Texas Renters Rights: What Your Landlord Can & Cannot Do

Key Takeaways

Your lease matters more in Texas than in most states. Read it before anything else.
A wrongful lockout costs your landlord one month’s rent plus $1,000, plus damages and fees.
So does a utility shutoff. Same penalty.
Locks and a door viewer must be fitted at their expense, without you asking. Almost nobody checks.
Be current on rent when you report a repair, or you lose the remedy. This is the Texas trap.
Late fees are capped at 12% of rent on small properties, 10% on larger ones.
Deposit withheld in bad faith? $100 plus three times the amount, plus attorney’s fees.

What this guide covers

Your rights under Texas law
What a landlord cannot do in Texas
The Texas right nobody uses: security devices
Repairs and the procedure that protects them
Your security deposit
Privacy, entry and peace
Rent, fees and increases
Retaliation protections
If you face eviction
Money the law may owe you
Where to get help
FAQ

Texas has a reputation for being tough on renters. Some of that is fair. There is no rent control, no cap on deposits, no just cause requirement, and evictions move fast.

But the rights you do have here are unusually well armed. Several come with cash penalties attached, and a few are stronger than what renters get in states with much friendlier reputations.

The problem is that almost nobody knows about them. So let’s go through the list.

Your Rights Under Texas Law

Chapter 92, and why your lease matters more here

Most of your rights live in Chapter 92 of the Texas Property Code. Repairs, deposits, locks, utilities, late fees, retaliation.

But here is the Texas-specific thing to understand. Your lease carries more weight in this state than in most. It can shorten your eviction notice period, sometimes to a single day. It sets your late fee. It can add conditions on your deposit.

Some rights cannot be signed away, and we will flag those. But “check your lease” is genuine advice here, not a throwaway line.

Quick reference: your rights and your moves

Situation	Your right	Statute	Your move
Locked out	A key on request, at any hour	92.0081	Demand a key in writing. Claim 1 month’s rent + $1,000.
Utilities cut off	No shutoff to force you out	92.008	1 month’s rent + $1,000, damages, fees
No deadbolt or door viewer	Must be fitted without you asking	92.153	Ask in writing if any are missing. Their cost.
Repairs ignored	Health and safety conditions fixed	92.052	Be current when you give notice, in writing
Still not fixed after notice	Court order plus a penalty	92.0563	Sue for 1 month’s rent + $500, plus damages
Emergency, no water or sewage	Narrow repair-and-deduct right	92.0561	Capped at 1 month’s rent or $500, whichever is greater
Big late fee	Must be in lease, only after 2 days	92.019	Claim $100 + 3x the fee + attorney’s fees
Deposit not returned	30 days to refund or itemise	92.103, 92.109	$100 + 3x withheld + fees. Bad faith is presumed.
Punished for complaining	6 months of protection	92.331	Raise as a defense with dated written proof

What a Landlord Cannot Do in Texas

Lock you out without offering a key

Texas is unusual. Most states ban lock changes outright. Texas permits them narrowly, then attaches a strong protection.

Your landlord may only change the locks over unpaid rent if all three of these are true: the right is written in your lease, you are actually behind on rent, and they gave you advance written notice. The notice they post must state, in bold or underlined text, that you can get a key.

And then the rule that matters: they must give you a key on request, at any hour, whether or not you pay what you owe.

Refuse you a key and they can owe one month’s rent plus $1,000, plus your actual damages, court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. A violation of the key requirement can add another month’s rent.

One honest caveat: the statute deducts any rent or other sums you owe. Since a lawful lock change happens because you are behind, expect the arrears to come off what you actually recover.

So if you are locked out: ask for the key in writing, keep the reply, photograph the notice, and call legal aid the same day.

Shut off your utilities

Your landlord cannot cut your utilities to pressure you out. That holds whether you pay the utility company yourself or they supply it. Real repairs, construction and emergencies are different.

Break that and you can recover possession or end the lease, plus actual damages, one month’s rent plus $1,000, attorney’s fees and court costs, less any rent you owe. A lease clause trying to waive this is void.

