Texas Landlord Tenant Law: The Complete 2026 Guide for Landlords

Required Landlord Disclosures in Texas

Texas landlord tenant law requires four written disclosures before or at lease signing. Missing any one of them creates tenant remedies against you.

The Flood Disclosure: Read This Twice if You Own in Houston

Section 92.0135 requires you to tell the tenant, in writing, two separate things: whether the dwelling sits in a 100-year floodplain, and whether it has flooded at least once in the preceding five years. The statute prescribes substantially the following wording for the second notice:

“(Landlord) ( ) is or ( ) is not aware that the dwelling you are renting has flooded at least once within the last five years.”

You are exempt from the 100-year floodplain notice only if the dwelling’s elevation has been raised above the flood level in accordance with federal regulations. There is no separate 500-year floodplain disclosure requirement.

The notice may be a paragraph of the lease, an addendum, or a separate document but under S.B. 2349 the document containing it must now be signed by both landlord and tenant. If you fail to disclose and the tenant suffers substantial loss or damage to personal property from flooding, the tenant may terminate the lease and pursue remedies against you.

Also disclose visible mold you are aware of before move-in. Texas doesn’t have a specific mold disclosure statute, but failing to disclose a known material condition affecting health invites a habitability claim, a real risk in Houston’s humidity.

Texas Security Deposit Laws

Security deposits are one of the most disputed areas of Texas landlord tenant law. Get the rules wrong and you could owe the tenant three times the deposit amount plus attorney’s fees.

No Limit on Deposit Amount

Texas does not cap how much you can charge for a security deposit. You can charge whatever the market will bear. That said, Houston’s competitive rental market means excessive deposits hurt your ability to fill vacancies quickly. Most Houston landlords land at one to two months’ rent.

The 30-Day Rule

Under § 92.103, you must return the security deposit or provide a written, itemized list of deductions within 30 days of the tenant vacating the property and providing a forwarding address.
If you fail, § 92.109 exposes you to $100 in statutory damages, three times the portion wrongfully withheld, and the tenant’s attorney’s fees. As an example, a $1,500 deposit mishandled in bad faith can become a $4,600 judgment before legal costs.

Allowable Deductions

You may deduct from the security deposit for:

• Unpaid rent
• Physical damage to the property beyond normal wear and tear
• Cleaning costs if the unit was left in worse condition than move-in
• Costs to replace missing items listed in the lease
• Other charges specifically authorized in the lease

What Is “Normal Wear and Tear” in Texas?

Normal wear and tear is the gradual deterioration that occurs through ordinary, reasonable use of the property and you cannot deduct for it. This is where most deposit disputes happen.

Landlord Obligations & the Duty to Repair

When a tenant reports a condition that affects health or safety, Texas law requires you to make a diligent effort to repair it within a reasonable time (§ 92.056). The statute presumes seven days is reasonable. You can argue for more time if the problem is severe or parts and labor are hard to get, but the burden is on you to show why.

The tenant’s first notice only has to be in writing if your lease is in writing and requires written notice. Most Houston leases do. Before the tenant can use any remedy, they must send a second written notice after a reasonable time has passed. The exception is when the first notice went by certified mail, return receipt requested, or another trackable delivery method. In that case one notice is enough. Keep this in mind when you get a repair request by certified mail: your clock is already running and you will not get a second warning.

Two things changed here under H.B. 2037 (effective September 1, 2025):

1. Your agents now count as you. Managing agents, leasing agents, and resident managers are your agents for receiving tenant notice. A request left with your leasing agent starts your clock.
2. Email is valid written notice if you and the tenant have communicated by email before. You can name a specific email address for repair requests, which is a good idea. Otherwise a message to any address you have used with that tenant may count.

If you fail to make repairs after proper notice, the tenant can end the lease and move out, or sue in justice court for an order to repair, a rent reduction back to the date of the first notice, a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $500, actual damages, court costs, and attorney’s fees (§ 92.0563).

