A new AI-powered tool called Depositron addresses the significant housing justice issue of illegally withheld security deposits in New York City by empowering tenants to quickly and legally recover their money, bridging a critical gap in accessible legal services
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Security deposit disputes are a significant issue in New York City — Half a billion dollars is locked in security deposits at any given time, and nearly 5,000 official complaints about illegally withheld deposits have been filed with the New York Attorney General since 2023. However, many cases go unreported due to the complexity and cost of pursuing justice.
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AI-powered tool Depositron helps NYC tenants claim their security deposits — By guiding users through a simple process and generating customized, legally sound demand letters, Depositron can give tenants the easy access and means to assert their rights.
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AI tools Like Depositron can improve scale and access to justice — Depositron’s modular architecture makes it possible to expand to other jurisdictions with similar legal frameworks, providing a scalable blueprint for addressing other legal challenges.
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Security deposit disputes are a significant and persistent housing justice issue in New York City. The NYC Comptroller estimates that half a billion dollars is locked in security deposits at any given time. With the average rent almost $4,000 across the city as of April, tenants are routinely required to provide large deposits to secure housing.
Since 2023, nearly 5,000 official complaints about illegally withheld deposits have been filed with the New York Attorney General, according to Gothamist, but most likely, this only scratches the surface. Most cases go unreported because the time, cost, and complexity of pursuing justice are too high for most tenants.
Despite reforms like the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which mandates that landlords return deposits within 14 days and provide itemized deductions for any money withheld, enforcement remains weak and affordable pathways for recourse are slow or not available. And unfortunately for tenants, Legal Aid organizations prioritize eviction defense, not deposit recovery; and the NY AG’s complaint process is slow and opaque.
AI powered tool delivers agency at scale
To address this challenge, Sateesh Nori, a long-time tenant advocate with more than 20 years of experience litigating housing justice cases in NYC courts, and Tom Martin, CEO and founder of LawDroid (and contributor to the Thomson Reuters Institute blog site), developed Depositron. This free, AI-powered, mobile phone-accessible tool is available around the clock to help NYC tenants and those in New York state recover their security deposits quickly, legally, and without the need for a lawyer. Depositron also has plans to launch in Florida and Chicago soon.
“Depositron delivers more than a legal document — it delivers agency,” says Nori. Indeed, this encapsulates the tool’s core value because it empowers tenants to take action and reclaim what is rightfully theirs.
“By making legal self-advocacy accessible, Depositron fills a gap left by traditional legal services, which often cannot take on these cases due to capacity or cost constraint.”
Depositron guides users through an intuitive, plain-language process to collect relevant details about their housing situation, including lease facts, deposit amount, move-out date, and landlord information. Users also can upload photos that document the apartment’s condition to strengthen their case. The tool then generates a customized, legally sound demand letter that cites New York laws and incorporates the user’s evidence. This process not only educates tenants about their rights but also gives them a practical, actionable way to assert those rights without facing the intimidation or expense of seeking traditional legal help.
Not surprisingly, AI is at the core of Depositron’s effectiveness. Unlike generic form generators, Depositron takes a hybrid approach, combining advanced large language models and structured prompts, together with conditional logic, to answer basic legal questions and capture the unique facts of each dispute and then translate them into a persuasive, legally grounded narrative.
This customized approach simulates the client interview and legal writing process and makes it possible to help thousands of tenants efficiently. Early testing with law students, tenant advocates, and pro se renters demonstrated success. In fact, users reported that Depositron made them feel more confident, informed, and in control because many recovered their deposits faster than they would have through conventional means.
“By making legal self-advocacy accessible, Depositron fills a gap left by traditional legal services, which often cannot take on these cases due to capacity or cost constraints,” Nori explains. This is a crucial differentiator for Depositron because legal aid organizations and private attorneys are rarely able to assist with disputes over relatively small sums of money.
Poised for expansion in policy and geography
By enabling tenants to send professional, well-researched demand letters at scale, the platform changes the risk calculation for landlords. As more tenants assert their rights with credible legal documents, landlords are incentivized to comply with the law rather than risk penalties or further legal action.
The tool also contributes to systemic change by collecting anonymized data on violation patterns, which can be shared with advocates and enforcement agencies. This data-driven approach enables targeted interventions and supports broader policy efforts to improve housing justice.
By enabling tenants to send professional, well-researched demand letters at scale, the platform changes the risk calculation for landlords.
In addition, Depositron’s modular architecture is designed for expansion to other jurisdictions with similar legal frameworks, such as California, Illinois, and Massachusetts. The technology also can be partnered with local legal aid organizations to accelerate adoption and impact in new markets. Nori and Martin say they have already heard from advocates in Michigan, Maryland, Washington, Tennessee, California, and Washington DC about building platforms in those markets.
Further, the path taken in Depositron’s development can offer lessons for the development of future access-to-justice tools. For example, user empowerment and autonomy are essential, and intuitive design is as important as legal accuracy, Nori and Martin discovered. More specifically, targeted solutions for discrete problems can drive meaningful changes, and AI can serve as both the engine and the interface for delivering legal services at scale.
Depositron demonstrates that technology can bridge longstanding gaps in legal access by making protections both real and actionable for everyone, not just those who can afford traditional representation. By transforming a process that traditionally had taken longer than a year to one that can be resolved in a matter of weeks, Depositron restores agency and financial stability to tenants and provides a scalable blueprint for addressing other access-to-justice challenges in the digital age.
You can find out more about how justice tech solutions and tools are working to improve citizens’ access to justice here
