Before you read further

This guide summarizes what the Texas Property Code says about apartment rentals, mostly Chapter 92, as the text reads after the 2025 legislative session. It is general information, not legal advice. Your lease and the facts of your case matter, so for a specific problem, talk to a lawyer or a legal aid office.

Section numbers are given so you can read the law itself. Some rights cannot be waived in a lease, among them the rules on security deposits, security devices and utility cutoffs (§92.006).

Applying and signing

With the application, the landlord has to make its written tenant selection criteria available. They can cover criminal history, rental history, current income and credit history, and you sign an acknowledgment that you had the chance to review them (§92.3515).

Money you pay as a refundable application deposit has a clock on it. Without a notice of acceptance by the seventh day after you submit a completed application, you are deemed rejected (§92.352), and a landlord who in bad faith does not refund owes $100, three times the amount kept and your attorney’s fees (§92.354).

Once everyone has signed, the landlord must give at least one tenant a complete copy of the lease by the third business day: on paper, electronically if you ask, or by email if you have been emailing about the lease (§92.024).

Two notices belong in or with the lease. One says whether the landlord knows the dwelling is in a 100-year floodplain or flooded in the last five years (§92.0135); our renters insurance guide covers what flood coverage you can buy. The other is the sentence on early termination described further down (§92.016).

Texas also caps occupancy: a landlord may allow up to three adults per bedroom, with exceptions required by fair housing law (§92.010).

Your security deposit

The landlord must refund the deposit on or before the 30th day after you surrender the apartment (§92.103). A lease rule that you give advance notice of move-out to get the deposit back counts only if it is underlined or in bold print.

Give your forwarding address in writing. The landlord does not have to send the refund or the list of deductions until it has that address, though you do not lose the deposit just for not giving one (§92.107).

The landlord may deduct damages and charges you owe under the lease, but nothing for normal wear and tear. With the balance it must send a written, itemized list of deductions, unless you owe rent and the amount is not in dispute (§92.104).

A landlord who in bad faith keeps a deposit owes $100, three times the amount wrongfully kept and your attorney’s fees. Not refunding or itemizing within the 30 days is presumed to be bad faith (§92.109).

The rule cuts both ways. Do not skip the last month’s rent and tell the landlord to keep the deposit instead: a tenant who does that is presumed to act in bad faith and can owe three times the rent withheld plus attorney’s fees (§92.108).

Repairs

The landlord has to make a diligent effort to repair a condition that materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant, or a water heater that cannot keep water at 120°F. Three things have to be true: you gave notice to the person or place where you pay rent, you were current on rent when you gave it, and the condition was not caused by you, your household or your guests beyond normal wear and tear (§92.052).

The notice must be in writing only if your written lease says so, but writing it is what you will be able to prove later.

How the steps work

1. Give notice of the problem where you pay rent, and keep a copy.
2. Wait a reasonable time. The law presumes seven days is reasonable, though a landlord can argue otherwise based on how serious the problem is and whether parts, labor or utility service are available (§92.056(d)).
3. Send a second written notice, unless your first notice went by certified mail or another mail service that tracks delivery (§92.056(b)).
4. If the landlord still has not made a diligent effort, the law gives you remedies (§92.056(e)).

Those remedies are ending the lease, repairing and deducting in limited cases, or going to court. Repair and deduct applies only to specific conditions, such as sewage backing up inside your unit, flooding from broken pipes, or water service that has stopped completely. The deduction in any month cannot pass one month’s rent or $500, whichever is greater, and you give the landlord the repair bill and receipt with the rest of the rent (§92.0561).

In court, a judge can order the repair, reduce the rent until it is done, and award a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $500, actual damages and attorney’s fees. A justice court must hear a repair case between the 6th and 10th day after the landlord is served, and its orders can reach $20,000 (§92.0563).

Your lease must explain these remedies in underlined or bold print (§92.056(g)).

Locks, smoke alarms and emergencies

Without your having to ask, the landlord must equip the unit, at its own expense, with a latch on each exterior window, a keyed deadbolt or doorknob lock and a keyless bolting device and door viewer on each exterior door, and a pin lock plus a handle latch or security bar on each sliding glass door (§92.153).

Locks operated by a key, card or combination must be rekeyed at the landlord’s expense within seven days after each tenant moves out. You can ask for more rekeying at your own expense, as often as you like (§92.156).

There must be a smoke alarm in each bedroom (§92.255). If the property has an on-site office, the landlord must give you a phone number answered 24 hours a day for emergencies that affect health or safety, and post it outside the office (§92.020).

Rent, late fees and lockouts

A late fee is allowed only if the written lease gives notice of it, the fee is reasonable, and the rent is still unpaid two full days after its due date. In a building with more than four units, a fee of up to 10% of the month’s rent counts as reasonable; in smaller buildings, up to 12% (§92.019).

A landlord who charges a fee that breaks those rules owes $100, three times the improper fee and attorney’s fees (§92.019(c)).

A landlord can change your locks for unpaid rent only if the lease allows it, and only after an advance written notice: mailed at least five days before, or handed to you or posted inside your main door at least three days before. The new key has to be available to you at any hour, whether or not you pay (§92.0081).

If you pay a utility directly, the landlord may not cut it off except for bona fide repairs, construction or an emergency. A violation lets you recover actual damages, one month’s rent plus $1,000, attorney’s fees and court costs (§92.008). Our utilities guide covers water and electricity billed through the landlord.

Protection from retaliation

For six months after you exercise a right in good faith, ask for a repair, complain to a code inspector or a utility, or join a tenant organization, the landlord may not retaliate. That includes filing an eviction except on the grounds the law allows, cutting services, raising your rent, ending your lease, or interfering with your rights in bad faith (§92.331).

Ending a lease early

Outside the cases below, the lease decides what leaving early costs, so read its early termination clause before you sign.

• Family violence: with a protective order, or documentation from a licensed health care or mental health provider or an advocate (§92.016).
• Certain sex offenses or stalking, with the documentation the law lists (§92.0161).
• Military service: when you enter service, or as a servicemember receive orders for a permanent change of station or to deploy for 90 days or more (§92.017).

Every lease should include this sentence: “Tenants may have special statutory rights to terminate the lease early in certain situations involving family violence or a military deployment or transfer.” If it is missing, a tenant who ends the lease for family violence is also released from rent owed on the termination date (§92.016(f)).

Notice before an eviction case

Outside the limited cases in §92.0081, such as bona fide repairs, an emergency or the lockout described above, a landlord may keep you out of your home only through the courts. Before filing an eviction suit, it must give you at least three days’ written notice to vacate, unless the lease sets a shorter or longer period (§24.005).

If the case is only about unpaid rent and you were not late before that month, the notice has to give you the choice to pay or leave. The notice can come by mail, be left inside the unit in a conspicuous place, be handed to a tenant 16 or older, or arrive by email or other electronic means if you agreed to that in writing. These rules read as amended by Senate Bill 38, in effect since January 1, 2026.

Where to get help

TexasLawHelp.org publishes free legal information for Texans, and the Office of the Attorney General has a page on renters’ rights. A justice court hears repair cases, and you can file one without a lawyer.

One more time: this is general information, not legal advice. If something has already gone wrong, write down the dates, keep every notice, and talk to a lawyer or legal aid before your next step.