Repair-and-deduct is also available, but it is narrower than most landlords think (§ 92.0561). The tenant can only use it for a short list of conditions: a sewage backup or flooding from broken pipes inside the unit, a total loss of water service you agreed to provide, failed heating or cooling equipment you agreed to provide after a city housing or health official has notified you in writing, or any other condition a city official has notified you in writing affects health or safety. Waiting periods range from none for sewage to seven days for the last category. The tenant cannot deduct more than one month’s rent or $500, whichever is greater. The work cannot be done by the tenant, their family, their employer, or a company they own. If the city requires a license for that type of work, the contractor must have one.

Landlord Rights in Texas

Texas landlord rights are among the strongest in the country. The trade-off is procedural. Texas gives you power but requires you to use it correctly. Nearly every landlord loss in this state is procedural, not substantive.
Texas is widely considered a landlord-friendly state. The conversation usually focuses on obligations, but the code gives owners real, enforceable powers:

• Set rent freely. Texas has no rent control and bars cities from adopting it outside a declared disaster with the governor’s approval. You may charge any rent the market supports.
• Charge any security deposit amount. No statutory cap.
• Screen tenants with wide latitude. You may charge application and screening fees and run credit, criminal, employment, and rental history checks, subject to fair housing law. The code does require you to give each applicant printed notice of your selection criteria and grounds for denial, get a signed acknowledgment, and accept or reject within seven days. Reject someone without giving that notice and you owe back the application fee and deposit (§§ 92.3515, 92.352).
• Collect rent on the date stated in the lease. The two-full-day grace period in § 92.019 applies to late fees, not to when rent is legally due. Late fees must be in the written lease and be reasonable. The safe harbor is 12% of monthly rent for four or fewer units and 10% for more.
• Deduct for damages beyond normal wear and tear, unpaid rent, and lease-authorized charges. You must send an itemized list within 30 days of move-out, and a bad-faith deduction can cost you $100 plus three times the deposit plus the tenant’s attorney’s fees (§§ 92.103, 92.104, 92.109).
• Enter the property for repairs, inspections, and showings, if your lease grants that right. Texas has no entry statute, so the lease is the only source of this power. Make sure yours covers it.
• Evict through the justice court on a timeline that S.B. 38 tightened as of January 1, 2026.
• End a month-to-month tenancy for any reason that is not retaliation or discrimination, with at least one month’s written notice or whatever notice period the lease sets (§ 91.001).
• Recover attorney’s fees in some disputes, mostly when the lease provides for them. The code’s fee provisions (§§ 92.005, 92.109, 24.006) cut both ways, so a tenant who wins can collect from you too.

The trade-off is procedure. Texas gives you a lot of room, but most cases landlords lose come down to a missed deadline, a notice sent the wrong way, or a lease that never granted the right they tried to use.

Tenant Rights in Texas

Tenant rights in Texas center on repairs, freedom from retaliation, quiet enjoyment, and due process in eviction. Understanding Texas renters rights protects you as much as the tenant. Tenants who know their rights assert them, and Texas courts take violations seriously.

Right to Repairs

Tenants have the right to a safe living space, and the landlord must make a diligent effort to fix any condition that materially affects health or safety after proper notice. Your duties on security deposits, security devices, ownership disclosure, and utility cutoffs cannot be waived in a lease under § 92.006. The repair duty can only be shifted to the tenant in narrow cases, mostly for landlords who own a single rental, and only in a written clause that is bold or underlined and agreed to knowingly.

Right Against Retaliation

Under § 92.331, you cannot retaliate against a tenant for:

• Giving you a repair notice or using a repair remedy under the code
• Complaining in good faith to a government agency, utility, or civic group about code violations or utility problems
• Forming, trying to form, or joining a tenant organization
• Exercising in good faith any right under the lease, a city ordinance, or state or federal law

Retaliation includes filing an eviction, keeping the tenant from using the premises, cutting services, raising rent, ending the lease, or a bad-faith course of conduct that interferes with the tenant’s rights, within six months of the protected action. Section 92.332 lists grounds that are never retaliation, including unpaid rent, intentional property damage, threats to you or your staff, and holding over after the lease ends. Penalties under § 92.333 include one month’s rent plus $500, actual damages, moving costs, and attorney’s fees, minus any delinquent rent. A tenant who files a retaliation claim in bad faith owes you the same penalty under § 92.334.

