{ "_meta": { "dataset": "Landlord Atlas 50-State Landlord-Tenant Law Dataset", "dataset_version": "1.19.0", "published_at": "2026-08-26T14:30:00Z", "license": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/license/", "attribution": "Landlord Atlas (https://landlordatlas.com) — cite by name, link the relevant page, and carry the record's verification date.", "disclaimer": "Landlord Atlas is not a law firm. This dataset provides general information about state landlord-tenant statutes for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Use of this data does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change: rely on the citations and verification dates carried in each record, and confirm against the cited statute before acting.", "schema": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/schema.json", "changelog": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/changelog.json", "version_manifest": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/version.json", "contact": "contact@landlordatlas.com", "state": "Texas", "state_code": "TX", "canonical_page": "https://landlordatlas.com/laws/texas/", "per_state_url": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/states/tx.json" }, "record": { "state": "Texas", "state_code": "TX", "last_verified": "2026-07-07", "verified_by_method": "Web verification against the Texas State Law Library landlord-tenant guides (guides.sll.texas.gov, official state source summarizing Prop. Code ch. 92) and full statute text of Prop. Code §§ 92.019, 92.103, 92.104, 92.107, 92.109 via legal databases; statutes.capitol.texas.gov URLs cited for the official text.", "pending_legislation": [], "security_deposits": { "max_deposit": null, "return_deadline_days": 30, "return_deadline_conditions": "The clock starts when the tenant surrenders the premises, but the refund is not owed until the tenant gives the landlord a written forwarding address. Delay in giving that address does not forfeit the deposit; it simply means the clock has not started.\n\nThe refund is due on or before the 30th day after surrender (Prop. Code § 92.103), and the forwarding-address condition is § 92.107. A lease condition requiring advance notice of surrender is enforceable only if underlined or in conspicuous bold in the lease.", "itemization_required": true, "itemization_rules": "Written description and itemized list of all deductions required when any portion is retained (§ 92.104(c)), unless the tenant owes rent and there is no controversy over the amount. No deduction for normal wear and tear.", "separate_account_required": false, "interest_required": false, "interest_rules": null, "pet_deposit_rules": "No statutory cap or separate category; refundable pet deposits are treated as part of the security deposit subject to the same return and itemization rules.", "nonrefundable_fees_allowed": null, "penalty_for_violation": "A landlord who withholds a deposit in bad faith owes $100 plus three times the portion wrongfully withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees. Bad faith is presumed if the landlord neither refunds nor itemizes within 30 days.\n\nThe damages are set by Prop. Code § 92.109(a) and the presumption by § 92.109(d); the landlord bears the burden of proving the retention was reasonable. A bad-faith failure to itemize separately forfeits the right to withhold anything or to sue for damages.", "tenant_forwarding_address_duty": "Tenant must give a written forwarding address before the refund obligation arises (§ 92.107); right to the refund is not forfeited by delay.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.103", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.104", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.104", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.107", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.107", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.109", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.109", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (d)" }, { "statute": "Texas State Law Library, Security Deposits guide", "url": "https://guides.sll.texas.gov/landlord-tenant-law/security-deposits", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "Texas places no cap on how much a landlord can charge as a security deposit, but the return rules have real teeth: the deposit (less lawful, itemized deductions — never normal wear and tear) is due within 30 days of surrender, once the tenant has provided a written forwarding address. A landlord who misses the 30-day mark is presumed to be acting in bad faith, and bad-faith withholding costs $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus the tenant's attorney's fees. The tenant may not apply the deposit to the last month's rent.", "notes": [ { "label": "No cap at all — the blank field is the finding", "text": "The maximum-deposit answer is empty because no Texas statute caps a residential security deposit. The blank records an absence of law, not a missing number." }, { "label": "The deposit is not the last month's rent", "text": "§ 92.108 prohibits the tenant from withholding the last month's rent against the deposit." } ] }, "rent_increase_notice": { "notice_days_month_to_month": null, "notice_varies_by_increase_size": null, "fixed_term_rules": "Rent is fixed for the lease term unless the lease provides otherwise; increases take effect at renewal.", "rent_control_state": false, "rent_control_details": "Texas has no statewide rent control, and local rent control is effectively prohibited except in narrow disaster circumstances with the governor's approval (Tex. Local Gov't Code § 214.902).", "local_control_preempted": false, "rent_regulation_preemption": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-12", "posture": "not_preempted", "posture_qualifier": "conditional_authorization", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.902", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.214.htm#214.902", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "Texas law allows a city to adopt rent control only in a declared housing emergency caused by a disaster and only with the governor's approval of the ordinance, which must end when the disaster declaration ends." }, "frequency_limits": null, "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.91.htm#91.001", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "Texas has no statute requiring a specific notice period for rent increases; for month-to-month tenancies the practical rule comes from the termination statute — a month-to-month tenancy can be ended with a month's notice, so an increase is effectively a month's-notice proposition the tenant can accept or leave on. There is no rent control anywhere in Texas — a city may adopt it only during a declared housing emergency caused by a disaster, and only with the governor's approval of the ordinance, a pathway no Texas city has ever used.", "notes": [ { "label": "The empty answer is a finding: no rent-increase notice statute exists", "text": "The month-to-month notice field is empty because no Texas statute sets a notice period for rent increases — there is no figure to record, rather than a figure the record is missing." }, { "label": "Where the one-month expectation actually comes from", "text": "The practical month's notice is derived from the termination mechanics of § 91.001 — notice equal to at least one month for a month-to-month tenancy — not from any rent-increase statute." } ] }, "late_fees": { "statutory_cap": "Safe harbor: a late fee is presumptively reasonable up to 12% of monthly rent (structure with 4 or fewer units) or 10% (more than 4 units); higher fees are lawful only if justified as uncertain damages from late payment (§ 92.019(a-1)). Initial + daily fees combine into a single fee for the cap.", "grace_period_days": 2, "must_be_in_lease": true, "daily_fees_allowed": "Yes — an initial fee plus a daily fee per day unpaid, but the combined total is one late fee measured against the reasonableness standard.", "reasonableness_standard": "Fees within the 12%/10% safe harbor are presumed reasonable; above it, the landlord bears the burden of proving the fee tracks uncertain damages including collection costs and overhead.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.019", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.019", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (a-1), (b), (c)" } ], "summary_plain": "Texas allows a residential late fee only if it is in the written lease and rent has remained unpaid for two full days after the due date — rent due on the 1st cannot draw a fee before the 4th. A fee is automatically considered reasonable up to 12% of a month's rent in buildings of four or fewer units, or 10% in larger buildings, counting initial and daily fees together. Charging an unlawful late fee costs the landlord $100 plus three times the fee collected plus the tenant's attorney's fees, and the statute cannot be waived by lease language.", "notes": [ { "label": "Two full days unpaid is a charging precondition, not a grace period", "text": "§ 92.019(a)(3) frames the 'two full days unpaid' rule as a precondition to charging a late fee, not as a grace period granted to the tenant." }, { "label": "Why the record still shows a 2-day grace period", "text": "This page shows the precondition as a 2-day grace period because it functions as a mandatory minimum, even though the statute is written the other way around." } ] }, "entry_notice": { "notice_hours": null, "notice_standard": "No Texas statute requires advance notice before landlord entry; entry rights are governed by the lease.", "permitted_reasons": "Texas law does not enumerate permitted entry reasons. Entry is limited to whatever the lease provides, bounded by the tenant's possessory rights — entry without lease authority can constitute trespass — and by specific statutes on lockouts (§ 92.0081) and smoke-alarm inspection duties.", "emergency_exception": true, "time_of_day_restrictions": null, "citations": [ { "statute": "Texas State Law Library, Landlord-Tenant Law guide", "url": "https://guides.sll.texas.gov/landlord-tenant-law", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.0081", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.0081", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "Texas has no statute requiring landlords to give advance notice before entering a rental unit — entry rights come entirely from the lease. Most Texas leases (including the widely used TAA form) grant entry for repairs and showings with some notice, and a landlord entering without any lease authority risks trespass liability. The one heavily regulated entry-adjacent area is lockouts, which § 92.0081 tightly restricts.", "notes": [ { "label": "The blank means no statute exists, not that data is missing", "text": "The entry-notice answer is empty because no Texas entry-notice statute exists." }, { "label": "'No statutory notice' is not 'unrestricted entry'", "text": "Read that empty answer as the absence of a statutory floor, not as an absence of limits — entry rights are governed by the lease." }, { "label": "Why a topic with no statute still carries citations", "text": "The Texas State Law Library guide is cited because it confirms the absence of an entry-notice statute; § 92.0081 is cited because it covers the adjacent lockout rules." } ] }, "eviction_process": { "topic_verified": "2026-07-21", "notice_nonpayment_days": 3, "notice_nonpayment_rules": "That period is a lease-modifiable default, not a floor: the lease can shorten or lengthen it, and many Texas leases cut it to one day. Since January 1, 2026 a tenant never late before must instead get a notice to pay rent or vacate, and paying inside the window stops the eviction.