Deposit Disputes in Bexar County JP Court: What the Process Actually Looks Like

You moved out, 30 days passed, and either no check arrived or an itemized statement showed up with charges you think are fiction. In Texas, that fight lives in Justice of the Peace court — the small-claims division — and in Bexar County that means one of four JP precincts depending on where the property sits. Filed correctly, a deposit case is one of the more winnable disputes a tenant can bring, because Texas Property Code § 92.109 hands you a statutory penalty on top of the deposit itself when the landlord acts in bad faith.

The catch is that JP courts are procedural. Miss the demand letter, file in the wrong precinct, show up without your move-in condition report, and a strong case gets weaker fast. Here is how the process actually runs.

Before you file: the § 92.103 demand letter

Texas Property Code § 92.103 requires the landlord to return the deposit, or send an itemized list of deductions, within 30 days of the date you surrender the property and give a forwarding address in writing. That second half matters — if you never gave a forwarding address, the 30-day clock and the § 92.109 bad-faith presumption do not attach the way you think they do.

Before filing suit, send a written demand. Certified mail, return receipt requested, to the address on the lease for notices (and to the management company if different). State:

• The property address and your move-out date
• The forwarding address you provided and when
• The deposit amount
• That you are demanding return under § 92.103 and will seek § 92.109 damages if not paid within a reasonable time (10–14 days is standard)

Keep the green card. Judges in Bexar County JP courts routinely ask whether a demand was sent; a landlord who pays after suit is filed still loses on costs if the demand was ignored.

Which of the four Bexar County JP precincts

Bexar County has four JP precincts, and filing in the wrong one gets your case transferred or dismissed for improper venue. Venue for a deposit suit is the precinct where the rental property is located, not where you now live.

Precinct	General coverage area
Precinct 1	West and southwest Bexar — parts of 78207, 78227, 78237, 78242, Lackland-adjacent areas
Precinct 2	Northwest — Leon Valley, Helotes, parts of NISD territory, 78250, 78249, 78251
Precinct 3	North and northeast — Stone Oak, Hollywood Park, parts of 78258, 78259, 78232, much of NEISD
Precinct 4	East and southeast — Converse, Kirby, China Grove, 78220, 78244, Judson ISD territory

Precinct boundaries shift and overlap in odd ways, especially inside Loop 410. Pull up the property address on the Bexar County JP Precinct locator before filing — do not guess from the ZIP.

What you are actually suing for

This is where tenants leave money on the table. A correctly pleaded deposit case asks for more than the deposit.

Under § 92.109, if the landlord acts in bad faith by retaining the deposit, you can recover:

• $100
• Three times the portion of the deposit wrongfully withheld
• Reasonable attorney's fees

Under § 92.109(b), failure to provide the itemized list and refund within 30 days creates a presumption of bad faith. That presumption is the reason these cases settle — the landlord has the burden to rebut it with evidence, not just testimony that they meant well.

Example: deposit is $1,500. Landlord returns $300 and lists $1,200 in charges you can show are bogus. Your claim is $1,200 (withheld) + $3,600 (3x penalty) + $100 + fees = $4,900 plus costs. JP court jurisdiction goes up to $20,000, so a single-deposit dispute fits easily.

Filing the petition

Bexar County JP courts accept filings through eFileTexas.gov. You can also walk paper into the precinct clerk's office. The filing fee runs roughly $54 for the petition plus service of process per defendant (constable service is typical, around $85 per defendant as of recent cycles — check the precinct's fee schedule).

On the petition (Small Claims — Statement of Claim):

• Name the correct defendant. If the lease names an LLC, sue the LLC and list its registered agent from the Texas Secretary of State SOSDirect search. Suing "Joe's Property Management" when the actual owner is "1234 Maple LLC" is the single most common filing error.
• Include the individual owner only if you have a basis — piercing an LLC is hard in JP court.
• State the amount demanded and a short plain-English factual recital. JP court is governed by Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 500–507, which explicitly relaxes pleading formality.

After filing, the constable serves the defendant. The landlord has 14 days after service to file a written answer. If they do not answer, you can move for default judgment.

The hearing

Hearings are typically set 30–60 days out. Either side can request a jury (costs $22 and is almost never worth it in a deposit case).

Bring, in duplicate:

• The signed lease
• Your move-in condition report (ideally the one you filed within 48 hours of move-in, with photos)
• Move-out photos with timestamps
• The landlord's itemized statement
• Receipts or estimates contradicting the charges (for example, a carpet replaced that the move-in report already flagged as worn)
• Certified mail receipts for your forwarding address notice and demand letter
• A short written damages calculation

The judge will hear both sides informally. Rules of evidence are relaxed in JP court under Rule 500.3(e) — hearsay objections rarely succeed. Expect 20–40 minutes total. A ruling often comes from the bench; sometimes by mail within a week.

What most people get wrong

• Filing before sending a forwarding address in writing. § 92.107 says the landlord has no obligation to return the deposit until you provide one. A text to the leasing agent is not enough — put it in writing, keep proof.
• Suing the wrong entity. "The apartment complex" is not a legal person. Pull the owner from BCAD's property search, and the registered agent from SOSDirect. Serve the registered agent.
• Forgetting the § 92.109 multiplier. Tenants sue for the deposit amount only, and judges cannot award what you did not ask for. Plead the $100, the 3x, and attorney's fees explicitly.
• Treating "normal wear and tear" as undefined. § 92.001(4) defines it — deterioration from ordinary use, not from negligence or abuse. Nail holes, minor carpet wear, and faded paint after a multi-year tenancy are textbook wear and tear. Cite the statute.
• Showing up without the move-in condition report. Without it, the case becomes your word against theirs on pre-existing conditions. This is why the walkthrough checklist the day you get keys matters more than anything else you will do in the tenancy.
• Missing the four-year statute of limitations. Deposit claims under the Property Code live inside the four-year limitations period for written-contract claims. Do not sleep on it for years, but also do not panic if you moved out eight months ago.

Collecting the judgment

Winning is not the same as being paid. Once you have a judgment, the landlord has 21 days to appeal to county court. If they do not, the judgment becomes final and enforceable. From there you can:

• Request an abstract of judgment and file it with the Bexar County Clerk — this creates a lien on the landlord's non-homestead real estate in the county
• Serve post-judgment discovery asking for bank accounts and assets
• Pursue a writ of execution through the constable

Most individual landlords pay once the judgment is final rather than risk a lien on the rental property itself. Larger property-management companies almost always pay, because their insurance or corporate counsel treats a $5,000 judgment as not worth defending on appeal.

Moving on

A clean deposit case rewards organization more than legal talent: lease, condition report, photos, written forwarding address, certified demand, correct precinct, correct defendant, § 92.109 pleaded in full. Do that, and the presumption does the heavy lifting.

When you are ready for the next place, browse current Bexar County listings at /rentals, and use the move-in walkthrough resources at /resources to set up your next tenancy so you never end up back in Precinct 3 on a Tuesday morning arguing over carpet.