Retaliate against you

Your landlord cannot evict you, raise your rent, cut services, or end your lease as payback for exercising a legal right in good faith. The protected window is six months. More below.

Ignore health and safety repairs

Your landlord must fix conditions that materially affect your health and safety. Fail to, after proper notice, and a court can order the repair, cut your rent, and award one month’s rent plus $500 as a civil penalty plus your actual damages and fees.

Take your property or evict without a court

Your landlord cannot simply put your belongings outside. Only a sheriff or constable acting on a writ of possession can remove you and your things, after a judgment.

Discriminate against you

Fair housing law bans discrimination based on race, colour, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability. That covers refusing to rent to you, offering you worse terms, and turning down a reasonable accommodation for a disability.

The Texas Right Nobody Uses: Security Devices

This one is free, and almost no renter asks for it

Texas law requires your landlord to equip your home with specific security devices at their expense, without you even having to ask. The list includes:

A window latch on each exterior window
A doorknob lock or keyed deadbolt on each exterior door
A keyless bolting device on each exterior door, the kind you can secure from inside without a key
A door viewer (peephole) on each exterior door
A pin lock and a handle latch or security bar on each exterior sliding glass door

They must be working the whole time you live there.

There are some exceptions. A few involve keyless bolting devices in housing aimed at people aged 55 and over, or people with disabilities. Others cover French doors, and cases where one exterior door already has both a keyed deadbolt and a keyless bolting device. If something on the list is missing from your home, ask in writing and see what they say.

If your place is missing any of these, ask in writing. It costs you nothing and it is one of the most useful rights Texas gives renters.

Repairs: Your Rights and the Procedure That Protects Them

What your landlord must fix

Your landlord must repair conditions that materially affect the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant. Sewage problems, no water, no heat in cold weather, dangerous wiring, serious pest infestations, structural hazards.

Note the standard. It is health and safety, not everything you would like fixed. A broken dishwasher is annoying. It is not usually a health and safety condition.

The written notice and rent-current rules

The Texas repair trap. This is the one that catches renters out.

Texas repair rights are real, but they come with a strict condition that most people do not know about.

Your rent must be current at the time you give notice. If you are already behind when you complain, you generally lose the repair remedies.

So the instinct to stop paying rent until it gets fixed does the opposite of what you want. It does not pressure your landlord. It removes your legal protection and gives them grounds to evict you.

Keep paying. Then use the process below.

The correct route:

Put the request in writing and keep a copy. If your lease requires written notice, it must be in writing to count.
Make sure your rent is current on the day you give notice. This is the condition people fail.
Give a reasonable time for the repair. What is reasonable depends on the problem; no heat in winter is not a month.
Send a second notice if nothing happens. Some remedies require it.
Photograph everything, with dates, and call your city code enforcement office for an inspection.
Then go to court if needed, where a judge can order the repair, reduce your rent, and award one month’s rent plus $500.

Repair-and-deduct in Texas: allowed, but narrow

Texas does allow repair-and-deduct. But the conditions are tight and getting them wrong invites eviction.

You generally need all of this. Your landlord has a duty to repair and has not waived it in writing. You gave proper notice, including written notice that you intend to repair. And the problem is on a short list. That list includes raw sewage backing up inside, a total loss of drinkable water, heating or cooling that a housing official says is inadequate, or a health and safety threat confirmed by a local official.

The cap is one month’s rent or $500, whichever is greater, in any one month. If your rent is subsidised, the cap is based on the fair market rent rather than your share.

Honestly? Do not attempt this without advice. Get legal aid on the phone first. Done wrong it turns you into a tenant who did not pay full rent.

Terminating over unrepaired conditions

Where a landlord fails to repair a serious condition after proper notice, ending the lease is one of the available remedies. The procedure matters, so get advice before you give notice and move.

Struggling to keep rent current while you push for repairs?

A free two-minute check shows which Texas programs may be able to help. No cost, no credit card.