\n\nProp. Code § 24.005(a): at least three days' written notice to vacate before filing, 'unless the parties have contracted for a shorter or longer notice period in a written lease or agreement' — the 3 days is a lease-modifiable DEFAULT, and Texas leases (including the standard TAA form) routinely shorten it to as little as one day. SB 38 (89th Leg., ch. 960, eff. Jan. 1, 2026) added a limited pay-and-stay rule: a tenant terminated SOLELY for nonpayment who was NOT late or delinquent before the month of the notice must be given a 'notice to pay rent or vacate' (paying within the notice period defeats the eviction); a tenant who was late before may be given either that form or a flat notice to vacate. There is NO statutory right to cure after suit is filed and no post-judgment reinstatement — the only later 'stay' is possession during appeal by perfecting the appeal and paying rent into the court registry (§§ 24.0053, 24.0054). Delivery per § 24.005(f-3): mail (first-class, registered, certified, or delivery service), delivery to a conspicuous place inside the premises, hand delivery to any tenant 16 or older, or (if agreed in writing) e-mail/electronic; actual receipt cures any method defect (f-4). Day counting per § 24.0042 (new, SB 38): calendar days — exclude the trigger day, count weekends and holidays, extend the last day past a Saturday, Sunday, or state/federal holiday.", "notice_lease_violation_days": 3, "notice_lease_violation_rules": "For a lease violation other than nonpayment, Texas gives the tenant no right to cure: the same three days' written notice to vacate applies, and it is unconditional unless the lease itself grants a cure right. The lease can shorten or lengthen the three days.\n\nSame statute, same default: § 24.005(a) requires at least three days' written notice to vacate for a tenant who 'defaults' (any lease violation) or holds over, lease-modifiable in either direction. Texas has NO statutory cure-or-quit ladder — the notice for a lease violation is unconditional unless the lease itself grants a cure right, making Texas an outlier against states with 10/14/30-day cure schemes. A holdover eviction additionally requires compliance with the tenancy-termination notice of § 91.001 (one month for month-to-month). No statutory repeat-violation escalation exists because there is no first-violation cure right to escalate from.", "unconditional_quit_grounds": "In Texas essentially ALL grounds are 'unconditional quit' — no statute gives a tenant a right to cure any violation (the sole statutory cure is the new SB 38 pay-or-vacate notice for first-time nonpayment, § 24.005(a)). There is no separate expedited track for criminal activity or irreparable breach against tenants. Occupants who committed forcible ENTRY (no lease, no colorable claim — squatters) may be given oral or written notice to vacate 'immediately or by a specified deadline' (§ 24.005(d)), and against them the landlord may file a sworn motion for summary disposition with the petition (§ 24.005106, new in 2026): the occupant has 4 days from service to respond, and the court may enter judgment without any trial if no facts are genuinely disputed.", "court_and_action": "The action is an 'eviction suit' — the statutory umbrella for forcible detainer (tenant holding over after termination, § 24.002) and forcible entry and detainer (occupant who entered without authority, § 24.001) — filed in the justice court of the precinct where the property sits (§§ 24.004, 24.0041); justice courts have no jurisdiction over title, counterclaims, or third-party joinder. Procedure is governed exclusively by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 510, completely rewritten effective January 1, 2026 (Supreme Court Misc. Docket Nos. 25-9096/25-9105) to implement SB 38; the general justice-court Rules 500–507 no longer apply to eviction cases, courts may not modify or suspend Rule 510, and § 24.0043 provides that only the legislature may modify or suspend chapter-24 procedures (nullifying local eviction ordinances and judicial moratoria). Either party may demand a jury (3 days before trial); nonlawyer agents may represent parties in justice court (§ 24.011). Appeal is de novo to county court: transcript forwarded between the 6th and 10th day after appeal, county-court trial within 21 days of the papers' delivery (§ 24.005107(b)-(c)).", "filing_to_hearing": "§ 24.0051(g) (SB 38) and Rule 510.8(b)(10): trial must be set not earlier than the 10th day and not later than the 21st day after the petition is filed, and not earlier than the 4th day after the tenant is served; postponements are capped at 7 days absent the parties' written agreement. The constable/sheriff must make a diligent effort to serve the citation within 5 business days of filing, after which the landlord may substitute any trained law-enforcement officer (§ 24.0051(f)). In a summary-disposition (forcible-entry/squatter) case the court may enter judgment without trial once the 4-day response window passes (§ 24.005106). Note the pre-2026 6-day-minimum/10-day-maximum trial window is repealed — the floor is now 10 days.", "writ_and_lockout": "The possession writ is the 'writ of possession.' It may not issue before the 6th day after the judgment for possession is rendered (§ 24.0061(b)); Rule 510.18(g)(1) states it as the LATER of the 6th day after the judgment is signed or the day after the tenant's appeal deadline, and a perfected appeal (with registry rent, where required) blocks issuance. Issuance on demand is 'a ministerial act not subject to review or delay' (§ 24.0061(b-1), new). The officer must serve the writ within 5 business days of issuance or the landlord may substitute another trained officer; execution requires a written warning of at least 8-1/2 by 11 inches posted on the front door stating an execution date/time 'not sooner than 24 hours after the warning is posted' (§ 24.0061(d)(1)), after which the officer delivers possession and removes tenants and property. The writ goes stale: it may not issue more than 60 days (extendable for good cause to 90) nor be executed more than 90 days after judgment (Rule 510.18(g)). Faster path: a landlord who files and serves a possession bond may obtain an immediate writ 7 days after the tenant is served with notice, unless the tenant appeals within that window (§ 24.0061(b), Rule 510.9). CARES-covered properties: § 24.005(c-1) (SB 38) lets the landlord file without waiting out the federal 30-day notice, but the writ may not be SERVED until the time since notice delivery equals the federal period.", "appeal_window_days": 5, "timeline_uncontested": "About three weeks at the statutory minimum for an uncontested nonpayment case — roughly 20 days from notice to an enforceable lockout — though court congestion and service delays extend it.\n\nDerived from the statutory minimums cited on this page, not a promise: a 3-day notice to vacate (calendar days, last day extended past weekends and holidays; leases often shorten it), then the petition is filed and the citation served within about 5 business days, then trial no earlier than the 10th and no later than the 21st day after filing, then judgment, then the 5-day appeal window, then a writ of possession issuing no earlier than the 6th day after judgment, then a 24-hour posted warning, then the lockout. The arithmetic: 3 + 10 + 6 + 1 ≈ 20 days from notice to enforceable lockout; a lease-shortened notice or possession bond can trim a few days, while service delays, the 21-day outer trial limit, jury demands, appeals (de novo in county court with rent paid into the registry), or court congestion extend it.", "self_help_prohibited": true, "self_help_rules": "A Texas landlord may not shut a tenant out of the unit except through judicial process. An unlawful lockout or utility shutoff costs one month's rent plus $1,000, plus actual damages, court costs, and attorney's fees, and the tenant can get back in through an emergency court order.\n\nProp. Code § 92.0081(b): a landlord 'may not intentionally prevent a tenant from entering the leased premises except by judicial process,' with narrow exceptions (bona fide repairs/construction/emergency, removing abandoned contents, and a rent-delinquency lock change). The lock-change exception is NOT an eviction tool: it requires lease authorization plus 3–5 days' advance written notice, and the landlord must hand over the new key on request, 24/7, 'without regard to whether the tenant pays the delinquent rent' (§ 92.0081(f)). Violations let the tenant recover possession or terminate, plus a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $1,000, actual damages, costs, and attorney's fees (§ 92.0081(h)), plus an additional month's rent for refusing the key (i); lease waivers are void (j). Utility interruption is separately barred by § 92.008 (except a tightly regulated submetered-electric nonpayment scheme) with the same one-month's-rent-plus-$1,000 remedy (§ 92.008(f)). Tenants have fast-track remedies: an ex parte writ of reentry after an unlawful lockout (§ 92.009) and a writ of restoration after an unlawful utility shutoff (§ 92.0091), both from the justice court.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.005", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (c-1), (d), (f-3), (f-4)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.0042", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.0042", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.0051", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.0051", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(f), (g)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005106", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.005106", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005107", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.005107", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.0061", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.0061", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (b-1), (d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (f)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.0081", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm#92.0081", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (f), (h)-(j)" }, { "statute": "Tex. R. Civ. P. 510 (eff. Jan. 1, 2026), Sup. Ct. Misc. Docket No. 25-9105", "url": "https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1461822/259105.pdf", "official": true, "pinpoint": "510.8(b)(10), 510.9, 510.18(g), 510.19(a)" } ], "summary_plain": "Texas evictions start with a written notice to vacate whose statutory default is three days — but the lease can shorten or lengthen that period, and many standard leases cut it to 24 hours. Since January 1, 2026 (Senate Bill 38, the biggest rewrite of Texas eviction law in decades), a tenant being evicted solely for nonpayment who was never late before must instead get a 'notice to pay rent or vacate' and can stay by paying within the notice period; repeat-late tenants can still get a flat notice to vacate, and no ground other than that carries any statutory right to cure. The landlord then files an eviction suit in the justice court for the precinct, the constable serves the citation within about five business days, and trial lands between the 10th and 21st day after filing under the completely rewritten Rule 510. Either side has five days after the judgment is signed to appeal for a fresh trial in county court — a tenant who appeals stays in possession only by paying rent into the court registry — and once the five days pass, the writ of possession can issue on the sixth day, the officer posts a 24-hour warning on the door, and the lockout follows: a best-case span of roughly three weeks from notice to lockout, derived from the statutory minimums. Against true squatters the landlord can seek summary disposition and win without any trial if the occupant does not raise a genuine factual dispute within four days of being served. Self-help eviction is prohibited — a landlord may exclude a tenant only through judicial process, and even the narrow lease-authorized lock-change for unpaid rent obliges the landlord to hand over the new key around the clock whether or not the tenant pays; an unlawful lockout or utility shutoff costs one month's rent plus $1,000, plus actual damages and attorney's fees, and the tenant can get back in through an ex parte writ of reentry.", "notes": [ { "label": "Stale-source trap: nearly every pre-2026 summary is wrong", "text": "SB 38 (89th Leg., ch. 