Landlord Lockouts and Utility Shutoffs in Texas

A Texas landlord generally cannot lock a tenant out or cut off the utilities to force a move or collect rent. Removing a tenant takes a court case. Chapter 92 of the Property Code allows one narrow rent-related exception, a lock change on the unit of a tenant who owes rent, and it comes with written notice, timing rules, and a key the tenant can get at any hour without paying. Utilities are tighter still: under section 92.008, unpaid rent never justifies a shutoff. When a landlord breaks these rules, the tenant can go to justice court for an order to get back in or get service restored, and can sue for a penalty of one month's rent plus $1,000.

The starting rule: no exclusion without a court

The core sentence is in section 92.0081(b). A landlord may not intentionally keep a tenant from entering the leased premises except by judicial process. The statute then lists three situations that are not violations:

• bona fide repairs, construction, or an emergency;
• removing the contents of premises the tenant has abandoned; and
• changing the door locks on the tenant's individual unit when the tenant is behind on at least part of the rent.

Subsection (a) closes a common workaround. Taking off a door, a window, an attic hatchway cover, a lock, a latch, a hinge pin, or a doorknob is off limits, and so is hauling away furniture, fixtures, or appliances the landlord supplied. The single exception is a genuine repair or replacement, and that work must be done promptly.

The judicial process the statute refers to is an eviction suit under chapter 24, which section 92.0081(l) expressly leaves available to the landlord. That process ends, if the landlord wins, with a writ of possession executed by a sheriff or constable, not with a landlord changing the locks. The Texas eviction guide walks through that lawsuit from the notice to vacate onward.

When a landlord may change the locks for unpaid rent

The rent exception is real, but it has more conditions than most people expect. Under section 92.0081(d), all three of these must be true before the lock change:

1. The lease gives the landlord that right

   The right to change the locks because rent was not paid on time has to be written into the lease. Without that clause, the rent exception does not apply.

2. The tenant owes rent

   The tenant must be delinquent in paying all or part of the rent. Subsection (b)(3) ties the exception to rent specifically, not to other fees.

3. Written notice arrived in time

   The landlord must either mail the notice locally no later than the fifth calendar day before the locks are changed, or hand it to the tenant or post it on the inside of the main entry door no later than the third calendar day before. The notice must give the earliest date the locks may be changed, the amount of rent that will stop it, and the name and street address of the person (or the on-site office) where the rent can be discussed or paid during normal business hours. It must also state, in underlined or bold print, that the tenant can get a key to the new lock at any hour even without paying.

Days and circumstances when a lock change is barred

Even with a proper notice, section 92.0081 rules out several moments. The landlord may not change the locks on a day when the landlord or the designated person is unavailable, or the on-site office is closed, for the tenant to tender the rent, and not on the day right before such a day (subsection (e)). The locks may not be changed while the tenant or any other legal occupant is inside, and not more than once in a single rental payment period (subsection (k)). Locking a tenant out of the unit also does not permit locking the tenant out of common areas of the property (subsection (e-1)).

The door notice and the 24-hour key

Once the locks are changed for unpaid rent, the landlord has to post a written notice on the tenant's front door. Under section 92.0081(c), it must give either an on-site location where the tenant can go 24 hours a day for the new key, or a phone number that is answered 24 hours a day and that brings a delivered key within two hours of the call. The same notice must say that the landlord has to provide the key at any hour regardless of payment, and it must list the rent and other charges claimed as delinquent.

This is the part of the statute people most often get wrong. Subsection (f) states plainly that the key is owed whether or not the tenant pays. A lock change for rent is, in practice, a pressure tactic that forces a conversation; the statute does not let it keep the tenant outside. If the landlord shows up promptly after a call and nobody is home, subsection (g) requires a door notice saying when the landlord came and where the key can be picked up during normal office hours.

What a tenant can recover after an unlawful lockout

Two separate tools exist, a damages claim and a writ of reentry, and section 92.009(j) makes clear that using one does not give up the other.

If a landlord violates any part of section 92.0081, subsection (h) lets the tenant either recover possession or terminate the lease. On top of that, the tenant can recover a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $1,000, along with actual damages, reasonable attorney's fees, and court costs. Any rent or other sums the tenant still owes are subtracted. When the violation is refusing the key, subsection (i) adds a second civil penalty of one more month's rent. A lease clause that tries to waive any of this is void under subsection (j).

The writ of reentry: getting back in quickly

Money later does not help much on a night locked outside. Section 92.009 creates a faster route, and it runs like this:

1. Sworn complaint in the local justice court

   The tenant files a sworn complaint for reentry in the justice court for the precinct where the rental is located, describing the facts of the lockout, and also states those facts out loud under oath to the judge (subsection (b)).

2. The judge may issue the writ ex parte

   If the judge reasonably believes an unlawful lockout likely happened, the judge may issue the writ without the landlord present. It gives the tenant immediate, temporary possession until a final hearing (subsection (c)).

3. An officer serves it

   The writ is served on the landlord, or on the management company, on-site manager, or rent collector, the same way a writ of possession is served. A sheriff or constable may use reasonable force to carry it out (subsection (d)).

4. The landlord can ask for a hearing

   The writ must tell the landlord about the right to a hearing, which is held between the first and seventh day after the landlord requests it (subsection (e)). If the landlord does not request one before the eighth day after service, the court may enter a judgment for court costs against the landlord (subsection (f)).

