record as CSV from Settings to keep a copy elsewhere. Export is free and always will be. Photos are not included in the CSV attach them separately.
TROUBLESHOOTING
My state is not listed. Only states verified from a primary source ship a figure. You still get general guidance, and every other feature works normally.
The clock has not started. Set your move-out date on the Deposit tab.
A deduction was not classified. Tenwell only recognizes common wording. An unrecognized line is still counted and still disputed it just has no suggested rebuttal.
DISCLAIMER
Tenwell is a record-keeping tool. Nothing in it is legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a lawyer or a tenants' rights service. Landlord-tenant law differs by state and city and changes over time. Always confirm with your state or local housing authority, and get legal advice before acting on anything that matters.