960) rewrote Property Code chapter 24 and Rule 510 effective January 1, 2026. Virtually every secondary source predating 2026 misstates current law." }, { "label": "What SB 38 repealed", "text": "Gone are the old 6-day-minimum trial setting, § 24.005's old subsections (f)-(i), and the general justice-court rules' application to eviction cases." }, { "label": "The '3-day notice' is a default, not a floor", "text": "§ 24.005(a) lets the parties contract for a 'shorter or longer' notice period, so three days is a lease-modifiable default. It must not be presented as a statutory minimum." }, { "label": "The pay-or-vacate rule is already being garbled", "text": "Secondary sources are reporting the new rule as 'notice to vacate requires two months' delinquency.' The statute actually turns on whether the tenant was late before the month of the notice, not on months of arrears." }, { "label": "Summary disposition targets squatters, not holdover tenants", "text": "§ 24.005106 attaches to petitions alleging forcible entry and detainer — occupants with no colorable right. Rule 510.10(b) separately allows ordinary Rule 503.2 summary-disposition motions in forcible detainer suits." }, { "label": "CARES Act properties: the limit lands on the writ, not the filing", "text": "§ 24.005(c-1) now expressly permits filing without waiting out the federal 30-day notice period, but bars service of the writ until the federal period has run from notice delivery." }, { "label": "Day counting is set at chapter level", "text": "§ 24.0042 and Rule 510.4 impose calendar-day counting with the last day extended past a weekend or holiday. Because the rule sits at chapter level it governs the 3-day notice, the 5-day appeal, and the 6-day writ alike." }, { "label": "The 5-day appeal window runs from signing", "text": "The appeal clock starts the day the judgment is signed (§ 24.005107(a), Rule 510.19(a)), and SB 38 added the tenant's perjury-backed affirmation of a meritorious defense." }, { "label": "Manufactured-home communities are a separate scheme", "text": "Termination and eviction in manufactured-home communities run under Property Code chapter 94, subchapter E; its figures must not bleed into the chapter-24 process described here." }, { "label": "Local eviction-notice ordinances are preempted", "text": "City eviction-notice ordinances — Dallas, and Austin's pre-2026 rules, for example — are now preempted territory under §§ 24.0043 and 24.005(e)." }, { "label": "No 2026 bill can change this", "text": "Texas has a biennial legislature and the 89th's sessions concluded in 2025, so no live 2026 bill can amend these provisions." }, { "label": "Currency of the cited text", "text": "As of July 21, 2026 the cited chapter 24 and chapter 92 sections on statutes.capitol.texas.gov were current through the 89th Legislature's 2nd Called Session, with the SB 38 amendments fully consolidated. Rule 510 is cited to the Supreme Court's final amendment order (Misc. Docket No. 25-9105)." } ] }, "mobile_home_parks": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-19", "verified_by_method": "Direct read of the full official text of Texas Property Code chapter 94 (§§ 94.001-94.303, every section of Subchapters A through G) as served by the Texas Legislature's Texas Constitution and Statutes site, together with Property Code § 24.005 and § 24.0061, Water Code §§ 13.501-13.506, Utilities Code §§ 184.011-184.014, Local Government Code §§ 214.902 and 214.906, Occupations Code § 1201.217, and the Texas Legislature Online bill pages for H.B. 2037 and S.B. 38 of the 89th Legislature (2025).", "tier": 2, "act_name": "Manufactured Home Tenancies", "act_citation": "Tex. Prop. Code ch. 94", "fallback_act": null, "fields": { "enforcement_agency": { "status": "regulated", "value": "No state agency enforces the manufactured home tenancy chapter; the Public Utility Commission of Texas handles water and wastewater billing complaints, and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs handles home titling, installation and abandoned homes", "detail": "Chapter 94 is enforced by residents and community owners in court, not by a state agency. The Public Utility Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over complaints about submetered or allocated water and wastewater charges in a manufactured home rental community and may order the owner to repay a tenant who was overcharged. The Manufactured Housing Division of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs administers statements of ownership, installation and the abandoned-home process for the home itself, and has no role in lot-tenancy disputes.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.301", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.301", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Water Code § 13.505", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.505", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Occ. Code § 1201.217", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/OC/htm/OC.1201.htm#1201.217", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "private_right_of_action": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A resident may sue a community owner who breaks the chapter and may recover actual damages, a civil penalty of two months' rent plus $500, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs. A lease term or community rule that waives a right or a duty under the chapter is void. If the court finds the resident sued in bad faith or to harass, the same civil penalty runs the other way.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.301", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.301", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.003", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.003", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.302", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.302", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "min_park_size_lots": { "status": "regulated", "value": 4, "detail": "The chapter reaches a parcel of land on which four or more lots are offered for lease for installing and occupying manufactured homes. Separately, a city may not regulate a tract as a manufactured home community, park or subdivision unless it contains at least four spaces offered for lease.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.001", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.001", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(4)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.906", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.214.htm#214.906", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "secondary_thresholds": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "No rule in the chapter switches on at a second community size. Once a community has four or more lots the whole chapter applies, and the definition section sets no other size line.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.001", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.001", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(4)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.002", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.002", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "covers_park_owned_rental_homes": { "status": "regulated", "value": "general_landlord_tenant_law", "detail": "A resident who rents the home itself from the community owner is outside this chapter and is covered by Texas's ordinary residential landlord-tenant law. The chapter says in terms that it does not apply to the relationship between a landlord who owns a manufactured home and a tenant who leases that home from the landlord.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.002", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.002", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code ch. 92", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "covers_rv_park_model": { "status": "regulated", "value": "excluded", "detail": "Recreational vehicles and other movable dwellings that are not manufactured homes are outside the chapter. It does not apply where a tenant leases a lot for the placement of personal property used for human habitation other than a manufactured home, and \"manufactured home\" takes the meaning given in the state's manufactured housing law.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.002", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.002", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(2)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.001", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.001", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(3)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "local_mhp_rent_regulation": { "status": "regulated", "value": "preempted", "detail": "A Texas city may not set lot rents except in a disaster emergency approved by the governor. State law allows a city to establish rent control by ordinance only if its governing body finds that a housing emergency exists because of a disaster and the governor approves the ordinance, and the control must be continued or ended as the governor continues or ends the disaster declaration. Chapter 94 itself says nothing about local regulation of lot rents.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.902", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.214.htm#214.902", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.002", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.002", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rent_increase_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 60, "detail": "A new lot rent must be put to the resident at least 60 days before the current lease term ends. The community owner has to send either a notice to vacate or an offer to renew by the 60th day before the term expires, and a renewal offer must state the proposed rent amount and any change in the lease terms. Rent may not be raised during a term unless the lease contains a provision allowing it that the resident separately initialed, and the chapter sets no notice period for an increase made under such a provision.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rent_increase_frequency_limit": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas law does not limit how often lot rent may be raised. In practice rent changes at each renewal, because a mid-term increase is possible only under a lease provision the resident separately initialed, and an increase provision the resident did not initial is void.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rent_increase_cap": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas sets no ceiling on lot-rent increases. Chapter 94 contains no cap of any kind, and a city may adopt rent control only on a finding of a housing emergency caused by a disaster and with the governor's approval. The one money limit tied to metering is that a community owner who raised rent because of higher utility costs in the 90 days before installing meters or submeters must roll that increase back and refund it.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.902", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.214.htm#214.902", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Water Code § 13.504", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.504", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rent_increase_challenge_mechanism": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "There is no way under Texas law to challenge the amount of a lot-rent increase. A resident who does not want the new terms must tell the owner by the 30th day before the current lease expires that the offer is rejected and that the resident will move out; silence renews the lease on the new terms. A rent increase made to punish a resident for exercising a legal right is a separate violation the resident may raise in court.