Texas Landlord-Tenant Law: The Complete 2026 Guide

Texas never caps what you can collect as a security deposit, then spends five sections of Property Code chapter 92 dictating how you give it back. The hinge date is day 30 after move-out. From day 31, the statute stops assuming you're honest: retention is presumed to be in bad faith, and bad faith costs $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus the tenant's attorney's fees (Tex. Prop. Code § 92.109). That math is why deposits come first in any Texas playbook, ahead of even the state's famous three-day notice to vacate.

Taking the deposit: no ceiling, two pieces of fine print

On the way in, Texas is hands-off. No statute limits the amount, so a $2,000 deposit on a $1,000 rent is legal (whether Waco applicants will pay it is your problem). The fine print starts at the lease:

• Surrender-notice conditions must be conspicuous. You can condition the refund on the tenant giving advance notice of surrender only if that requirement is underlined or in conspicuous bold print in the lease (§ 92.103(b)). Buried in ordinary type, it's unenforceable.
• The deposit alternative is regulated too. Since September 1, 2021 (SB 1783), you may offer a recurring monthly fee in lieu of a security deposit (§ 92.111). It must be genuinely optional, can't be used as an approval criterion, requires a written agreement, and the tenant keeps the right to switch to a traditional deposit later. The fee often buys insurance that protects you, not the tenant, and the statute makes you say so in writing.

However collected, the deposit remains the tenant's money ahead of your creditors, bankruptcy trustee included (§ 92.103).

Returning the deposit: the 30-day clock and the forwarding-address rule

The refund is due on or before the 30th day after the tenant surrenders the premises (§ 92.103). Two mechanics decide most disputes:

The forwarding address. You owe neither refund nor accounting until the tenant gives you a forwarding address in writing, and the tenant never forfeits the deposit by forgetting to (§ 92.107). The obligation waits; it doesn't die. When the address shows up in March for an October move-out, the clock finally runs.

The itemization. Withhold anything and you must send the balance with a written description and itemized list of every deduction (§ 92.104). Deductions cover only damages and charges the tenant is legally liable for under the lease or from breaching it, and never normal wear and tear. The one exception to itemizing: the tenant owes rent at surrender and there's no controversy about the amount.

Now the penalty numbers from the top of this page in action. Keep a $1,200 deposit in bad faith and the exposure is $100 plus $3,600 plus fees, roughly $4,000 before your own lawyer bills you, and the burden of proving the retention was reasonable sits on you, not the tenant (§ 92.109). Refund-by-day-25 is cheap insurance; Rentari tracks that deadline on every Texas lease for exactly this reason.

Late fees: two full days, then a 10 or 12 percent safe harbor

Texas is one of the few states that legislates late fees in detail (§ 92.019). Three rules: the fee must be in a written lease; it can't be charged until the rent has remained unpaid for two full days after the due date (rent due the 1st means the earliest fee lands on the 4th); and it must be reasonable. Reasonable has a safe harbor: 12% of the rent for properties with four or fewer units, 10% for larger ones. You can structure it as an initial fee plus a daily fee, as long as the total stays defensible.

Overcharge and the statute bites back with the same formula it uses for deposits: $100, three times the improper fee, and attorney's fees, with lease waivers void (§ 92.019). On rent itself Texas is silent and intends to stay that way: no increase caps, no state notice statute beyond the month's notice that ends a month-to-month tenancy (§ 91.001), and rent control is possible only during a declared housing emergency with the governor's approval, which has never happened (Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.902).

Entry, rekeying, and the disclosure stack

Here's the gap that surprises out-of-state owners: Texas has no landlord-entry statute. No 24-hour rule, no notice requirement at all outside your lease, which is why every decent Texas lease writes its own entry clause. Do that; a court asked about an entry dispute will read your contract, not a statute.

What the code does regulate at move-in is specific:

• Rekeying. Security devices must be rekeyed at your expense no later than the seventh day after each new tenant moves in (§ 92.156).
• Flood disclosure. Since January 1, 2022 (HB 531), a separate written notice must say whether you're aware the dwelling sits in a 100-year floodplain or has flooded within the last five years (§ 92.0135).
• Ownership and management. Tenants are entitled to the name and address of the title holder and management company on proper request (§ 92.201).
• Smoke alarms, parking rules, lead paint. Smoke alarms per chapter 92, subchapter F; a signed copy of parking and towing rules for multiunit properties (§ 92.0131); and the federal lead-based paint disclosure for anything built before 1978.