Right to Privacy and Quiet Enjoyment

Tenants have the right to quiet enjoyment of their rental property, an implied promise in every Texas lease. Texas has no statute setting entry rules, so the lease controls. Enter only as your lease allows, give whatever notice it requires, and never harass the tenant or interfere with their peaceful use of the home.

Right to Proper Eviction Procedures

A tenant cannot be removed except through the formal court eviction process, even a tenant who has not paid in months. Changing the locks to force a tenant out, removing doors or belongings, or shutting off utilities carries its own penalties under §§ 92.0081 and 92.008, starting at one month’s rent plus $1,000 for an illegal lockout.

Right to Summon Emergency Assistance

Under § 92.015, you cannot prohibit or limit a tenant’s right to call police or emergency services when they reasonably believe someone needs help, and you cannot penalize a tenant for doing so. Lease clauses that try are void. The tenant can recover one month’s rent, actual damages, court costs, and attorney’s fees.

Rules on Landlord Entry in Texas

Texas Property Code § 92.0081 governs when and how a landlord may enter a rental unit. Unlike many states, Texas does not specify a mandatory advance notice period for non-emergency entry. However, that does not mean you can walk in whenever you want.

What Texas Law Actually Says

The Property Code is silent on entry. What governs is the covenant of quiet enjoyment, an implied promise in every Texas lease that the landlord will not interfere with the tenant’s peaceful use of the home. Unannounced entry outside a true emergency can breach that promise and, if it is repeated and the tenant moves out because of it, can support a constructive eviction claim that ends the lease and exposes you to damages.

Best practice: give 24 hours written notice before entering for repairs, inspections, or showings. Put that requirement in your lease. Because the statute is silent, whatever your lease says becomes the rule, and a lease that says nothing leaves you exposed. The standard TAR and TAA lease forms already include an entry clause, so read yours before you add one.

Emergency Entry

You may enter without notice in a true emergency: fire, flooding, a gas leak, or any situation that requires immediate action to prevent serious property damage or harm to a person.

Lease Showings

For showing the unit to prospective tenants or buyers, 24-hour advance notice is both legally prudent and professionally courteous. Schedule showings at reasonable hours.

Late Fees & Grace Periods in Texas

Many Houston landlords use a tiered late fee structure – for example, $75 on day 3, then an additional $10/day up to a cap. This is legal as long as the total stays within the reasonableness standard and the structure is spelled out clearly in the lease.
Texas requires a minimum 2-day grace period before a late fee can be charged, and the fee must be written into the lease. Under § 92.019:

• Late fees must be written into the lease to be enforceable. Oral late fee agreements are not enforceable in Texas.
• A grace period of at least 2 full days must pass before a late fee applies. If rent is due on the 1st, you cannot charge a late fee until the 4th at the earliest.
• The fee must be reasonable. Inside the safe harbor below it is presumed reasonable. Above it, you can only charge what you can show covers your uncertain costs from the late payment.
• Safe harbor: up to 12% of monthly rent for a structure with four or fewer units, or 10% for a structure with more than four units. The test is units in the building, so a landlord with twenty single-family houses is at 12% on every one of them.
• The statute allows an initial fee plus a daily fee, but it treats the two as one late fee. The combined total is what gets measured against the safe harbor.

Note that the grace period applies to late fees only. Rent is still legally due on the date stated in the lease, and a tenant who pays on the 3rd has still paid late for purposes of a notice to vacate.

Collecting a late fee that violates § 92.019 costs you $100, three times the fee, and the tenant’s attorney’s fees.

Lease Termination & Notice Requirements

How a lease ends — and how much notice is required – depends on the type of tenancy.

