A commercial lease attorney in Austin maps a tenant default by sequence, because Texas Property Code Chapter 93 gives each side moves that expire. A locked-out tenant can seek a writ of reentry in justice court, a commercial security deposit is due back within 60 days of surrender, a landlord can’t charge fees the lease never mentioned, and a landlord must try to re-lease abandoned space. Here’s a default from the missed payment through the lawsuit.
This guide follows a commercial default from the missed payment through the lawsuit, and flags where the lease itself overrides the statute.
The Missed Payment, and What the Lease Says Next
A commercial lease attorney in Austin starts with the notice and cure language. Commercial leases vary wildly here, and Chapter 93 supplies no default cure period. Section 93.012 does supply one check on charges. A landlord may not assess a charge other than rent or physical damage to the premises. The exception requires the lease, an exhibit, an attachment, or an amendment to state the amount or the method of computing it.
That rule catches more fees than people expect. Administrative fees, relet fees, and legal-cost charges invented after the fact fail that test. Only what the lease provided for survives.
The Lockout, and the Notice That Has to Go on the Door
Section 93.002 governs exclusion. Utilities may not be interrupted except for bona fide repairs, construction, or an emergency. Doors, windows, locks, hinges, and landlord-furnished fixtures stay put outside of prompt repair or replacement. Exclusion generally requires judicial process. Narrow exceptions include changing the locks of a rent-delinquent tenant.
Where a landlord does change the locks, subsection (f) requires written notice on the front door. The notice must name the individual or company holding a new key, with an address or telephone number. The key must be provided during the tenant’s regular business hours, and only where the tenant pays the delinquent rent. A wrongly excluded tenant may recover possession or terminate the lease. Damages follow: actual damages, one month’s rent or $500 — whichever is greater — reasonable attorney’s fees, and court costs.
The Writ of Reentry a Commercial Lease Attorney in Austin Files First
Section 93.003 is the fastest remedy in the chapter, and many tenants never learn it exists. A commercial tenant locked out in violation of Section 93.002 may file a sworn complaint in justice court. The request is for a writ of reentry. The court may issue the writ ex parte, based on the sworn complaint alone.
The landlord’s counter is a request for a hearing, which the court must hold between the first and seventh day after the request. A landlord who violates the writ faces contempt. The statute cuts both ways. A tenant who obtains a writ in bad faith owes the landlord one month’s rent or $500, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees.
The Commercial Landlord’s Lien on What Is Inside
Property Code Section 54.021 gives a landlord who leases a building for nonresidential use a preference lien on the tenant’s property in that building. It secures rent due, plus rent coming due during the current twelve-month period. That period runs from the rental agreement’s start date or an anniversary of it.
Equipment, inventory, and fixtures left behind are therefore not simply abandoned property. Section 93.002(e) separately governs removal and storage of an abandoned tenant’s contents. It requires certified-mail notice and permits disposal after sixty days.
The Commercial Security Deposit Runs on Sixty Days
Commercial deposits follow different rules from residential ones, and the difference surprises tenants. Under Section 93.004, a deposit is an advance of money intended primarily to secure performance. Rental application deposits and advance rent do not count. The landlord then has until the sixtieth day after surrender, measured from a forwarding address given under Section 93.009.
Deductions for damages and charges the tenant owes are allowed under Section 93.006. Retention for normal wear and tear is not. An itemized written list is required unless rent is owed with no controversy about the amount. Penalties live in Section 93.011. 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. Bad faith is presumed after sixty days.
The Clause That Cancels Most of the Above
Section 93.002(h) is one sentence long and it reorganizes the whole analysis. A lease supersedes this section to the extent of any conflict. Unlike the residential chapter, the commercial lockout and utility protections are waivable, and institutional landlord forms routinely waive them.
So the statute is a default, not a floor. Reading Chapter 93 without reading the lease produces the wrong answer more often than not.
Mitigation Is the Tenant’s Best Damages Argument
Section 91.006(a) imposes a duty to mitigate damages where a tenant abandons the premises in violation of the lease. Subsection (b) voids any lease provision waiving it. The Texas Supreme Court applied that duty to a commercial office lease in Austin Hill Country Realty, Inc. v. Palisades Plaza, Inc., decided in 1997.
Mitigation does not reduce liability. What it reduces is the number. A landlord who left the space dark for two years while a comparable tenant waited in the wings has a damages problem, and that is usually where a defended case actually turns.
The Guaranty, and the Renewal Problem
Business and Commerce Code Section 26.01(b)(2) requires a promise to answer for another’s debt to be in writing and signed. Subsection (b)(5) requires the same for a lease with a term longer than a year. Once signed, a guaranty is enforced on its terms. Texas treats it as a guaranty of payment absent contrary language. The landlord need not pursue the business first.
The recurring fight is scope. Texas recognizes continuing guaranties covering future indebtedness, and the Texas Supreme Court enforced one in Reece v. First State Bank of Denton in 1978. Strict construction limits how far a guaranty stretches. It does not rewrite text plainly covering renewals, expansions, and amendments. Arizona guaranties raise the same questions, as our guide to the Arizona commercial lease personal guaranty explains.
What a Commercial Lease Attorney in Austin Negotiates Before Signing
Four provisions do most of the work, and each is far cheaper to obtain at signing. A cap on guaranty exposure stated in months of rent. A burn-off that releases the guarantor after a defined stretch of on-time payments. A release on assignment to a qualified successor. And an express limit to the original term, so a renewal the guarantor never signs does not carry forward.
Two more are worth asking about. Whether the lease waives Chapter 93 protections, and whether the charge provisions satisfy Section 93.012.
Where the Case Is Heard, and How Long You Have
Suit on a lease or a guaranty is suit on a debt, and Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.004(a)(3) allows four years from accrual. Travis County has twelve civil district courts. The Texas Business Court’s Third Division sits in Austin. Government Code Section 25A.004 sets its thresholds at $5 million for governance and internal-affairs disputes. Qualified transactions and certain contracts require $10 million. Ordinary lease disputes stay in district court.
The Bottom Line
Chapter 93 reads like a set of tenant protections and functions like a set of defaults. The lockout rules, the utility rules, and most of the rest yield to a conflicting lease. So the document signed months earlier decides the fight. What the lease cannot waive is the duty to mitigate, and what it cannot create is a charge it never described. A tenant heading into default has more moves in the first week than in the third. A writ of reentry is one of the few that runs on the landlord’s timeline instead of the tenant’s.
Frequently asked questions
File a sworn complaint in justice court under Property Code Section 93.003 and request a writ of reentry, which the court may issue ex parte. The landlord may request a hearing, held between the first and seventh day after the request.
By the sixtieth day after the tenant surrenders and provides a forwarding address, under Sections 93.005 and 93.009. Bad-faith retention costs $100, three times the amount wrongfully withheld, and the tenant’s attorney’s fees.
No. Section 93.012 bars assessing any charge other than rent or physical damage to the premises unless the lease or an attachment states the amount or the method of computing it.
Yes. Property Code Section 91.006 imposes a duty to mitigate damages where a tenant abandons the premises in violation of the lease, and voids any lease provision purporting to waive it.
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This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Commercial tenancy protections under Chapter 93 can be superseded by the lease, so outcomes depend heavily on the document the parties signed. Anyone facing a commercial lease dispute should consult a licensed Texas attorney.
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