How to Evict a Tenant in Texas: Laws, Process, and Timeline
Texas Eviction Timeline 2026: The Appeal Rules Changed January 1
Texas Property Code Chapter 24 (Forcible Entry and Detainer) runs a short, statute-driven eviction — a 3-day default notice, a justice-court trial that must land 10 to 21 days after filing, and, since Senate Bill 38 took effect January 1, 2026, a stricter appeal. This page covers that lawsuit: notice, filing, the hearing, the writ. Deposits, repair rights, and disclosures are on our Texas landlord-tenant law guide.
Grounds and Notice Periods
| Ground | Notice Period | Statute | Curable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-payment of rent | 3 days, unless the written lease sets a shorter or longer period | Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(a) | Yes when possession is being ended solely for nonpayment and the tenant wasn’t late before the month of the notice — the notice must be a notice to pay rent or vacate. For a tenant with an earlier late payment, the landlord may use either that form or a plain notice to vacate. |
| Lease violation | 3 days, unless the written lease sets a shorter or longer period | § 24.005(a) | No statutory cure step; only if the lease gives one |
| No-cause, month-to-month | The later of the date in the notice or one month after the notice is given (a shorter rent-paying period means a shorter notice), unless a signed agreement sets a different period | § 91.001 | N/A |
| Holdover after lease expiration | 3 days’ notice to vacate, plus the § 91.001 termination rules | § 24.005(a) | N/A |
The notice can go by mail (first class, certified, registered, or a delivery service), inside the unit in a conspicuous place, by hand to any tenant 16 or older, or by email if the parties agreed to that in writing (§ 24.005(f-3)). Where a federal law or rule requires a longer notice before the tenant must vacate, the landlord can still file after the Texas notice runs, but the writ of possession can’t be served until the time between that notice and service of the writ at least equals the federal period (§ 24.005(c-1)).
The Court Process
- File. Once the notice period runs, the landlord files a sworn petition in the justice court for the precinct where the property sits (§§ 24.0041, 24.00505).
- Serve. The sheriff or constable has to make a diligent effort to serve the citation and petition within 5 business days of filing (§ 24.0051(f)). For suits filed since January 1, 2026, the trial can’t be held earlier than the 4th day after the tenant is served (§ 24.0051(g)(2); Tex. R. Civ. P. 510.15(b)).
- Trial. Set no earlier than the 10th day and no later than the 21st day after filing, decided by the justice of the peace, and not postponed more than 7 days unless both sides agree in writing (§ 24.0051(g)). A trial isn’t guaranteed, though: the landlord may file a sworn motion for summary disposition with the petition, and if it shows no genuinely disputed facts, the court may enter judgment without a trial unless the tenant files a response with supporting facts and documents by the 4th day after being served and the court finds a genuine dispute (§ 24.005106(a)). A later response can still be considered if it is filed before judgment and shows a genuine dispute (§ 24.005106(b)(2)).
- Judgment, and an appeal process that looks nothing like it did a year ago. Winning gets the landlord a judgment for possession. The tenant’s clock to appeal is still 5 days after the judgment is signed — untouched by the change. Everything past that deadline isn’t. A notice of appeal alone doesn’t do it: the appeal is perfected only when a bond, a cash deposit, or a statement of inability to afford payment of court costs is filed with the justice court by that fifth day (§ 24.005107(a)). A tenant using the statement must swear it before the justice court clerk or a notary and list the income, savings, property, debts and dependents § 24.0052(a) requires; if the landlord contests it within 5 days after it’s filed, the tenant has to prove the inability at a hearing (§ 24.0052(d)), and once the justice court approves it, the tenant doesn’t pay the county court filing fee (§ 24.0052(e)). In a nonpayment case, a bond from anyone other than a licensed corporate surety can be contested by the landlord within 5 days after it’s filed, and the justice court hears the contest within 5 days after that (§ 24.00512(b)–(c)). If the court disapproves the bond, the tenant has 5 days to make a cash deposit, file a sworn statement of inability to pay, or appeal that ruling to county court. Doing none of the three makes the judgment final, and the writ of possession then issues (§ 24.00512(e)). For a petition filed on or after January 1, 2026, Senate Bill 38 also makes a tenant who appeals affirm, under penalty of perjury, two things: a good-faith belief that they have a meritorious defense, and that the appeal isn’t for delay (§ 24.005107(a)). Staying in the unit during the appeal now costs something too. When the appeal is filed, the justice court must give the tenant a written notice of the rent amount, whether it must be paid in cash, cashier’s check or money order and to whom, and the date it’s due (§ 24.0053(a-1)); one rental period’s rent has to go into the justice court registry within 5 days of filing the appeal, and each period’s rent after that on or before the beginning of that period, into the registry of whichever court has the case (§ 24.0053(a-2)). If the tenant fails to pay as required and the justice court gave that notice, the court, on request, must immediately issue a writ of possession without a hearing (§ 24.0054(a)); the case still goes to county court for a trial de novo on remaining issues such as rent or attorney’s fees (§ 24.0054(a-2)). On the other side of the ledger, the county court owes the case a trial within 21 days after the transcript and case papers reach it (§ 24.005107(c)). And the dividing line runs on the original petition’s filing date, not the appeal’s — an eviction suit that started before 2026 plays by the old rules start to finish (S.B. 38, Section 17).