Early Lease Termination by the Tenant

A tenant who breaks a fixed-term lease early is generally responsible for rent until the unit is re-rented – but you have a duty to make reasonable efforts to re-rent (mitigate damages) under § 91.006. You cannot let the unit sit vacant and charge the departed tenant the full remaining balance. A lease clause that waives the duty to mitigate is void under 91.006(b).

Texas law also allows tenants to terminate early without penalty in specific circumstances:

• Military deployment — Under the Service members Civil Relief Act and § 92.017, a tenant who enters active duty or receives orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of 90 days or more can terminate by giving written notice and a copy of the orders. The lease ends on the 30th day after the next rent due date following the notice.
• Family violence – Victims may terminate under § 92.016 with a protective order or qualifying documentation.
• Domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking — Sexual assault or stalking. Victims may terminate under § 92.0161 with qualifying documentation. Updated by H.B. 47 (September 1, 2025): for sexual assault and sexual abuse, the offense no longer has to have occurred on the leased premises. It still must have happened within the past six months. Stalking was not changed and still has to have occurred on the premises. If your lease or termination checklist requires an on-premises offense for sexual assault, it is out of date.
• Landlord failure to repair – If you fail to repair a condition affecting health or safety after proper notice, the tenant may terminate under § 92.056.

The Texas Eviction Process (Overview)

Eviction in Texas is a formal legal process governed by Texas Property Code Chapter 24, and an uncontested case now takes about 3 to 6 weeks. The process involves serving a Notice to Vacate, filing an eviction petition (forcible detainer) at the Justice of the Peace court for the precinct where the property is located, attending a hearing 10 to 21 days later, and, if you win, obtaining a Writ of Possession executed by the constable after the 5-day appeal window closes.

An uncontested Harris County eviction typically costs $330 to $500 in court and constable fees for one or two tenants, before attorney costs. If the tenant appeals, S.B. 38 requires the county court to hear the case within 21 days, and the tenant must pay rent into the court registry to stay in the unit while it’s pending. Budget for attorney costs at that stage.

S.B. 38 changed this process substantially as of January 1, 2026. See the new laws section above for the full list of changes.

→ Houston Eviction Process: A Step-by-Step Guide for Landlords

Illegal Landlord Practices in Texas

Texas law is explicit about what landlords cannot do, and violations carry civil liability, statutory damages, and attorney’s fees.

Self-Help Eviction — Strictly Prohibited

You cannot remove a tenant by taking off doors or windows, removing locks or hinges, hauling out the tenant’s belongings, or shutting off utilities. Under § 92.0081, self-help eviction is illegal regardless of how delinquent the tenant is. Violators face a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $1,000, actual damages, and attorney’s fees.

Utility Shutoff

Shutting off water, electricity, or gas to force a tenant out is illegal under § 92.008. This applies even if the tenant hasn’t paid rent, and the penalty matches the lockout penalty: one month’s rent plus $1,000, actual damages, and attorney’s fees. The only legal path is eviction through the courts.

Lockouts

Changing the locks to keep a tenant out is illegal under § 92.0081, with one narrow exception. If your lease allows it, you may change the locks for unpaid rent after giving 5 days written notice (3 days if posted on the door) that states the amount owed and where to get a new key. You must then hand over a new key at any hour, whether or not the tenant pays. Refuse the key and you owe an extra month’s rent on top of the standard penalty. A locked-out tenant can file a sworn complaint under § 92.009 and get a writ of reentry, often the same day, and you’ll owe damages.

Retaliatory Actions

Retaliating against a tenant for exercising their legal rights exposes you to a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $500, plus actual damages, moving costs, and attorney’s fees (§ 92.333).

Discriminatory Practices

The federal Fair Housing Act and the Texas Fair Housing Act (Property Code Chapter 301) prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. Houston has no local ordinance adding protected classes, but some Texas cities do, so check the local code if you own property outside the Houston area. Discriminatory screening, advertising, or lease terms expose you to federal and state liability.

