Get that line right and the money comes back. The difficulty is that almost nobody checks the landlord's version of it, and an unchecked itemisation is simply accepted.
The rule, in one sentence
Wear is the expected result of ordinary, careful use over time. Damage is harm beyond that — from negligence, an accident, abuse, or a change nobody authorised.
The test is not "is it worse than it was at move-in?", because everything is. The test is "is this what normal living does?". Paint gone flat after three years is wear. A wall painted black without permission is damage.
Walls and paint
Interior paint is generally treated as having a short life of its own, often two to four years, so repainting after a long tenancy is usually turnover a landlord was going to do anyway rather than a cost you caused.
- Usually wear: faded or lightly scuffed paint, small nail and pushpin holes, marks behind furniture.
- Usually damage: large or numerous anchor holes, crayon and marker, an unpatched television mount, a colour you applied and did not restore.
Carpet and floors
Even when it genuinely is damage, there is a second question waiting behind the first: how old was it? A landlord can charge for the life the floor had left, not for a new one. That is the depreciation rule, and it is where most over-charging hides.
- Usually wear: matting in walkways, traffic paths, moderate fading, small stains from ordinary use.
- Usually damage: pet urine through to the underlay, burns, tears, bleach marks, deep gouges in hardwood.
Cleaning
The usual standard is broom-clean: you return the place about as clean as a reasonable person keeps a home, not spotless. A landlord may charge to undo a genuine mess you left. A landlord may not charge a flat professional-cleaning fee simply to hand the next tenant a better flat than you rented, and a lease clause demanding one regardless of condition is unenforceable in many states.
Two questions for every line on the bill
When the itemised statement arrives, read it as a list rather than as a total, and put each line through the same two questions. First: is this ordinary wear? If it is, it should not be there at all. Second: if it is real damage, is the item old — and have they billed a full replacement instead of the life it had left?
Most itemisations fail at least one of those on most lines. Naming which one, in writing, is the whole of the argument.
One caution
Informational, never legal advice. What counts as wear and what a landlord may deduct are set by your state's statute and your lease, and this is a general account rather than your law. For a dispute that matters, talk to a tenant lawyer or your local legal-aid office.