- Writ of possession. If no appeal is filed, the landlord requests a writ once the 5-day window closes. § 24.0061 sets a floor of its own: the writ can’t issue before the 6th day after judgment unless a possession bond is approved, and once issued, a sheriff or constable must serve it within 5 business days.
- The 24-hour posted warning and execution. The officer executing the writ posts a written warning on the exterior of the front door stating the writ has been issued and the date and time it will be executed, which can’t be sooner than 24 hours after posting — a mandatory floor, not a target.
- Constable lockout. The officer removes the tenant and belongings once that window passes, placing the property outside but not blocking a sidewalk or street, and not while it is raining, sleeting, or snowing (§ 24.0061(d)(2)(D)).
What This Costs
Confirm the current filing fee, and the sheriff’s or constable’s fee for serving the citation, with the justice court clerk before filing.
What a Landlord Cannot Do
§ 92.0081(b) bars a landlord from keeping a tenant out except by judicial process, with three exceptions: bona fide repairs, construction, or an emergency; removing the contents of abandoned premises; and changing the locks on a tenant who is delinquent in rent. That last one needs every condition in § 92.0081(d): the lease reserves the right to change the locks for late rent, the tenant is actually delinquent in paying all or part of the rent at the time, and a written advance notice went out — locally mailed at least 5 calendar days, or hand-delivered or posted inside the main entry door at least 3 calendar days, before the change. That notice must state the earliest date the locks may be changed, the amount of rent that has to be paid to prevent it, 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, and — in bold or underlined print — the tenant’s right to a key to the new lock at any hour, whether or not the rent is paid. The change can’t happen on a day, or the day before a day, when that person isn’t available or the on-site office isn’t open to take the rent (§ 92.0081(e)), never while anyone is inside, and no more than once per rental period (§ 92.0081(k)). The landlord must hand over a new key at any hour whether or not any rent is paid, with a door notice giving a 24-hour pickup location or a 24-hour phone number that gets a key delivered within two hours. Without that lease provision, keeping the tenant out takes judicial process (§ 92.0081(b)). Utility cutoffs are barred for service the tenant pays the utility for directly and for water, wastewater, gas, or electric service the landlord furnishes, except for bona fide repairs, construction, or an emergency — with a narrow statutory procedure for a landlord who submeters or allocates electricity and bills the tenant for it (§ 92.008). Seizing a tenant’s belongings for unpaid rent is not flatly barred: § 54.044 allows it only for nonexempt property, only if a written lease authorizes it, and only without a breach of the peace; the landlord must leave an itemized list and notice, and a sale needs its own lease authorization and 30 days’ notice (§ 54.045).
Retaliation is barred under § 92.331 for six months after a tenant in good faith exercises a legal right, gives a repair notice, complains to a code-enforcement agency or utility, or joins or forms a tenant organization. Within that window the landlord can’t file an eviction, cut services, raise rent, or end the lease in response — but § 92.332 lists evictions that never count as retaliation, starting with a tenant who is delinquent in rent when the notice to vacate is given or the suit is filed.
§ 92.016 gives a family-violence victim a way out mid-lease that none of the above touches: a qualifying protective order, or documentation of the violence from a licensed health care or mental health provider who examined the victim or from a family-violence advocate, backs a written notice ending the tenancy 30 days later. If the violence was committed by a cotenant or occupant, the tenant can use the same route — any of those documents except a temporary ex parte order — without giving that written 30-day notice. Delinquent rent and other sums owed before termination stay owed (§ 92.016(d)) — unless the lease leaves out the statutory sentence telling tenants they may have special rights to end the lease early in family-violence situations, in which case the tenant is released from that past-due rent too.
Frequently Asked Questions
What changed about Texas eviction appeals in 2026? For petitions filed 2026-01-01 onward, Senate Bill 38 added the sworn good-faith affirmation and the 21-day county-court trial deadline (§ 24.005107, a new section). It didn’t create rent payments during an appeal — it amended § 24.0053. Before 2026, that section reached only eviction cases for nonpayment of rent: a tenant who appealed on a pauper’s affidavit paid an initial deposit within 5 days of filing it and then the rent as it became due, and a tenant who appealed with a bond paid one rental period’s rent within 5 days of filing the bond. Now it covers every tenant who appeals a residential eviction judgment, whatever the ground: one rental period’s rent within 5 days of filing the appeal, then each period’s rent on or before the beginning of that period (§ 24.0053(a-2)). If there is no rental agreement, the court sets the rental pay period and a rent that is the greater of $250 or the fair market rent, if the court determines one (§ 24.0053(a)). The 5-day filing window itself didn’t change.
Does the tenant have a right to cure a 3-day non-payment notice in Texas? It depends on the tenant’s payment history. When the tenancy is being ended solely for nonpayment and the tenant wasn’t late before the month the notice is given, § 24.005(a) requires the notice to take the form of a notice to pay rent or vacate. Only for a tenant with an earlier late payment may the landlord skip the pay-rent option and send a plain notice to vacate.
Can a Texas landlord change the locks for unpaid rent without going to court? Only if the lease specifically authorizes it, the tenant is actually behind on all or part of the rent, and the advance written notice described above has been given — and the new key has to be available at any hour, whether or not the tenant pays anything. Without that lease clause, a lock change needs a court order.