Ignoring the writ is contempt of court. Under subsection (i), the tenant can file an affidavit naming who disobeyed it, the judge issues a show cause order, and a person found in contempt can be jailed without bail until the contempt is purged. The fees track ordinary justice court costs (subsection (l)): filing costs the same as a civil case and service costs the same as a writ of possession. The judge may defer those costs, and they can be waived only on a pauper's affidavit. The statute also cuts the other way. A tenant who files in bad faith can be sued for actual damages, one month's rent or $500 (whichever is greater), fees, and costs (subsection (k)).

Utility shutoffs: the stricter rule

Section 92.008 treats utilities differently depending on who pays the provider.

• Tenant pays the utility company directly. Under subsection (a), the landlord may not interrupt that service, or cause it to be interrupted, except for bona fide repairs, construction, or an emergency.
• Landlord furnishes the service. Under subsection (b), the same three reasons are the only grounds for cutting water, wastewater, gas, or electricity the landlord provides as part of the tenancy, apart from the electricity exception below.

The remedy in subsection (f) parallels the lockout statute: possession or termination of the lease, plus actual damages, one month's rent plus $1,000, reasonable attorney's fees, and court costs, less anything the tenant owes. Subsection (g) voids any lease clause that waives these rights.

The submetered electricity exception

Many apartment tenants pay the landlord for electricity measured by a submeter or split from a master meter. For that arrangement only, subsection (h) lets the landlord disconnect electricity for an unpaid electric bill, and only when every condition is met: the written lease allows it, the bill is still unpaid on the 12th day after it was issued, and a separate written notice headed with the words "electricity termination notice" (or similar, underlined or bold) is delivered between the first day the bill is past due and the fifth day before the cutoff date. A second notice goes on the door when the power is cut.

The limits on that exception matter as much as the exception itself:

• No disconnection for unpaid rent, other non-electric charges, a prior tenant's bill, a bill six or more months old, or a disputed bill the landlord has not investigated and answered in writing (subsection (o)).
• No disconnection on a day the landlord cannot take payment and reconnect, the day before such a day, after a day whose high stayed at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit with the cold forecast to last 24 more hours, or while a National Weather Service heat advisory is in effect for the county or was issued in the prior two days (subsection (i)).
• A written statement from a physician, nurse, nurse practitioner, or similar licensed practitioner that a resident would become seriously ill, plus a written deferred payment plan, blocks disconnection until the 63rd day unless the parties agree to an earlier date (subsections (j), (k), (l)).
• Once the bill is paid, or a payment plan is signed, during business hours, power must be back within two hours. A reconnection fee is capped at $10 and must be written into the lease as an exact amount (subsections (n), (r)).

The writ of restoration

Section 92.0091 gives utility cutoffs the same fast court route as lockouts. The tenant files a sworn complaint in the precinct's justice court and states the facts under oath. If the judge reasonably believes an unlawful disconnection likely happened, the judge may issue a writ of restoration that restores service immediately and temporarily until a hearing. The service, hearing, contempt, fee, and bad-faith provisions mirror the reentry statute.

When the landlord stops paying the utility bill

A different problem arises when the utility company itself cuts service because the landlord, who agreed to furnish and pay for it, did not pay. Section 92.301 makes the landlord liable once the utility gives notice of a cutoff or cuts service. The tenant may pay the utility to reconnect or prevent the cutoff and subtract that payment from rent (with a copy of the utility's receipt to the landlord), or end the lease with written notice and move out within 30 days of the utility's notice. The statute also allows actual damages such as moving costs, connection fees, storage fees, and lost wages, plus court costs and attorney's fees. Those remedies stop if the landlord produces written proof from the utility that the account is paid in full before the tenant has terminated the lease or filed suit.

How this fits with an eviction after S.B. 38

Lockout and utility rules sit beside the eviction statute, not inside it. A landlord who wants a tenant out files an eviction suit in justice court under chapter 24. After a judgment for possession, a writ of possession generally cannot issue until the sixth day, and the officer must post a warning on the front door at least 24 hours before executing it (section 24.0061(b) and (d)). Under sections 92.009(h) and 92.0091(h), a writ of possession supersedes a writ of reentry or a writ of restoration, so a tenant who has lost the eviction case cannot use these writs to stay.

S.B. 38 rebuilt the eviction procedure effective January 1, 2026, and the eviction appeal deadline in section 24.005107 is now the fifth day after the judgment is signed. That matters here because sections 92.009(g) and 92.0091(g) say a judgment after a reentry or restoration hearing is appealed the same way as an eviction judgment. The statutes do not spell out every detail of how that cross-reference works after the rewrite, so the justice court clerk is the place to confirm the current appeal deadline for a specific case.

Two other parts of chapter 92 can overlap. Under section 92.331(b), within six months after a tenant in good faith asks for a repair or uses another legal remedy, a landlord may not retaliate by depriving the tenant of use of the premises (except for reasons the law allows) or by cutting services. And a landlord cannot use a utility shutoff in place of fixing something: repair duties and remedies are covered in getting repairs made as a Texas tenant.

Every section cited on this page links to the official statute text, a sourcing rule our guides to Texas law applies on every page. Deposits, repairs, and evictions are covered in the Texas renters guides. Lockout and shutoff cases move quickly and turn on details such as lease wording, notice dates, and who pays the utility, so a tenant facing one may want to contact a legal aid office listed on the free legal help page.