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.251", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.251", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(4)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "entrance_fee_prohibited": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas does not ban entrance or move-in fees in a manufactured home community. The chapter's only requirement is that the lease state any late charge and any fee or charge for a service or facility, along with the amount of any security deposit.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(5), (c)(6)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "exit_fee_prohibited": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas does not ban exit or home-removal fees. What the chapter does limit is what an owner may recover when a resident leaves early: damages are capped at the rent and other amounts left on the term, or at one month's rent if the lot is re-let before the 21st day after it is surrendered, and the owner must try to re-let. A lease cancellation fee may be deducted from a deposit when a replacement resident is found for a lot the tenant never occupied.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.201", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.201", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.202", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.202", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.104", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.104", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "undisclosed_fees_uncollectible": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas law does not say that a fee left out of the lease cannot be collected. The lease must list any late charge and any fee or charge for a service or facility, and a resident who is charged in breach of the chapter may sue for actual damages, a civil penalty of two months' rent plus $500, and attorney's fees, but the chapter does not make an undisclosed fee void.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(5)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.301", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.301", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "utility_billing_regulated": { "status": "regulated", "value": "A community owner who bills residents for water, wastewater or electricity may not mark the service up, and the Public Utility Commission sets the billing rules", "detail": "A community owner may not charge more for utility service than the utility charged the owner. For water and wastewater the owner may pass through the cost per gallon plus applicable taxes and surcharges, may add a service charge of no more than nine percent of the submetered costs allocated to the lot, and may charge a late fee of no more than five percent of a bill paid late. Where the community is master metered and the cost is spread among residents instead of submetered, the lease must describe the calculation method in clear writing and state the average monthly bill for all units for the previous calendar year, and the owner may not bill out more than the utility actually charged. Records must be kept and made available to residents during business hours. For electricity, the owner may not charge more than the cost per kilowatt hour charged by the utility. The lease must disclose any addendum on utility submetering that is incorporated by reference.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Water Code § 13.503", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.503", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (c), (d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Water Code § 13.5031", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.5031", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Util. Code § 184.014", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/UT/htm/UT.184.htm#184.014", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(13)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "submetering_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A manufactured home community built after January 1, 2003 must measure each lot's water use, either with submeters owned by the community or with individual meters owned by the water utility. On the owner's request the utility must install its own meters unless it finds installation is not feasible, in which case the owner must install plumbing compatible with meters or submeters. An older community may submeter voluntarily, and either way the Public Utility Commission's submetering and allocation rules apply. An owner may not switch from submetered billing to allocated billing without the commission's written approval on a showing of good cause. Before billing for submetered or allocated water the owner must meet state plumbing-fixture standards, check every unit and common area for leaks and repair what is found, and replace high-flow toilets within a year.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Water Code § 13.502", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.502", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (d), (e)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Water Code § 13.506", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.506", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Util. Code § 184.013", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/UT/htm/UT.184.htm#184.013", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "security_deposit_rules": { "status": "regulated", "value": "A deposit may be taken when the first lease is signed, with no cap on the amount, and must be refunded within 30 days after the lot is surrendered", "detail": "A community owner must return the lot deposit within 30 days after the resident gives up the lot. Texas sets no maximum deposit. Deductions may be taken for damages and charges the resident is legally liable for, but not for normal wear and tear, and the owner must give the balance together with a written description and itemized list of every deduction unless the resident owes undisputed rent. The owner need not return the money until the resident gives a written forwarding address, though failing to give one does not forfeit the right to a refund. An owner who keeps a deposit in bad faith owes $100 plus three times the amount wrongly withheld plus attorney's fees, and an owner who misses the 30-day deadline is presumed to have acted in bad faith. A new owner of the community becomes liable for deposits from the date title passes.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.103", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.103", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.105", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.105", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.107", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.107", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.109", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.109", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.106", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.106", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "written_lease_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": "required", "detail": "Every lot tenancy in a Texas manufactured home community runs on a written lease. The chapter defines a lease agreement as a written agreement, and the lease must be typed or in legible handwriting and signed by both the community owner and the resident. The owner must give the resident a copy of the lease and a current copy of the community rules after signing, and must hand a prospective resident the proposed lease and the rules when the application is taken.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.001", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.001", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(2)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.051", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.051", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1), (2)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "min_lease_term_offer_months": { "status": "regulated", "value": 6, "detail": "A community owner must offer a first lease term of at least six months. The resident may ask for a shorter or longer period and the two may agree to it, and renewals may run for any length the two agree on. The disclosure statement handed to every applicant states the six-month right in plain words.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.052", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.052", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.051", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.051", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(3)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "nonrenewal_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 60, "detail": "A community owner who does not want to renew must give the resident 60 days' notice before the lease term ends, and no reason is required. Whatever the length of the term, the notice to vacate or the offer to renew must come by the 60th day before the term expires; for a month-to-month lease the same 60 days runs before the date the owner intends to end the term. The resident must keep paying rent and other amounts, including late charges, through the notice period. The owner may ask the resident to leave earlier only by paying the relocation expenses in advance, including the cost of moving and installing the home somewhere else. A nonrenewal for a change in the community's land use takes 180 days instead.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.052", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.052", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rules_change_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 30, "detail": "A new or amended community rule does not take effect until the 30th day after every resident is given a written copy of it. If complying with the rule would cost a resident more than $25, the owner must allow at least 90 days from delivery of the written copy to comply. Community rules must not be arbitrary or capricious and count as part of the lease.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "disclosure_document_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": "state_prescribed_document", "detail": "Every applicant must be handed a separate disclosure statement whose wording is set out in the statute. When the community owner takes an application, the applicant must receive the proposed lease, the community rules, and a separate disclosure statement carrying the statutory text in at least 10-point type, telling the applicant of the right to a six-month initial term, the 60-day nonrenewal notice, the 180-day notice if the land use will change, and the duty to keep paying rent through the notice period. The lease itself must also carry a prominent statement that chapter 94 grants the resident rights and imposes obligations on the owner.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.051", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.051", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(3)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(14)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "assembly_rights_protected": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A community owner may not interfere with residents' meetings about manufactured home living. Any limit on meetings held in the common area facilities has to be written into the community rules, and common area facilities must be open or available to residents with the hours posted at the facility.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.006", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.006", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.005", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.005", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "entry_rule": { "status": "regulated", "value": "The owner may not enter the home without the resident present and consenting, or written consent naming a date and time, except in an emergency or after abandonment", "detail": "A community owner may enter a resident's manufactured home only with consent, in an emergency, or after the home is abandoned. Consent counts if the resident is present and agrees, or if the resident gave written consent that names the date and time entry is allowed, which is good only for that date and time and may be revoked in writing at any time without penalty. In an emergency or after abandonment the owner may enter in a reasonable manner at a reasonable time. The chapter sets no notice period for the owner coming onto the lot itself.