Lease Violations in Texas: What a Landlord Can Actually Do

The call usually starts the same way: "they have a dog that was never on the lease" or "there are two extra people living there" or "rent is fifteen days late and they stopped answering." The landlord is angry, and angry landlords reach for fast moves. In Texas, the fast moves are the expensive ones. Here is the actual menu of options the law gives you, in the order we run them.

First, Name the Violation Honestly

Lease violations sort into two piles, and the pile decides the play. Curable violations are the ones the tenant can fix: the unauthorized pet, the extra occupant, the trailer parked in the yard, the late fee that never got paid. Material breaches are the ones that end tenancies: chronic nonpayment, property damage beyond wear, illegal activity, a sublet you never approved.

The mistake we see self-managing landlords make is treating a curable violation like a hanging offense, or a serious one like a conversation. A one-time unauthorized pet is a cure letter. Rent that has been late four of the last six months is a pattern, and patterns are what the eviction statute is built for.

Step One Is Always Paper

Before any notice goes out: what does your lease actually say? The lease is the rulebook the court will read. Texas fills in defaults, but on entry, notice periods, fees, and cure rights, the written lease governs. If the violation is not actually prohibited in your lease, you do not have a violation, you have a lesson for the next lease.

Then document. Dates, photos, the text messages, the ledger. Every option below runs on this file. A judge does not weigh what you know, only what you can show. This is the same discipline that decides deposit disputes at move-out: the record wins, the memory loses.

The Cure Notice

For fixable violations, a written notice that names the violation, cites the lease paragraph, gives a specific deadline to cure, and states what happens if it does not cure. Send it in a way you can prove. Most violations end here, because most tenants fix what gets named specifically and in writing. The cure notice also builds the record: if you end up in court over a repeat violation, the file shows a landlord who gave a fair chance, and courts notice.

Nonpayment: The Notice Has a Form Requirement

Nonpayment is its own lane with a nuance that trips people. Under §24.005, if you are terminating solely for nonpayment and the tenant was not delinquent in a prior month, your notice must be a notice to pay rent or vacate, not a bare notice to vacate. If they have been late before, either form works. Serve the wrong form and a contested case can stumble on the notice itself before the merits ever come up.

Late fees have their own statute too. Under §92.019 a late fee must be in the written lease, must be reasonable, and cannot be charged until the rent has sat unpaid two full days past the due date. On a single-family home or anything up to four units, 12 percent of the monthly rent is the safe-harbor ceiling.

The Notice to Vacate and the Courthouse

When the violation will not cure, the sequence is fixed: written notice to vacate, default of at least 3 days under §24.005 unless your lease sets a different period, then a forcible detainer filing in the justice of the peace court, hearing, judgment, writ of possession. Since SB 38 took effect January 1, 2026, delivery of the notice must use one of four lawful methods: mail, delivery to a conspicuous place inside the premises, hand delivery to any tenant 16 or older, or email if the lease agreed to electronic notice in writing. We still send certified mail on every one, because the paper trail is the point.

What You Cannot Do, No Matter How Right You Are

Self-help eviction is illegal in Texas. Full stop. Moving their belongings out, removing doors or appliances to force the issue, shutting off utilities: each is a statutory violation with penalties that flow to the tenant.

Lockouts deserve their own warning because the statute is a trap for the confident. Texas does allow changing the locks on a delinquent tenant under §92.0081, but you must post a written notice on the front door with a 24-hour way to get the new key, and you must hand over that key whether or not a dime of rent has been paid. A lockout in Texas is an inconvenience you are allowed to impose, not a remedy. Done wrong, it hands the tenant statutory penalties and your attorney a bad weekend. Our default posture on every enforcement: go through the JP court, do not freelance.

The Version Where This Is Not Your Problem

Every option above is a process with deadlines, form requirements, and a courtroom at the end of it. This is a large part of what a Tarrant County property management team is actually for: the violation gets named, papered, and walked through the statute by people who do it weekly, and the owner hears about it as a status update instead of living it. If you are weighing whether to keep enforcing leases yourself or hand the whole operation off, the honest math is what an eviction done wrong costs against what management costs.

And if a violation just landed in your lap and you want a second opinion before you send anything, text us what happened. We would rather talk you out of a bad notice for free than watch a good case die on a form requirement.

Andrew Chavis · Century 21 Alliance Properties · License #0845090 · IABS Notice · Consumer Protection Notice. Statute summaries sourced from the Texas Property Code as published at statutes.capitol.texas.gov; consult an attorney for legal questions. View sources and disclaimers.