Security Deposit Demand Letters
El Paso, Texas · Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103

The El Paso security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

Texas law gave your El Paso landlord 30 days to return it or itemize. If that clock has run, an El Paso security deposit demand letter puts Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103 to work on your side.

Make them answer for it
Free to write and read your El Paso letter. $20 only when you send it.
30
days to return or itemize
3×
potential damages on wrongful withholding
$20
letter + certified mail, one-time

Last updated September 2026 · local figures: U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-year

El Paso deposit math
Median rent in El Paso$1,073/mo
Typical deposit ≈ one month≈$1,100
Statutory 3× on wrongful withholding$3,300
Fixed statutory penalty+$100
Landlord's potential exposure$3,400

Median gross rent: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year (table B25064). Deposit example rounded to one month's rent; statutory figures are ceilings, and courts decide actual awards.

What El Paso renters should know

El Paso deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in El Paso are governed by Texas state law: Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109. Bad faith retention can make the landlord liable for $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney's fees. Bad faith is presumed if the landlord misses the 30-day deadline. Full Texas deadline & penalty guide →

The court that would hear it

Deposit claims from El Paso are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in El Paso County. Texas JP courts hear claims up to $20,000, no lawyer required. A typical El Paso deposit, even at the statute's $3,400 cap, fits under that limit, which is exactly why a statute-citing certified letter usually settles it first.

What happens after you answer the questions

You read the whole letter before paying anything. You sign it, we print it, and it goes out by USPS Certified Mail with return receipt requested. You get the tracking number, the delivery record and a signed PDF carrying a fingerprint of its exact wording.

See how it works for the whole sequence and an honest comparison with doing it yourself.

Have it mailed, not downloaded.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage, and the return receipt — and you read every word before you pay.
Read my El Paso letter
On the last page of your letter

The bit that stops them arguing

Not a logo that says “verified.” A short record of how and when you signed, printed on the letter your El Paso landlord is holding, plus a code made from the letter's own words.

  • The demand paragraph
  • The signature record
  • The SHA-256 hash
  • Certified Mail with Return Receipt
Pin 1 · The demand paragraphThe paragraph names your state's statute, the amount your landlord kept, the deadline they missed, and gives them a firm deadline to send the money before the letter says what happens next. Every part of it comes from the answers you gave, printed in the order the law expects.
Pin 2 · The signature recordMethod (drawn or typed), date, time zone, IP, browser, and consent to sign electronically. Printed on the letter itself, so the person receiving it can see how it was signed. Nothing goes out until a real person signs.
Pin 3 · The SHA-256 hashA 64-character code built from every word in your letter, recorded with the date and time you signed. It is your signing record: paste it into the checker at /verify/ and it confirms the wording you hold is the wording you signed, unchanged. It is not proof of delivery; the certified mail record below is.
Pin 4 · Certified Mail with Return ReceiptSomeone at the other end has to sign. This is the proof: the certified mail receipt, the USPS tracking history, and the delivery signature with its date. The Postal Service records them, our mail partner passes them to us, and we email them to you and post them on your letter tracker. Your landlord cannot claim the letter never came.

The closing words above are the real ones our engine writes for El Paso letters, statute and deadline included. The name, signature and codes are made up; yours carry your own record. The time is shown in the signer's own time zone, not ours.

That code is built from every word in your letter. Change one word and it no longer matches. Type it into our checker and it tells you the letter is the same one you signed. Run the example code through the checker →

What an El Paso deposit is usually worth

Rent in El Paso runs to a median of roughly $1,073 (ACS 2024 5-year). Deposits generally track that, which makes it a fair proxy for the sum in dispute. That sits roughly 24% below the Texas median of $1,403. Smaller deposits are not smaller injustices: for a household renting at this level, a withheld deposit is often a larger share of a month’s income, not a smaller one.

About 39% of El Paso households rent rather than own, roughly 96,177 of them. That is a large enough population that the local court is thoroughly used to hearing deposit claims from tenants without lawyers. The rule that governs what happens to that money is set at the state level, by Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109, and it applies in El Paso exactly as it does anywhere else in Texas.

Renters underestimate how much the format matters. The same request, made by text, gets filed under “annoyance”; made by certified letter citing the statute and the deadline, it gets filed under “risk”. The money at stake did not change. The category did.

Leaving an El Paso rental without losing the deposit

In a city this size the deposit is rarely sitting in one person’s account. It has been folded into an operation with a process, and processes respond to documents far better than they respond to phone calls.