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.004", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.004", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "retaliation_prohibited": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A community owner may not retaliate against a resident for six months after the resident asserts a legal right. Protected acts include exercising a right or remedy under the lease, a city ordinance or state or federal law in good faith, giving a repair notice, and complaining to a code enforcement body, a utility or a civic or nonprofit agency in good faith. Barred responses include filing an eviction other than on the chapter's grounds, cutting services, raising the rent, ending the lease, and bad-faith conduct that materially interferes with the resident's rights. A court may not approve an eviction it finds was started as retaliation, and a resident may recover one month's rent plus $500, actual damages, costs and attorney's fees. An owner is not liable for a rent increase under a written escalation clause for utilities, taxes or insurance, or for an increase applied across the whole community, and a resident who sues in bad faith is liable to the owner.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.251", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.251", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.203", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.203", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.254", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.254", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.253", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.253", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "just_cause_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": false, "detail": "Texas does not require a reason to end a lot tenancy at the end of its term. The community owner may choose not to renew for any reason as long as notice comes by the 60th day before the term expires, or 180 days ahead where the community's land use will change. Cause matters only for ending a lease before the term runs out, which the chapter allows for a lease or rule violation or for nonpayment of rent.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.052", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.052", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.205", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.205", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.206", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.206", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "just_cause_grounds": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas has no list of grounds a community owner must fit to end a lot tenancy. Two routes exist for ending a lease before its term is up: a violation of a lease provision, including a community rule written into the lease, and nonpayment where the amount owed reaches at least one month's rent and is still unpaid after a 10-day written notice. At the end of the term the owner may simply decline to renew on 60 days' notice, or 180 days where the land use will change. Whichever route is used, the owner must get a court judgment and a writ of possession before shutting a resident out or moving the home.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.205", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.205", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.206", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.206", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.203", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.203", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "nonpayment_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 10, "detail": "A resident behind on lot rent has 10 days from receiving the written delinquency notice to pay in full. The community owner may end the lease and evict only if the unpaid rent and other amounts due under the lease together reach at least one month's rent, the owner gives written notice that the payment is delinquent, and the resident has not tendered the full delinquent amount before the 10th day after receiving that notice. A notice mailed to a resident who has asked in writing for mail at a primary residence away from the lot counts as given on the postmark date. A separate notice to vacate under the eviction chapter, at least three days unless the lease sets a different period, still comes before an eviction suit is filed.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.206", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.206", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1), (2), (3)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.009", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.009", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.005", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rule_violation_notice_days": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas sets no notice period or cure period for a lease or rule violation in a manufactured home community. The chapter says only that a community owner may end the lease and evict for a violation of a lease provision, including a community rule written into the lease. What still applies is the general eviction chapter, under which a written notice to vacate must be given at least three days before a suit is filed unless the lease sets a shorter or longer period, and the owner must obtain a writ of possession before shutting the resident out or moving the home.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.205", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.205", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.005", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.203", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.203", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "repeat_violation_rule": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas has no repeat-violation rule for manufactured home communities. The chapter treats a violation of a lease provision or of a community rule written into the lease as a ground for termination and eviction without distinguishing a first breach from a later one, and it sets no window within which a repeated breach loses the right to cure.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.205", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.205", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "home_removal_or_sale_period_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 30, "detail": "After a judgment for possession the home may stay on the lot for 30 days if the resident pays the rent due for that period. A court may not issue a writ of possession before the 30th day after judgment where the resident has paid the rent amount due under the lease for those 30 days. The court must mail a copy of a default judgment to the leased premises within 48 hours, and also to the home's owner and any lienholder whose name and address it has been given. If the owner removes the home after the writ is executed, a written notice of where the home has been taken must go to the resident, and to the home's owner if different, within 10 days.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.203", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.203", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d), (e), (f)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "abandonment_procedure_exists": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Texas has a statutory route for declaring a manufactured home abandoned, and it sits in the state's manufactured housing law rather than in the tenancy chapter. The owner of the land may declare a home abandoned if it has been continuously unoccupied for at least four months and any debt secured by the home or owed under the lease is delinquent. Written notice of the intent to declare abandonment must go by certified mail to the home's record owner, every lienholder listed on the statement of ownership, the tax collector for each taxing unit and any intervening lien or equitable interest holder, and it must say where the home is. Those people may enter to remove the home and must be given the location and reasonable access. If the home is still there 45 days after the notice is postmarked, all liens on it are extinguished and the landowner may apply for a statement of ownership in its own name. The route is closed to a landowner who holds or ever held an interest in the home. Within the tenancy chapter, abandonment matters only as a ground for the owner to enter the home.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Occ. Code § 1201.217", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/OC/htm/OC.1201.htm#1201.217", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (c), (d), (f)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.004", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.004", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(2)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "mandatory_mediation": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas requires no mediation or other dispute-resolution step in a manufactured home community. Disputes under the chapter go to court, where the justice, county and district courts share jurisdiction over repair claims and venue follows the general rule for suits about real property. The one administrative route outside the courts is a complaint to the Public Utility Commission about submetered or allocated water and wastewater charges.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.301", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.301", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.012", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.012", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Water Code § 13.505", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.505", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "change_of_use_notice_months": { "status": "regulated", "value": 6, "detail": "A community owner who is changing the land use must give 180 days' notice, which is six months. The notice has to go out no later than the 180th day before the date the land use will change, to the resident, to the home's owner if that is someone else, and to any lienholder whose name and address the owner has been given in writing; it must state the date the use will change and tell them the home must be moved. The owner must also post a notice in a conspicuous place in the community stating that the land use will change and on what date. This is the only route by which the owner may decline to renew a lease in order to change the land use.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.052", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.052", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "change_of_use_variants": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas has one closure notice period and it does not vary. The 180-day notice applies to every covered community whatever its size and whatever the reason for the change in land use, and the chapter provides no shorter or longer variant. The related disclosure is that a lease must state the expiry date of a temporary zoning permit for the community's land use where one exists.