Texas Renters’ Rights

The Texas Property Code assigns a residential tenancy two chapters with different jobs. Chapter 92 governs the tenancy while it runs: the deposit held against move-out, the duty to fix serious defects, the baseline of rights a lease cannot erase. Chapter 24 governs how a tenancy ends in court: the notice, the suit, the judgment, the writ. The guides in this section follow that split, and each one ties every deadline and duty to the section of enacted text behind it.

One tenancy, two chapters

The two chapters are written for different readers, which is worth noticing before opening either. Chapter 92 addresses landlords and tenants directly. Its sections describe notices the parties send each other, deadlines they owe each other, and money that passes between them; a deposit refund or a completed repair involves no judge at any point. Chapter 24 is addressed to courts. It fixes where an eviction is heard, in the justice court of the precinct holding the property under section 24.004, and it keeps that court's job narrow: the right to actual possession, with counterclaims excluded. Knowing which chapter a problem lives in tells a renter what kind of process lies ahead, a private exchange of notices or a docketed case.

The deposit and the 30-day clock

Subchapter C of chapter 92 turns move-out into an accounting exercise with a deadline. Surrendering the premises starts a 30-day refund clock under section 92.103. A written forwarding address controls when that duty ripens without ever erasing it; section 92.107 strikes that balance. Section 92.104 forbids keeping any portion of the deposit for normal wear and tear, a term the chapter defines rather than leaving to argument. Bad faith carries a price built around three times whatever was wrongfully withheld, and once day 30 passes with no refund and no itemization, section 92.109 presumes the bad faith instead of making the tenant prove it. The guide to security deposit refunds in Texas traces those conditions in the order a dispute meets them, including the itemized list a landlord owes whenever part of the money is kept.

Repairs and the floor no lease can lower

The repair duty in section 92.052 is conditional. It reaches conditions that materially affect the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant, and it turns on notice delivered where the rent is paid, from a tenant whose rent is current. What follows is a sequence rather than a standoff: section 92.056 presumes seven days is a reasonable time to repair, rebuttable in either direction, and at the end of the sequence sits a menu of remedies that includes terminating the lease, repairing and deducting within a statutory cap, and suing. Here the code's non-waivable baseline shows plainest. Section 92.006 blocks contracting away the health-and-safety repair duty outside a few narrow written agreements, and section 92.331 forbids retaliation for six months after a tenant gives a repair notice in good faith. The guide to getting repairs made walks the sequence step by step, along with the missteps that forfeit every remedy on the menu.

When it ends in court

Chapter 24 compresses an eviction into a chain of short deadlines. A written notice to vacate comes at least three days before any suit is filed, a default the lease itself may lengthen or shorten under section 24.005. The case then belongs to the justice court, the judgment may be appealed within five days after it is signed under Rule 510.19, and a tenant who loses is removed only by an officer executing a writ of possession under section 24.0061. The step-by-step eviction guide describes the procedure in force since January 1, 2026, when Senate Bill 38 rewrote chapter 24 and Rule 510 of the Rules of Civil Procedure was rewritten to match.

Where the statutes stop and the lease speaks

Nothing in the provisions these guides cover sets or caps the rent itself. The closest chapter 92 comes to regulating price is regulating conduct: a rent increase within six months after a tenant's protected act can be unlawful retaliation under section 92.331. A good-faith repair notice is one such act, and section 92.332 lists the exceptions. Everywhere else, the lease does work a renter might expect the statute to do. Chapter 24 lets a written lease replace the three-day notice default with a different period. Chapter 92 requires a repair notice in writing only when a written lease demands it. So the reading order for any question in this silo stays the same: the lease first, then the current chapter text on the Legislature's statutes site, which every guide here links section by section. That citation practice is the standard Texas Legal Answers holds on every page it publishes.

Leaving early, and being shut out

Two situations end a tenancy without a judge deciding possession. One is a landlord who acts alone: changing the locks or cutting a utility. Chapter 92 allows a lockout for delinquent rent only after advance written notice, requires the landlord to hand over a new key at any hour under section 92.0081, and separately limits utility interruptions in section 92.008. The guide to lockouts and utility shutoffs covers those conditions and the justice court writs that put a tenant back inside.

The other is a tenant who needs to leave before the lease ends. The statute releases a tenant from future rent in a short list of situations, among them family violence under section 92.016 and military orders under section 92.017. Outside that list the lease controls, though a landlord whose tenant abandons the premises still has a duty to mitigate damages under section 91.006. The guide to breaking a lease early walks through each exit and the notice it requires.