Prohibiting Emergency Calls

Under § 92.015, you cannot penalize a tenant for calling police or emergency services when they reasonably believe someone needs help. Lease clauses attempting to do so are void, and the tenant can recover one month’s rent, actual damages, and attorney’s fees.

Frequently Asked Questions: Texas Landlord-Tenant Law

Can a landlord enter without notice in Texas?

Texas law does not set a specific advance notice period for non-emergency entry, but unauthorized entry can violate a tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment. Best practice — and standard in professional lease agreements — is to provide 24 hours written notice before entering for repairs, inspections, or showings. Emergency entry (fire, flooding, gas leak) does not require advance notice.

How much can a landlord charge for a security deposit in Texas?

Texas has no statutory cap on security deposits. Landlords may charge any amount, though market conditions in Houston typically put deposits at one to two months’ rent. Whatever you charge, you must return it — or provide a written itemized deduction list — within 30 days of the tenant vacating.

What happens if a landlord doesn’t return a security deposit in Texas?

If a landlord fails to return the security deposit or provide an itemized deduction list within 30 days, the tenant can sue for the full deposit amount, $100 in statutory damages, three times the portion wrongfully withheld, and attorney’s fees under Texas Property Code § 92.109.

Can a landlord raise rent during a lease in Texas?

No. A landlord cannot raise rent during a fixed-term lease. Rent can only be increased at renewal or, for month-to-month tenancies, with proper written notice (at least 30 days in advance, as required by the lease or § 91.001).

What is the grace period for rent in Texas?

Texas law requires a minimum 2-day grace period before a late fee can be charged. So if rent is due on the 1st, you cannot charge a late fee until the 4th. The grace period must be specified in the lease. Note: the grace period is for late fees only — rent is still legally due on the date stated in the lease.

Can a tenant withhold rent for repairs in Texas?

Texas tenants cannot simply stop paying rent for repair issues. However, under Texas Property Code § 92.056, after providing proper written notice and waiting a reasonable time (generally 7 days), a tenant may be entitled to deduct repair costs from rent, hire a contractor to make repairs, or terminate the lease — depending on the severity of the condition and whether the landlord has been given a reasonable opportunity to repair.

Is Texas a landlord-friendly state?

Texas is generally considered a landlord-friendly state compared to many others. There is no rent control, no mandatory grace period for evictions, relatively straightforward eviction procedures, and no cap on security deposits. However, landlords who ignore the rules on security deposits, habitability, or retaliation can face significant penalties — the law protects both sides.

What are the new landlord-tenant laws in Texas for 2026?

Five laws changed Texas landlord tenant law in 2025–2026: S.B. 38 reformed eviction procedure (effective January 1, 2026), S.B. 1333 added squatter removal under new Chapter 24B, H.B. 47 expanded lease termination rights for sexual assault victims, H.B. 2037 changed repair contractor and notice rules, and S.B. 2349 tightened flood notice requirements. All but S.B. 38 took effect September 1, 2025.

How long does a landlord have to make repairs in Texas?

A landlord must make a diligent effort to repair within a reasonable time after receiving written notice – presumed to be 7 days, under § 92.056. Since H.B. 2037 took effect September 1, 2025, notice to your leasing agent, managing agent, or resident manager counts as notice to you, and email counts as written notice if you’ve emailed the tenant before.

What disclosures are Texas landlords required to make?

Four: flood risk which includes if the property owners knows whether the property has previously flooded or not(§ 92.0135), lead-based paint for pre-1978 properties (federal law), owner and management identity (§ 92.201), and parking/towing rules for multi-unit properties(§ 92.0131).

Last updated: April 2026. This article reflects the Texas Property Code as of the 89th Texas Legislature. Laws change — verify current requirements with a licensed Texas attorney before taking action.

Mohsen Alizadeh Owner

Texas Lone Star Property Management delivers reliable property management Houston owners can depend on. As a trusted Houston property management company, we combine personalized service with local expertise to help property owners maximize their investments.

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