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(15)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "relocation_payment_required": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "No relocation payment is owed when a Texas community closes or changes its land use. The change-of-use section requires notice and nothing more, and there is no state relocation fund. The chapter requires the community owner to pay moving costs in only one situation: where the owner asks a resident to leave before the 60-day notice period has run, the owner must compensate the resident in advance for relocation expenses, including the cost of moving and installing the home at a new location.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "relocation_payment_amounts": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas sets no relocation figures. The one payment the chapter requires is open-ended: where the community owner asks a resident to leave before the 60-day notice period ends, the owner must compensate the resident in advance for relocation expenses including moving and installing the home at a new location, with no dollar amount or schedule stated.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "relocation_payer": { "status": "regulated", "value": "none", "detail": "Nobody pays relocation money when a Texas community closes. The change-of-use section requires 180 days' notice and no payment, and the state has no relocation fund for displaced manufactured home owners. The single exception is not a closure rule: a community owner who wants a resident out before the 60-day notice period ends must pay the moving and installation costs in advance.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "government_notice_on_closure_required": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "No government body has to be told when a Texas community closes. The change-of-use section lists exactly who gets the 180-day notice: the resident, the home's owner if different, and any lienholder whose name and address the community owner has in writing, plus a notice posted in the community. No city, county or state agency is named.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1), (a)(2)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "park_sale_notice_required": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas residents have no right to be told that the community is for sale or has been sold. The chapter has no sale-notice section. It touches a change of ownership only in two places: the new owner becomes liable for security deposits from the date title passes, and the former owner stays liable until the new owner gives each resident a signed statement acknowledging the deposit and its exact amount. A resident may also ask in writing for the name and address of the record titleholder and of any off-site management company, which must be supplied within seven days.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.106", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.106", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.010", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.010", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "park_sale_notice_trigger": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Nothing triggers a notice to residents that the community is being sold, because Texas requires no such notice. Listing the community, receiving an offer and closing a sale all pass without any duty to tell residents. The only duty tied to a transfer is the signed statement about the security deposit that a new owner gives each resident.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.106", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.106", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "resident_purchase_right": { "status": "regulated", "value": "none", "detail": "Texas gives residents no right to buy the community. There is no right of first refusal, no opportunity to match an offer, no notice of an intended sale and no window to organize and bid. A resident association may of course negotiate with an owner willing to sell, but nothing in state law requires the owner to deal with it.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.106", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.106", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "resident_response_days": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "There is no response window, because Texas gives residents no purchase right and requires no notice of a sale. The only deadline the chapter puts on a resident about the future of the tenancy is the reply to a renewal offer, which must reach the community owner by the 30th day before the current lease expires.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "association_threshold_pct": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas sets no share of residents that must join together to act on a sale, because there is no purchase right to exercise. The chapter recognizes residents acting collectively only by protecting meetings about manufactured home living and by allowing a civic association to sue on a resident's behalf to stop a refusal of cash rent payments.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.006", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.006", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.007", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.007", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "park_sale_exceptions": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas lists no exempt transfers because it imposes no rules on the sale of a community in the first place. Foreclosure, family transfers, transfers between related entities and ordinary market sales are all treated alike, with one narrow carve-out on deposits: a mortgage lienholder who takes title by foreclosure does not pick up liability for deposits taken by the former owner.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.106", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.106", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "assignment_right": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas residents have no purchase right to assign to a nonprofit or a city, because the state grants no purchase right at all. On the separate question of assigning the lot lease itself, the chapter lets the community owner prohibit assignment and subletting outright if the prohibition is written into the lease.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.057", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.057", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "violation_penalty": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas sets no penalty tied to the sale of a community because it sets no sale rules. The chapter's general remedy covers any breach of it: a resident may recover actual damages, a civil penalty equal to two months' rent plus $500, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and these remedies are in addition to any other the law provides.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.301", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.301", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.303", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.303", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "sale_in_place_protected": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A resident may sell the home where it stands, provided the community owner approves the buyer in writing and the buyer signs a lease. The chapter states the right in those terms, so a sale with the home staying on the lot is contemplated by statute rather than left to the lease. The protection is only as strong as the approval condition, since the chapter sets no standard the community owner must meet in deciding whether to approve a buyer.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "sale_commission_prohibited": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A community owner may not take a commission or fee out of the sale of a resident's home unless the resident agreed in writing. The same section bars the owner from requiring the resident to contract with it as agent or broker for the sale.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1), (b)(2)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "buyer_approval_allowed": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Yes, the community owner screens the buyer, and its written approval is a condition of a sale with the home staying on the lot. The buyer must also sign a lease agreement, which means taking a new tenancy rather than stepping into the seller's remaining term.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1), (a)(2)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.057", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.057", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "buyer_approval_standard": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas sets no standard and no deadline for approving a buyer. The chapter requires written approval and a signed lease but does not say the community owner must act reasonably, must give reasons for a refusal or must answer within any period. The nearest limit is the general one that community rules must not be arbitrary or capricious, and the separate bar on retaliation.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.251", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.251", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "age_size_style_rejection_prohibited": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas does not bar a community owner from turning down a home because of its age, size or style. The chapter says nothing about the characteristics of a home a community must accept, and it does not bar requiring a home to be moved off the lot when it is sold; instead it makes an in-place sale depend on the owner approving the buyer.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "presale_repairs_may_be_required": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas law neither allows nor forbids a community owner to demand repairs to a home before it is sold. The chapter is silent on the point. It does make clear that the community owner's own repair duties stop at the lot line, since the repair section does not apply to a condition in or on the resident's home, and that community rules must not be arbitrary or capricious.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.153", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.153", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "for_sale_sign_protected": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "Texas does not protect a for-sale sign on a resident's home or lot. The chapter says nothing about signs, so the question is left to the community rules, which must not be arbitrary or capricious and take effect only 30 days after every resident receives a written copy.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null } }, "fhfa_protections": { "p1": { "meets": false, "basis": "Neither limb is met: the term that must be offered is six months, not a year, and a community owner may decline to renew for any reason on 60 days' notice, so there is no cause requirement.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.052", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.052", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ] }, "p2": { "meets": true, "basis": "A community owner must send an offer of renewal stating the proposed rent amount by the 60th day before the current term expires, which is more than 30 days' written notice of a lot-rent increase and applies statewide; a rent increase within a term is possible only under a lease provision the resident separately initialed, which is void without the initials.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.055", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.055", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.053", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.053", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" } ] }, "p3": { "meets": "partial", "basis": "The cure limb is met and the grace limb is not: a resident has 10 days after the written delinquency notice to pay in full, and termination requires the arrears to reach one month's rent, but a late penalty may be assessed as soon as payment is not remitted by the date stipulated in the lease, so there is no fee-free period after the due date.