Repairs: the seven-day presumption tenants can enforce

You must repair conditions that materially affect an ordinary tenant's health or safety once notified (§ 92.052). The tenant's enforcement path (§ 92.056) has prerequisites that cut both ways: they must be current on rent and give notice (certified or tracked mail unless the lease permits ordinary written notice), and you then get a reasonable time, presumed to be seven days. Ignore it and the tenant may terminate, sue for orders and a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500 (§ 92.0563), or repair and deduct up to the greater of one month's rent or $500 per repair (§ 92.0561).

Two things Texas tenants cannot lawfully do: withhold rent wholesale, and lose utilities to you as punishment; landlord-initiated utility shutoffs for nonpayment are flatly prohibited (§ 92.008).

Eviction: three days' notice, then SB 38's new timetable

The default first step hasn't changed in decades: at least three days' written notice to vacate before filing a forcible detainer suit, unless your written lease shortens it (even to 24 hours) or lengthens it (§ 24.005). What changed is nearly everything after the notice. SB 38, signed June 20, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, is the biggest rewrite of Texas eviction procedure in a generation:

• Justice courts must set eviction trials within about 21 days of filing, with venue rules clarified.
• A new summary-disposition motion lets a landlord win without trial when the tenant files no genuine defense.
• Appeals tightened: the tenant must swear to a good-faith, meritorious defense rather than appealing purely for time.
• Service sped up: constables get five business days to serve, after which other qualified officers may.
• Eviction moratoria are now reserved to the legislature alone; no city or county version is possible.
• Notice-to-vacate delivery expanded, including email where the parties agreed to it in writing (§ 24.005).

Layer under that HB 2127, the 2023 preemption act: it bars cities from regulating evictions where the Property Code occupies the field, which targeted local add-ons like Austin's and Dallas's extra notice-and-cure ordinances. A Travis County court declared it unconstitutional in 2023; the Third Court of Appeals reversed that in July 2025, so preemption currently stands while litigation continues. If a city website promises tenants extra cure days, treat it as contested ground and follow state law plus your lease.

Self-help remains mostly off-limits. Chapter 92 allows a narrow contractual lockout for nonpayment, but you must give the tenant a new key on request at any hour, paid up or not, which makes it a pressure tactic, not a removal tool (§ 92.0081). Actual removal runs through the justice court, then the writ of possession.

The 2021-2026 change log, in one place

• January 1, 2026: SB 38 eviction overhaul takes effect (above).
• July 2025: Third Court of Appeals upholds HB 2127 preemption of local eviction ordinances.
• September 1, 2023: HB 2127 (Regulatory Consistency Act) takes effect.
• January 1, 2022: flood disclosure becomes mandatory (HB 531, § 92.0135).
• September 1, 2021: fee-in-lieu-of-deposit framework arrives (SB 1783, § 92.111).

Crossing state lines changes the math completely; the deposit deadlines and notice ladders in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana share almost nothing with chapter 92. Texas-specific notices and lease clauses, including the conspicuous-print surrender language, are in our forms library, and the state-by-state numbers sit on the Texas quick-reference page.

Texas landlord FAQ

When exactly can I charge a late fee if rent is due on the 1st?

After two full days unpaid: the 2nd and 3rd must pass in full, so the fee can attach on the 4th at the earliest (§ 92.019). Charging on the 2nd is a statutory violation that costs $100 plus treble the fee.

Is a $250 late fee legal on $1,500 rent?

That's 16.7%, above both safe harbors (12% for four units or fewer, 10% above that). It's only defensible if you can tie it to actual damages from late payment; otherwise cap it at $180 or $150 depending on property size.

Does the tenant lose the deposit by never sending a forwarding address?

No. Section 92.107 pauses your refund and itemization duties until a written forwarding address arrives, but the tenant doesn't forfeit anything. Hold the money and the paperwork until it shows up.

What does SB 38 change for an ordinary nonpayment eviction?

The notice to vacate works the same (three days by default, § 24.005, with email delivery newly allowed by written agreement). After filing, expect a faster setting, the possibility of summary disposition if the tenant doesn't answer with a real defense, and a harder road for delay appeals. It applies to suits filed on or after January 1, 2026.

Do I have to give notice before entering a unit?

No Texas statute requires it; your lease is the entire rulebook. Put an entry clause in writing (24 hours is the market norm), because without one you have neither clear rights nor clear limits.

Written as general information for Texas rental owners; it isn't legal advice, and chapter 92 has exceptions a summary can't hold. Confirm current statutory text, especially the SB 38 procedures new in 2026, with the Texas statutes site or a Texas landlord-tenant attorney before relying on it.