Texas rewrote its eviction statute effective January 1, 2026, and the changes landed on the fastest part of an already fast process. Any landlord tenant lawyer Austin renters or owners call in 2026 works from a different Chapter 24 than the one governing the year before. Senate Bill 38 repealed the old door-posting notice method, compressed service deadlines, and added a summary-disposition track that can end a case before trial.
Deposits and late fees did not change. A landlord tenant lawyer in Austin still sees more claims from those rules than from the eviction statute. Those rules still catch more landlords than the eviction rules do, so they come first here.
Why a Landlord Tenant Lawyer in Austin Starts With the Lockout
Property Code Section 92.0081(b) is blunt. A landlord may not intentionally prevent a tenant from entering the leased premises except by judicial process. Four exceptions exist: bona fide repairs, construction, an emergency, removing the contents of abandoned premises, or changing the locks of a tenant delinquent in rent.
That last exception carries conditions most lockouts fail. Subsection (c) requires a notice posted on the front door. It must give a location where a key is available around the clock, or a phone number staffed around the clock that delivers a key within two hours. It must say the key comes regardless of payment, and must state the delinquent amount. Subsection (d) requires three more things. The lease must grant the right, the delinquency must be real, and advance written notice must go out. Mail it five days ahead, or hand-deliver or post it inside the main entry door three days ahead. A landlord may not lock a tenant out of common areas. Nor may one do it while an occupant is inside, or more than once per rental payment period.
The price of getting it wrong sits in subsection (h). The tenant may recover possession or terminate the lease. On top of that come a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $1,000, actual damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Late Fees Have a Statutory Ceiling
Section 92.019 sets three preconditions. The lease must be written and must give notice of the fee. The fee must be reasonable. And rent must remain unpaid two full days after the due date.
Subsection (a-1) then defines reasonable by number. A late fee is reasonable at or below 12 percent of the rent in a structure with not more than four units. The cap drops to 10 percent in a structure with more than four. A larger fee works only where it stays under the landlord’s uncertain damages from the late payment. An initial fee plus a daily fee counts as one late fee. Overcharging exposes a landlord to $100, three times the late fee collected, and reasonable attorney’s fees.
The Thirty-Day Deposit Clock and the Condition That Starts It
Section 92.103(a) requires the landlord to refund a security deposit on or before the thirtieth day after the tenant surrenders the premises. One condition precedent sits outside that section. Under Section 92.107(a), the tenant must first give a written statement of a forwarding address. Until then, no duty to refund or to describe damages arises.
Subsection (b) keeps that from becoming a forfeiture. A tenant does not lose the right to a refund or a description merely by failing to give the address. Section 92.1041 adds a mailbox rule. Mailing the refund or accounting, postmarked by the required date, creates a presumption that the landlord complied. Section 92.104(b) bars retaining any portion for normal wear and tear. Subsection (c) requires a written description and itemized list of deductions. The exception is narrow: rent owed, with no controversy about the amount.
Bad Faith Carries a Price Tag on Both Sides
A landlord who in bad faith retains a deposit owes $100, three times the portion wrongfully withheld, and the tenant’s reasonable attorney’s fees. That is Section 92.109(a). Subsection (b) is harsher for a missing itemization. A landlord who in bad faith skips the written description forfeits two things. The right to withhold any portion of the deposit, and the right to sue the tenant for damage to the premises. Attorney’s fees follow as well. Subsection (c) puts the burden of proving reasonableness on the landlord. Subsection (d) supplies the presumption: missing the thirtieth day is presumed bad faith.
Tenants face a mirror-image rule. Section 92.108 addresses the tenant who withholds the last month’s rent, assuming the deposit covers it. That tenant is presumed to have acted in bad faith. Liability runs to three times the rent wrongfully withheld plus the landlord’s attorney’s fees. Arizona runs a comparable framework on different numbers, as our guide to Arizona security deposit law lays out.
What an Austin Landlord Tenant Lawyer Watches After SB 38
Notice delivery changed first. Section 24.005(f-3) now lists the permitted methods for a notice to vacate. Mail, including first class, registered, certified, or a delivery service. Delivery to the inside of the premises, in a conspicuous place. Hand delivery to any tenant aged sixteen or older. Or electronic communication, where the parties agreed to it in writing. Subsection (f-4) excuses the method requirement where the tenant actually receives the notice.
Old subsections (f) and (f-1), which permitted posting on the outside of the door, were repealed outright. A landlord still posting notices to the exterior door in 2026 is using a method the statute no longer recognizes.
Service and trial deadlines tightened too. Section 24.0051(f) directs the sheriff or constable to make a diligent effort at service. The deadline is the fifth business day after filing. Subsection (g) sets trial between the tenth and twenty-first day after filing. It may never fall earlier than the fourth day after service. Postponements are capped at seven days absent written agreement.