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.206", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.206", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1), (3)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.056", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.056", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ] }, "p4": { "meets": true, "basis": "The chapter grants the owner of a manufactured home the right to sell a home located on the leased premises, so a sale does not require the home to be moved out; the conditions are that the landlord approve the purchaser in writing and that the purchaser sign a lease, and the chapter sets no express bar on removal beyond that grant. How the buyer is approved is the subject of the next protection.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ] }, "p5": { "meets": "partial", "basis": "There is a fixed 30-day period after a judgment for possession in which the court may not issue the writ, so the home stays on the lot, but it is conditioned on the resident paying the rent due for those 30 days and the chapter grants no right to sell the home in place after an eviction.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.203", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.203", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ] }, "p6": { "meets": "partial", "basis": "A buyer may take a lot tenancy but only as a new tenant and with no unreasonableness standard: the buyer must be approved in writing by the community owner and must sign a lease agreement, and the owner may prohibit assignment and subletting outright by putting the prohibition in the lease.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1), (a)(2)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.057", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.057", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ] }, "p7": { "meets": false, "basis": "The chapter says nothing about a for-sale sign; signs are left to the community rules, which need only avoid being arbitrary or capricious.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.008", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.008", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.252", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.252", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ] }, "p8": { "meets": "partial", "basis": "The closure limb is met and the sale limb is missing: a change in the community's land use takes 180 days' notice to the resident, the home's owner and any lienholder, but nothing requires residents to be told that the community is being sold.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.204", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.204", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.106", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.106", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ] } }, "pending_legislation": [], "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code ch. 94", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.001", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.001", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 94.002", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.94.htm#94.002", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code ch. 24", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Water Code §§ 13.501-13.506", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/WA/htm/WA.13.htm#13.501", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Util. Code §§ 184.011-184.014", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/UT/htm/UT.184.htm#184.011", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.902", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.214.htm#214.902", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Occ. Code § 1201.217", "url": "https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/OC/htm/OC.1201.htm#1201.217", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "Texas regulates manufactured home community tenancies in chapter 94 of the Property Code, which covers a resident who owns the home and rents a lot in a community of four or more lots, and its strength is paperwork rather than tenure: the lease must be written and signed, must carry sixteen specified items including the grounds for eviction and the change-of-land-use disclosure, and the community owner must offer a first term of at least six months and hand every applicant a disclosure statement whose wording the statute prints. Ending a tenancy needs no reason, only 60 days' notice before the term expires, and 180 days where the community's land use will change; a nonpayment eviction needs arrears of at least one month's rent and a 10-day written chance to pay, and after a judgment the home stays on the lot for 30 days if the resident pays that period's rent. New or amended community rules take effect 30 days after every resident gets a written copy, and a resident gets 90 days to comply where compliance costs more than $25. Texas sets no rent cap and no notice period for a mid-term rent increase, which is possible only under a lease provision the resident separately initialed; there is no relocation payment, no notice that the community is for sale and no resident right to buy it. A resident may sell the home in place if the community owner approves the buyer in writing and the buyer signs a lease, and the owner may not take a commission on that sale without the resident's written agreement.", "notes": [ { "label": "Four lots is the line", "text": "The chapter reaches a parcel with four or more lots offered for lease for manufactured homes. A smaller property is outside it, and separately a Texas city may not regulate a tract as a manufactured home community unless it has at least four leased spaces." }, { "label": "Renting the home instead of the lot is a different law", "text": "If the community owns the home and rents it out, chapter 94 does not apply and the ordinary residential landlord-tenant chapter governs. The chapter also does not reach a lot leased for a recreational vehicle or other movable dwelling that is not a manufactured home, or an employee or agent of the community owner." }, { "label": "The lease is where the money terms live", "text": "Because there is no rent cap and no frequency limit, the operative protections are the required lease contents and the rule that a provision allowing a rent, fee or charge increase during the term is void unless the resident initialed it. A rent change otherwise arrives with the renewal offer, which must come at least 60 days before the term ends and must state the proposed amount." }, { "label": "Notices can turn on a postmark", "text": "A resident who does not live on the lot may ask in writing, when signing or renewing, for notices to go to a primary residence address. Those notices may travel by regular mail and count as given on the date of the postmark, which is worth watching where a 10-day or 60-day clock is running." }, { "label": "Utility billing is policed by a different agency", "text": "Water, wastewater and electricity charges passed on to residents are governed by the Water Code and Utilities Code rather than by chapter 94. A community owner may not charge above the utility's own cost per gallon or per kilowatt hour, may add a service charge of up to nine percent on submetered water costs, and may charge a late fee of up to five percent of a water bill paid late. Complaints go to the Public Utility Commission, which has exclusive jurisdiction and may order repayment of an overcharge." }, { "label": "An abandoned home has its own route", "text": "Declaring a home abandoned is done under the state's manufactured housing law, not the tenancy chapter: the home must have been unoccupied for four months with a delinquent debt, notice goes to the record owner, lienholders and taxing units, and after 45 days the landowner may apply for a statement of ownership. The route is closed to a landowner who has ever held an interest in that home." }, { "label": "The legislature meets in odd years", "text": "Texas holds a regular legislative session only in odd-numbered years. The last regular session ended in June 2025 and the next one begins in January 2027, so no bill affecting the chapter is before the legislature in 2026." } ] }, "application_screening_fees": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-26", "verified_by_method": "Direct read of Texas Property Code chapter 92 in full, in particular subchapter I (sections 92.351, 92.3515, 92.352, 92.353, 92.354 and 92.355), together with Property Code section 1.004 and Business and Commerce Code sections 1.109, 17.45, 17.46, 17.50, 20.02 and 20.22, on the Texas Legislative Council document host that serves the state's statute site. Backed by a term search of all 93 retrievable Property Code chapters and all 120 retrievable Business and Commerce Code chapters for application fee, screening, credit report, holding deposit, reusable, portable, advertising and related terms, and by a sweep of the 2025 session of the 89th Legislature, whose amendments to chapter 92 were read section by section. Bills read on the legislature's own bill pages: S.B. 340, H.B. 3198 and H.B. 4305 of the 89th Legislature.", "application_fee_cap": null, "fee_limited_to_actual_cost": null, "screening_fee_rules": null, "receipt_required": null, "refund_required": true, "refund_rules": "Rejection without the required selection-criteria notice returns both the application fee and any application deposit; an application deposit is refundable on rejection; an applicant is treated as rejected if no notice of acceptance is given by the seventh day.\n\nAn applicant is deemed rejected if the landlord gives no notice of acceptance on or before the seventh day after the applicant submits a completed application on the landlord's form, or after the landlord accepts an application deposit where no form was furnished. Rejection of one co-applicant is rejection of all. A landlord is presumed to have given notice of acceptance or rejection by telephone to the applicant, a co-applicant, or a person living with either on or before the required date, or by United States mail postmarked on or before that date. If the applicant asks for the money to be mailed, the refund check must go to the address the applicant furnished. Where the required date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or state or federal holiday, it extends to the end of the next day. An application fee is nonrefundable where the notice was made available, and the statutory acknowledgment wording tells the applicant so.", "disclosure_rules": "At the time the applicant is given a rental application, the landlord must make available a printed notice of the tenant selection criteria and the grounds on which the application may be denied, and the applicant signs an acknowledgment that it was made available.\n\nThe notice must cover the applicant's criminal history, previous rental history, current income, credit history, and failure to give accurate or complete information on the application form. If the acknowledgment is not signed there is a rebuttable presumption the notice was not made available. The acknowledgment must carry wording substantively equivalent to the statutory paragraph, which tells the applicant that the criteria may include those factors and that an application may be rejected and the application fee kept. The acknowledgment may sit inside the rental application itself if the notice is underlined or in bold print. Texas requires no disclosure of the fee amount or its basis, and sets no duty to re-notice when criteria change.", "adverse_action_rules": null, "reusable_report_rules": null, "holding_deposit_rules": "Money given with a rental application is an application deposit, refundable if the applicant is rejected, and it sits outside the security deposit rules; Texas sets no cap on it and does not regulate money taken after acceptance to hold a unit until signing.