  • Do a final photo pass at handover. Every room, every surface, and the meter readings. Keep the originals: their embedded timestamps are what make them evidence rather than pictures.
  • Give the forwarding address in writing and keep the proof. This is the single most common way a good claim fails, in every city and every state.
  • Find out who legally owes the deposit, not just who collected the rent. In El Paso that distinction is routine, and getting it wrong is the most avoidable way to waste a valid claim.
  • Do not wait for the deadline to feel comfortable. Texas gives them 30 days. Once that has passed, waiting adds nothing but risk to your own evidence.

Where an El Paso renter would actually file

You will probably never need this. Knowing it anyway is what makes a demand letter read as a considered first step rather than an empty complaint.

Texas routes deposit claims to the Justice Court (Justice of the Peace), with a limit of $20,000. For a rental in El Paso, that normally means the court serving El Paso County. Filing fees and procedure are set by the court. The Texas judiciary publishes its own small claims instructions and forms, which is the page to read before you file.

The forum is deliberately informal, which favors the party who turns up organized. Bring the lease, the photographs with their original dates intact, proof of the address you gave them, and the certified mail receipt for your letter.

Have it mailed, not downloaded.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage, and the return receipt — and you read every word before you pay.
Read my El Paso letter

El Paso renters, by the numbers

$1,073
median gross rent per month in El Paso
39%
of El Paso's ≈245,000 households rent their home
≈96,000
renter households on the same 30-day clock
$3,400
potential statutory exposure on a typical $1,100 deposit

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, tables B25064 & B25003 (El Paso; Census place “El Paso city”); Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109. Population ≈680,000.

El Paso deposit questions

How long does a landlord in El Paso have to return a security deposit?
30 days. The statute (Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109) requires the landlord to act within 30 days after the tenant surrenders the premises and provides a forwarding address. Miss it, and the law's remedies open up: Bad faith retention can make the landlord liable for $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney's fees. Bad faith is presumed if the landlord misses the 30-day deadline.
Can I sue my landlord in small claims court in El Paso?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from El Paso are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in El Paso County. Texas JP courts hear claims up to $20,000, no lawyer required. A demand letter sent by certified mail is the documented first step judges expect to see.
Is a demand letter worth it for a typical El Paso deposit?
Median rent in El Paso is $1,073 a month (U.S. Census, ACS 2024 5-year), and deposits typically run about one month's rent. Call it $1,100. Texas's statute puts up to $3,400 of exposure on a landlord who wrongfully withholds that deposit (a statutory ceiling; courts decide actual awards). The letter is $20 flat, certified mail included, and you read every word of it before paying.

General legal information, not legal advice. Court limits and city ordinances change; verify current rules or consult a licensed Texas attorney.

Skip the trip to the Post Office.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage and the return receipt. No stamps, no green card to fill in wrong, no queue.
Read my El Paso letter
El Paso · Renter guides

What to settle before you write to them

Whatever your landlord has told you, a deposit dispute is usually one of four arguments. Work out which one yours is first.

Deductions What a landlord can actually deduct Because Texas requires an itemized statement, you get to see the reasoning. Knowing what belongs on that list is how you find the line items that do not. Read the guide → Wear and tear Normal wear and tear, or damage? Faded paint, worn carpet traffic lanes, loose handles and thinning grout are what happens when someone lives somewhere. None of it is damage, and none of it is yours to pay for. See the line → Evidence The walkthrough that pays for itself two years later The strongest position at move-out is set at move-in. This is what to capture, and where to keep it so it still exists later. Get the checklist → No response The deposit never came back The window closing is the beginning of your position, not the end of it. This is what to do next, in order. What to do →

Disputing a named deduction?

Cleaning billed to youCharged for paintBilled for new carpetWall repair chargesA pet damage bill

Not sure which apply? The deduction checker reads a whole El Paso itemized statement.

El Paso · Keep reading

Worth reading next

Free to read, in the order most El Paso renters need it.

Other Texas cities

Deposit law is the same across Texas. Rent, venue and local rules are not, so each of these has its own page.

Not renting in El Paso any more? We send the same security deposit demand letter El Paso, Texas renters send in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each built on that state's own statute.

El Paso · Free help

El Paso tenant resources

Deposit law is set in Texas, but the office you would call and the court you would file in are closer to home. These are the ones that matter for El Paso.

Government and nonprofit resources, listed because they are useful. We are not affiliated with any of them, and none of them is affiliated with us. Every link here was checked on August 30, 2026.

Send the letter your El Paso landlord can't ignore.

Demand my deposit back