Check My Eligibility Free

Your Security Deposit

The 30-day rule

Your landlord must refund your deposit within 30 days of you surrendering the property. If they keep any of it, they must give you a written itemised list of the deductions.

One condition: their obligation does not kick in until you give them a written forwarding address. So send one, in a way you can prove. That said, failing to send one does not forfeit your right to the deposit.

Texas has no cap on deposit amounts for ordinary private rentals, unlike many states. Public and subsidised housing is different, so ask your housing authority if that is you.

The penalty that makes this worth chasing

A landlord who acts in bad faith owes $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus your reasonable attorney’s fees.

And here is the lever: bad faith is presumed if they fail to refund or itemise by the 30th day. The burden then sits on your landlord to prove the retention was reasonable, not on you to prove it was not.

Full detail, including the lease traps, is in our Texas security deposit law guide.

Privacy, Entry and Peace

Texas has no general statute setting how much notice a landlord must give before entering. This surprises renters who have lived in other states.

So your lease is the main source here, and most leases do address entry. Read yours and hold your landlord to it.

What you do have is the right to quiet enjoyment of your home, and the protections above against lockouts, utility shutoffs and harassment. Repeated entry designed to drive you out can also feed into a retaliation claim.

If entry is a problem, put your objection in writing and keep a log of dates and times.

Rent, Fees and Increases

No rent control

Texas law bars cities from imposing rent control, so in practice there is no limit on how much your rent can rise at renewal. The one narrow exception is a disaster-driven housing emergency, and even then the Governor has to approve it.

During a fixed lease term the rent in your lease stands. For month-to-month, your landlord must give whatever notice your lease and the law require.

If a big increase is coming, treat that as your cue to start looking early rather than waiting to see whether you can absorb it.

Late fee rules

A late fee must be written into your lease, and it cannot be charged until rent has been unpaid for two full days after the due date.

The law sets reasonableness safe harbours: up to 12% of the rent for properties with four units or fewer, and up to 10% for larger properties.

Charge an unlawful fee and your landlord can owe $100 plus three times the fee collected plus attorney’s fees. So on $1,200 rent in an apartment complex, a $120 fee is within the safe harbour and a $250 fee is worth challenging in writing.

Retaliation Protections

The 6-month window

Your landlord cannot retaliate for six months after you exercise a right in good faith. Protected actions include:

Exercising a right given by your lease, a local ordinance, or state or federal law
Giving notice to repair or seeking a repair remedy
Complaining in good faith to a government agency, a utility, or a civic organisation about code violations or utility problems
Establishing, trying to establish, or joining a tenant organisation

Banned retaliation covers a lot. Filing to evict you. Cutting your services. Stopping you using the property. Raising your rent. Ending your lease. Or bad-faith conduct that gets in the way of your rights.

It is a defense you raise, not something that stops a case by itself. Which is exactly why every complaint should be written and dated. A text message with a date is evidence. A conversation is not.

If You Face Eviction

The basics, and what changed

Texas eviction starts with a notice to vacate, three days by default but your lease can make it shorter. Then a suit in JP court, a trial 10 to 21 days after filing, a judgment, a five-day appeal window, and a writ of possession with a 24-hour warning.

Two things worth knowing about the January 2026 changes. A notice posted on the outside of your front door is no longer a permitted delivery method. And the new no-trial fast track you may have read about, summary disposition, applies to squatter-type cases and not to tenants. Counterclaims are not heard in JP eviction cases, but that has been true for years.

Our guides go deeper: eviction notice Texas, Texas eviction laws, how to stop eviction in Texas, and how to fight eviction in Texas.

Rental assistance when the problem is unpaid rent

If the real issue is money, rights only take you so far. Programs pay your landlord directly, which clears the arrears and removes the reason for the case. It also keeps your rent current, which protects your repair rights.

Dial 211, or check your eligibility for Texas rental assistance programs in about two minutes.

Money the Law May Owe You

Texas renters tend to read Chapter 92 as a list of things that happen to them. Several of these are routes to cash.