\n\nAn application deposit is a sum given to the landlord in connection with a rental application that is refundable to the applicant if the applicant is rejected. The security deposit definition expressly excludes a rental application deposit, so the accounting and thirty-day refund rules for security deposits do not reach it. The seven-day deemed-rejection clock, the notice and mailing mechanics, and the bad-faith penalty for failing to refund all apply. There is no statutory cap on the amount, no written-statement duty, and no rule on money collected after an applicant is accepted to hold the unit pending a signed lease.", "junk_fee_limits": null, "penalty_for_violation": "A landlord who in bad faith fails to refund an application fee or deposit owes $100, three times the amount wrongfully retained, and the applicant's reasonable attorney's fees.\n\nThe penalty attaches to the refund duties of the rental application subchapter and requires bad faith. The selection-criteria notice duty carries no separate money penalty of its own; its consequence is that the fee and any deposit must be returned when the applicant is rejected, and withholding that refund in bad faith then triggers the penalty. A provision of a rental application that purports to waive a right or exempt a party from a liability or duty under the subchapter is void.", "pending_legislation": [ { "bill": "S.B. 340 (89th Legislature, 2025)", "summary": "Would have required the printed tenant selection criteria notice to be made available before an application fee is accepted, required that notice to tell the applicant they may submit evidence of inaccuracies in their criminal history, of rehabilitation, or of other mitigating factors, and added a penalty of $500 plus reasonable attorney's fees for any violation of the notice section.", "status": "Referred to the Senate Business and Commerce Committee on February 3, 2025, and left there; the regular session it was filed in adjourned on June 2, 2025 and the next regular session begins in January 2027.", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null, "checked": "2026-08-26" }, { "bill": "H.B. 3198 (89th Legislature, 2025)", "summary": "Identical companion to S.B. 340, carrying the same changes to the tenant selection criteria notice and the same $500 penalty.", "status": "Referred to the House Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee on March 20, 2025, and left there; the regular session it was filed in adjourned on June 2, 2025.", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null, "checked": "2026-08-26" }, { "bill": "H.B. 4305 (89th Legislature, 2025)", "summary": "Would have required fixed recurring fees to be disclosed alongside the rent in any lease quote, rental application, advertisement or listing, required a rental application to itemize nonrefundable application-stage charges including application fees, hold fees and processing fees, and given a prospective tenant a written demand for return of all money paid where the application did not comply, payable within five business days.", "status": "Referred to the House Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee on April 1, 2025, and left there; the regular session it was filed in adjourned on June 2, 2025.", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null, "checked": "2026-08-26" } ], "citations": [ { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1-a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.002", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.011", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(e)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.352", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.353", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(c)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(e), (f)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1), (1-a), (6)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(d)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.352", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 20.02", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/BC/htm/BC.20.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code §§ 92.351-92.355", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 20.22", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/BC/htm/BC.20.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(3)(D)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.102", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.354", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.45", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/BC/htm/BC.17.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.46", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/BC/htm/BC.17.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.355", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code §§ 92.351-92.355 (Rental Application)", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.92.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(f)" }, { "statute": "Tex. Prop. Code § 1.004", "url": "https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.1.htm", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "summary_plain": "Texas puts no dollar limit on a residential rental application fee and instead regulates the paperwork around it. The landlord must make the tenant selection criteria available in printed form when the application is handed over, and must return the application fee and any application deposit if the applicant is rejected without that notice having been made available. An application deposit is refundable when the applicant is rejected, and an applicant counts as rejected if the landlord gives no notice of acceptance by the seventh day after the completed application is submitted or the deposit is taken. A landlord who in bad faith keeps money that should have been refunded owes $100, three times the amount kept, and the applicant's attorney's fees. Texas does not require a receipt, does not tie the fee to the cost of screening, has no portable screening report law, sets no state denial-notice duty beyond federal law, and has no rental fee-transparency statute.", "notes": [ { "label": "Two different pots of money", "text": "Texas distinguishes an application fee, which is nonrefundable by definition, from an application deposit, which is refundable if the applicant is rejected. Which label applies turns on the statutory definitions rather than on what a form calls the payment." }, { "label": "The notice is the lever", "text": "Almost every applicant-side right at this stage runs through the printed tenant selection criteria notice. Where it was made available and the acknowledgment signed, the fee stays with the landlord; where it was not, rejection returns both the fee and any deposit." }, { "label": "Silence counts as a rejection", "text": "There is no duty to say no. If the seventh day passes with no notice of acceptance, the applicant is treated as rejected, which is what starts the refund obligation for an application deposit." }, { "label": "What the fee rules do not reach", "text": "No cap, no cost-based limit, no receipt duty, no cap or separate rules for money taken after acceptance to hold a unit until the lease is signed, and no requirement to accept a screening report the applicant already paid for." }, { "label": "Advertised prices", "text": "Texas has no statute requiring an all-in advertised rent or an itemization of mandatory fees in a listing. The state's general consumer statute reaches leases of real property and addresses misleading conduct, but it sets no fee-disclosure standard for rental advertising." }, { "label": "Local rules", "text": "This record covers state law only. Two Texas statutes, one in the Property Code and one in the Business and Commerce Code, both added in 2023, bar a municipality or county from regulating in a field the respective code occupies." }, { "label": "2025 session", "text": "The 89th Legislature amended chapter 92 in five places in 2025, none of them in the rental application subchapter, which has stood unchanged since January 1, 2008. Three 2025 bills that would have changed application-stage rules were left in committee." }, { "label": "Where the text is published", "text": "The chapter is published by the Texas Legislative Council and is also readable through the state's statute site at statutes.capitol.texas.gov." }, { "label": "About the application fee rule", "text": "Texas sets no maximum on a residential rental application fee. The rental application subchapter defines the fee as a nonrefundable sum given to the landlord to offset the costs of screening an applicant, and then regulates notice and refund rather than amount. The amount is left to the lease market, subject to the general consumer statute where an advertised or quoted charge is misleading." }, { "label": "How the cost limit works", "text": "No Texas statute ties the application fee to the amount the landlord actually spends on screening. The phrase in the definition, that the fee offsets the costs of screening an applicant, states the fee's purpose; no section caps the fee at cost, requires an itemized cost basis, or requires any surplus over cost to be returned." }, { "label": "Screening charges", "text": "The rental application subchapter places no conditions on the screening charge itself. It does not say who may charge it, does not limit a household to one charge, does not require the landlord to order or use a report, and sets no vacancy or written-agreement prerequisite. The duties Texas does impose at the application stage are the selection-criteria notice and the refund triggers, each recorded in its own entry." }, { "label": "What the receipt duty covers", "text": "No Texas statute requires a receipt or payment record for application or screening money. Chapter 92 does require a written receipt and a record-book entry, but only for a cash rent payment from a sitting tenant. The signed acknowledgment the application subchapter requires confirms that the selection-criteria notice was made available, not that money was paid." }, { "label": "When money must come back", "text": "Two circumstances force return of money. If the landlord rejects an applicant and had not made the printed tenant selection criteria notice available, the landlord must return the application fee and any application deposit. Separately, an application deposit is by definition refundable to an applicant who is rejected." }, { "label": "Denial notices", "text": "Texas places no state duty on a landlord to give reasons for a denial, to hand over a copy of a screening report, or to name the agency that supplied it. The section that would carry such a duty instead treats silence as a denial, deeming an applicant rejected when no notice of acceptance arrives by the seventh day. The state consumer reporting chapter regulates reporting agencies rather than landlords, and its adverse-action clause only bars an agency from stopping a user from showing the report to the person it describes. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act supplies the denial-notice duty in Texas." }, { "label": "Reusable screening reports", "text": "Texas has no portable or reusable tenant screening report statute. No section requires a landlord to accept a report an applicant already paid for, bars a fee where one is used, or sets a validity window. The rental application subchapter is where such a rule would sit, and it does not appear there or anywhere else in the Property Code." }, { "label": "Advertising and fee transparency", "text": "No Texas statute requires an all-in advertised rent for a dwelling, an itemization of mandatory fees in a listing, or disclosure of application-stage charges before payment. What governs instead is the general consumer statute, the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, which reaches leases of real property because its definition of goods covers real property purchased or leased for use. That act addresses false, misleading and deceptive acts generally rather than setting a fee-transparency standard for rental listings." } ] } } }