The 2025 session of the Texas Legislature changed more for single-family landlords than any session in years. Most of it is procedure rather than principle, but procedure is where owners lose time and money: a notice delivered the wrong way, a lease missing a clause, a repair done by the wrong person.
Here’s what changed, what didn’t, and what to check in your lease before your next renewal. It’s general information to help you ask the right questions, not legal advice, and it’s always worth having a Texas attorney review your own documents.
SB 38: a new eviction process from January 2026
Governor Abbott signed SB 38 on June 20, 2025. It applies to eviction suits filed on or after January 1, 2026, and the Texas Supreme Court rewrote Rule 510 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure to match. As the Texas Apartment Association puts it, SB 38 does not change the substantive standards for possession. It changes how a case moves.
Faster, firmer timelines
- Trial within 10 to 21 days of filing.
- The constable must attempt service within 5 business days. If not, the owner may use another trained officer.
- Postponements are capped at 7 days unless both sides agree in writing.
- Courts can no longer require mediation before a trial can go ahead.
- A tenant who appeals must pay rent into the court registry within 5 days and keep paying, or the landlord can obtain a writ without a further hearing.
What it doesn’t do
SB 38 doesn’t allow evictions without a trial for non-payment. Summary disposition, a ruling without a full trial, applies to squatter cases, not to tenants who are behind on rent. And the timeline for appeals to county court is described differently by different sources, so it’s one to confirm with an attorney if you ever need it.
How notices must be delivered now
This is the change most likely to catch owners out, because it’s so routine.
Under the new rules, a notice to vacate can be:
- mailed,
- placed inside the home in a conspicuous place, or
- handed to a resident who is 16 or older.
Email is allowed only if the landlord and tenant agreed to it in writing, which in practice means a clause in the lease. That makes the lease form itself part of the process. If yours doesn’t include email consent, you can’t rely on email notice.
There’s a new step for first-time non-payment too. A tenant whose only default is unpaid rent, and who wasn’t late in the previous period, must receive a notice to pay rent or vacate rather than a plain notice to vacate. The default notice period remains three days unless the lease says otherwise.
Other 2025 changes worth knowing
Several more bills took effect on September 1, 2025:
- HB 2037 makes a managing or leasing agent the landlord’s agent for receiving notices. It allows security-deposit notices by email where the parties have previously communicated by email. And where a landlord gives notice of intent to repair, the repair must be done by an independent contractor, licensed where the city requires it.
- SB 2349 lets the required flood disclosure sit in the lease as a paragraph rather than a separate signed addendum, and exempts leases shorter than 30 days.
- SB 1333 created a sworn-complaint process for removing squatters through the sheriff or constable. It doesn’t apply to current or former tenants, so a tenant who stays on after a lease ends still goes through eviction court.
- HB 47 broadened early-termination rights for victims of certain crimes.
The rules that didn’t change, and still cost the most
The new bills get the headlines, but most owner liability still comes from long-standing Property Code rules with steep penalties:
| Rule | What it requires | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Security deposit §92.103–.109 | Refund with itemized deductions within 30 days of move-out. No deductions for normal wear and tear. | Miss the deadline and bad faith is presumed: $100 plus three times the amount withheld, plus attorney’s fees. |
| Rekeying §92.156 | Rekey within 7 days of each tenant turnover, at the owner’s cost. | Easy to forget in a busy changeover. |
| Late fees §92.019 | Only with a written lease, and only once rent is two full days late. Capped at 12% of rent for properties with four or fewer units. | An improper fee costs $100 plus three times the fee, plus attorney’s fees. |
| Security devices §92.153 | Keyless bolts, door viewers and keyed deadbolts on exterior doors, window latches, and pin locks and bars on sliding doors. | Checked at every turnover. |
| Smoke alarms §92.255 | One in each bedroom, one in each hallway serving bedrooms and one on each level. | A life-safety rule, not just a box to tick. |
| Selection criteria §92.3515 | Written tenant selection criteria given with every application, with a signed acknowledgment. | Otherwise the application fee and deposit must be refunded on rejection. |
| Flood disclosure §92.0135 | Disclose floodplain status and any flood damage in the last five years, at or before signing. | A tenant may end the lease after a substantial flood loss if it wasn’t disclosed. |
Five things to check in your lease
If your lease form was last updated before September 2025, these are the clauses to review first:
- Email notice consent. Without written agreement, email isn’t a valid way to deliver notices under SB 38.
- Notice delivery. Remove any reference to posting notices on the outside of the door, and state how notices will be delivered.
- Flood disclosure. Under SB 2349 it can now be a lease paragraph. Make sure it’s there and accurate.
- Selection criteria. Confirm your written criteria go out with every application, as §92.3515 requires.
- Repairs. Reflect HB 2037’s independent-contractor requirement for repairs made after a notice of intent to repair.
This article summarizes Texas law as of November 2026 for general information. It isn’t legal advice. Laws and court rules change, and how they apply depends on your lease and circumstances, so please speak to a Texas attorney about your own situation.
The bottom line
Very little about what a landlord can do has changed. A great deal about how it must be done has. The owners who’ll feel the new rules least are the ones with current lease forms, a consistent notice process and a calendar for the deadlines that have always mattered: 30 days for the deposit and 7 days for the locks.
If you’d like to talk through how we handle notices, deposits and turnovers for the homes we manage, book a free 30-minute call.
- Texas Apartment Association: SB 38 Texas Eviction Reform FAQs (Nov 2025)
- American Bar Association: Texas reshapes eviction procedures
- Texas REALTORS: Lease Updates Explainer (HB 2037, SB 2349)
- Galveston County Constable Pct. 4: SB 1333 squatter removal
- Texas Property Code §92.109 (security deposits)
- Texas Property Code §92.156 (rekeying)
- Texas Tenant Advisor: late fees (§92.019)
- Texas Property Code §92.3515 (selection criteria)
- Texas Property Code §92.0135 (flood disclosure)