Wrongful lockout: one month’s rent plus $1,000, plus actual damages, court costs and attorney’s fees. Another month’s rent for refusing a key.
Utility shutoff: one month’s rent plus $1,000, plus actual damages and fees, and you can recover possession or end the lease.
Deposit withheld in bad faith: $100 plus three times the wrongfully withheld amount plus attorney’s fees, with bad faith presumed after 30 days.
Unlawful late fee: $100 plus three times the fee collected plus attorney’s fees.
Failure to repair: a court order to fix it, a rent reduction, and a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $500 plus actual damages and fees. A justice court cannot award more than $20,000 on this, excluding interest and costs.

Justice court is the usual venue for these, and it is designed for people without lawyers. The attorney’s fees provisions also make it easier to find one who will take the case.

Where to Get Help

Texas Law Help, the AG, and the Tenants’ Rights Handbook

TexasLawHelp.org has plain-language guides and free forms. The Texas Attorney General publishes a tenant rights page, and the State Bar of Texas produces a Tenants’ Rights Handbook. The Texas State Law Library has reliable statute guides.

Legal aid organisations across the state help low-income renters free, and the Texas Legal Services Center hotline is 855-270-7655. For fair housing complaints, contact the Texas Workforce Commission’s civil rights division or HUD.

Texas rental assistance programs

Dial 211 for Texas 2-1-1. Community Action Agencies cover all 254 counties, and county and city programs plus charities pay landlords directly.

A free eligibility check against 100+ Texas rental assistance programs takes about two minutes, and a real person calls you within 24 hours.

Texas Renters Rights FAQ

What can a landlord not do in Texas?

Quite a lot. They cannot lock you out without giving you a key on request at any hour. They cannot cut off your utilities to force you out. They cannot take your belongings or remove you without a court order and a law enforcement officer. They cannot retaliate within six months of you using a legal right. They cannot ignore health and safety repairs after proper notice. They cannot charge a late fee that is not in your lease, or charge one before rent is two days late. And they cannot discriminate under fair housing law. Most of these carry cash penalties, several of them one month’s rent plus $1,000.

Can I withhold rent for repairs in Texas?

No, and doing so usually backfires badly. Texas repair remedies require your rent to be current at the time you give notice. Fall behind first and you generally lose the protection completely. Worse, you hand your landlord grounds to evict. There is a narrow repair-and-deduct right, capped at one month’s rent or $500, whichever is greater. But it only covers limited situations, such as raw sewage indoors or a total loss of drinkable water. And the notice rules are strict. Keep paying, put requests in writing, call code enforcement, and get legal aid advice.

What security devices must my landlord provide in Texas?

Quite a list, at their expense and without you asking. A window latch on each exterior window. A doorknob lock or keyed deadbolt on each exterior door. A keyless bolting device on each exterior door. A door viewer on each one too. And on each exterior sliding glass door, a pin lock plus a handle latch or security bar. They must all stay working the whole time you live there. Some exceptions apply, including certain housing for people 55 and over or with disabilities, French doors, and doors that already have both a keyed deadbolt and a keyless device. Narrow exceptions apply to keyless bolting devices in some housing for people 55 and over or with disabilities. If anything is missing, request it in writing.

How long does my landlord have to return my deposit in Texas?

Thirty days after you surrender the property, though the obligation does not start until you give a written forwarding address. If they keep any of it, they must send a written itemised list of deductions. Miss that deadline and bad faith is presumed, which shifts the burden onto your landlord to prove the retention was reasonable. A bad-faith landlord owes $100 plus three times the wrongfully withheld amount plus your attorney’s fees, which makes a well-written demand letter very effective.

Can my landlord raise the rent as much as they want in Texas?

At renewal, effectively yes. Texas law bars cities from imposing rent control, with one narrow disaster exception that needs the Governor’s approval, so in practice there is no limit on an increase and no just cause requirement for non-renewal. During a fixed lease term the rent stated in your lease stands, and for a month-to-month tenancy your landlord must give whatever notice the lease and the law require. One exception worth knowing: a rent increase within six months of you exercising a protected right can be challenged as retaliation.