Summary Disposition: Four Days to Respond
Section 24.005106 is the genuinely new mechanism. A landlord may file a sworn motion for summary disposition along with the petition. The court may then enter judgment for the landlord without a trial. The tenant stops that by filing a response with supporting facts and any applicable documents. That response is due on the fourth day after service. The court must also find service proper and the facts genuinely disputed.
A late response is not automatically fatal. The court may consider one that shows a genuine dispute where judgment has not yet been entered. Where disputed facts exist, the case goes to trial on the ordinary ten-to-twenty-one-day schedule. Four days is a short window for a tenant who has never been sued before, and it runs from service rather than from reading the papers.
The Writ, the Appeal, and Rent Into the Registry
Section 24.0061(b) still bars a writ of possession before the sixth day after judgment absent an approved possession bond. Subsection (b-1) is new and firm. Issuance of the writ is a ministerial act not subject to review or delay. The officer must serve it by the fifth business day after issuance. Subsection (d) requires a written warning posted on the exterior of the front door, at least eight and a half by eleven inches. It must say execution will occur no sooner than twenty-four hours later.
Appeals carry their own trap. Section 24.0053 has the justice court set the rent for each pay period during appeal and give the tenant written notice in conspicuous type. Section 24.0054(a) handles a tenant who fails to pay that rent into the registry. On request, the court shall immediately issue a writ of possession, without a hearing. Federal law interacts narrowly here. One federal rule requires a longer notice, the CARES Act thirty-day notice at 15 U.S.C. Section 9058(c), for covered properties. Section 24.005(c-1) lets that delay service of the writ only. Filing and trial proceed.
The Texas Supreme Court rewrote Rule 510 as a standalone rule to match, effective January 1, 2026. Rules 500 through 507 no longer apply to evictions at all. Travis County has five justice of the peace precincts, and all five hear evictions. Where a landlord tenant lawyer Austin clients hire files depends on geography alone. A case is filed in the precinct where the property sits.
What the City of Austin Adds, and the Preemption Question
Austin layers local requirements on top. The Tenant Notification and Relocation Assistance Ordinance, Ordinance No. 20160901-050, sits at Land Development Code Sections 25-1-712 and 25-1-713. It requires notice to tenants in three situations: demolition of a multifamily building of five or more units, rezoning, and redevelopment of a mobile home park. Information about community services and legal assistance goes with the notice.
The Repeat Offender Program dates to 2013. It registers rental properties with repeated code violations, measured against the International Property Maintenance Code. Three triggers exist, each measured over twenty-four months. Two or more notices of violation for dangerous or habitability-impairing conditions, uncorrected in time. Five or more such notices, regardless of correction. Or two or more citations. Owners register within fourteen days of notification. They stay on the list a minimum of two years and submit to annual inspections. An appeal goes in writing within ten days of the mailed notice.
How durable local rules are is a live question. A Travis County district judge declared House Bill 2127, the 2023 state preemption law, unconstitutional in 2023. On July 18, 2025, the Third Court of Appeals reversed on standing grounds without reaching the merits. The statute is in effect. Anything written before that date describing the law as struck down is out of date.
The Bottom Line
Texas eviction law now moves faster than most tenants can organize a response, and the deposit rules still punish landlords who treat the thirtieth day as approximate. The asymmetry is real. A tenant’s four-day summary-disposition window runs from service. A landlord’s exposure for a bad lockout or a missing itemization gets measured in multiples, plus attorney’s fees. Both sides tend to discover the rules after the deadline that mattered. The documents that decide these cases — the lease, the written notice, the forwarding address, the itemized list — are all created before anyone files anything.
Frequently asked questions
On or before the thirtieth day after the tenant surrenders the premises, under Property Code Section 92.103. The duty does not arise until the tenant gives a written forwarding address under Section 92.107.
Section 92.019 treats a fee as reasonable at or below 12 percent of rent in a structure with four units or fewer, and 10 percent in larger structures, once rent is two full days late under a written lease.
Senate Bill 38 rewrote Chapter 24. Posting a notice to vacate on the outside of the door was repealed, service and trial deadlines tightened, and a summary-disposition track now gives a tenant four days after service to respond.
Only under the conditions in Section 92.0081, which include a lease right, advance written notice, and a door notice offering a key around the clock regardless of payment. Violations carry one month’s rent plus $1,000, actual damages, costs, and fees.
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This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Eviction and security deposit rules changed substantially on January 1, 2026, and local ordinances vary. Anyone facing an eviction or a deposit dispute should consult a licensed Texas attorney or a local legal aid organization.
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