Texas Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in Texas
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.
Cited to Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.902 · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Texas rent-increase rules →
Texas Security deposits
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.
Texas Rent increase notice
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.
Texas Late fees
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.
Texas Entry notice
Texas has no statute requiring landlords to give advance notice before entering a rental unit — entry rights come entirely from the lease.
Texas Eviction process
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.
Texas Application fees
Texas puts no dollar limit on a residential rental application fee and instead regulates the paperwork around it.
Texas mobile home park laws
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.
Lot-rent, closure, park-sale and home-sale rules with statute citations →
Texas Fair Market Rents (FY 2026) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Texas metro area and county.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (July 7, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Correction, August 12, 2026 — Texas's local-rent-control answer now states the actual mechanism instead of a flat yes. Local Government Code § 214.902 contains no prohibition: it authorizes city rent control only during a declared housing emergency caused by a disaster, only with the governor's approval of the ordinance, and only for as long as the disaster declaration lasts — a pathway no Texas city has ever used. The practical effect, that no local rent control exists in Texas, is unchanged.
How this record was verified: 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.