Rent Payment Protections for Texas Tenants

In Texas, a landlord can charge a late fee only if your written lease includes it and rent is still unpaid two full days after the due date. A fee of up to 12% of the month's rent in a building with four or fewer units, or 10% in a larger building, is presumed reasonable. A landlord must accept cash unless your written lease requires a traceable payment method, and it must give you a written receipt for any cash it takes. A lock change for unpaid rent needs advance written notice and a new key on request, and before filing an eviction the landlord must give at least three days' written notice to vacate unless your lease sets a different period.

When can a Texas landlord charge a late fee?

Texas Property Code section 92.019 allows a late fee only when all three conditions are met:

1. Notice of the fee is in a written lease. With an oral rental agreement, no late fee is allowed.
2. Rent has stayed unpaid for two full days after the due date. For rent due on the 1st, the 2nd and 3rd must pass in full, so the 4th is the earliest a fee can apply.
3. The fee is reasonable.

The law presumes a fee is reasonable when it stays within these limits:

A higher fee is legal only if it is no more than the landlord's uncertain damages from the late payment, meaning hard-to-measure losses such as the cost and overhead of collecting it. An initial fee plus a daily fee count as one late fee for these limits.

Example: your rent is $1,500 in a 200-unit complex, so the presumed limit is 10% x $1,500 = $150. A lease fee of $75 on the 4th plus $15 a day reaches that limit after five daily charges ($75 + 5 x $15 = $150).

A landlord that collects a late fee in violation of these rules owes you $100, plus three times the improper fee, plus your reasonable attorney's fees. A lease clause that waives these rules is void, and paying a fee does not give up your right to challenge it later. You can also ask the landlord for a written statement of whether you owe a late fee and how much, and it must provide one.

The two-day rule delays only the fee. Rent is still due on the date your lease sets, and the landlord keeps its other remedies, such as a notice to vacate. For how Texas compares with other states, see rent grace periods, and for what can follow a missed payment, see what happens when you pay rent late.

Paying rent in cash: receipts and records

Under section 92.011, a landlord must accept your on-time cash rent unless a written lease requires payment by check, money order, or another traceable form of payment. A landlord that takes cash must give you a written receipt and record the payment date and amount in a record book it keeps.

You, a government agency, or a civic association acting for you can sue to stop a violation. If you win, you recover the greater of one month's rent or $500 for each violation, plus court costs and attorney's fees. If the landlord wins, it can recover its court costs and attorney's fees from you.

The receipt rule covers only cash. For checks, money orders, and online payments, keep your bank statements, money order stubs, and payment confirmations for the length of the lease. If a landlord announces a new payment rule during your lease, such as online payment only, the Texas State Law Library notes that the change may be a lease amendment, which can take effect only when a new lease period begins or with your agreement.

Can a Texas landlord lock you out or take your belongings for unpaid rent?

A landlord can change your locks for unpaid rent, but only temporarily and only when every condition in section 92.0081 is met:

• Your lease states the landlord's right to change the locks if you fail to pay rent on time, and you are behind on at least part of the rent.
• The landlord gave you written notice mailed at least 5 calendar days before the change, or handed to you or posted inside your main entry door at least 3 calendar days before. The notice must state the earliest change date, the amount you must pay to prevent it, where you can pay or discuss the rent during business hours, and, in underlined or bold print, your right to a new key at any hour whether or not you pay.
• No one is inside the home, the landlord has not already changed the locks during the same rental period, and the landlord or its office is available on the day of the change and the next day for you to pay.

After a lock change, the landlord must post a notice on your front door that gives a 24-hour location where you can get the new key, or a 24-hour phone number that brings a key within two hours of your call. It must give you the key even if you pay nothing, and it cannot lock you out of common areas.

If a landlord breaks these rules, you can move back in or end the lease, and you can recover one month's rent plus $1,000, your actual damages, court costs, and attorney's fees, minus any rent you owe. Refusing to give you the key adds another month's rent. To get back in quickly, file a sworn complaint for reentry at the justice court for the precinct where you rent. If the judge believes an unlawful lockout likely happened, the court can issue a writ of reentry, an order that lets you back in right away until a hearing.

A landlord also cannot cut off water, wastewater, gas, or electricity because rent is late. The electricity exception lets a landlord that bills you through a submeter or a share of a master meter interrupt service for an unpaid electric bill only if your written lease allows it and the bill remains unpaid after the 12th day following issuance. A separate written termination notice must be delivered by mail or hand after the bill is past due and at least five days before interruption. A shutoff for nonpayment is barred if National Weather Service reports show the previous day's high was 32 F or lower and temperatures are forecast to stay at or below 32 F for the next 24 hours, or if the agency issued a heat advisory for your county that day or either of the two previous days.

Texas does give landlords a lien, a legal claim on your belongings, for rent that is due. A landlord can seize property under it only if your written lease includes the lien in underlined or bold print and the seizure involves no breach of the peace, and it cannot take exempt items such as clothing, beds and bedding, kitchen furniture and utensils, food, medicine, children's toys, tools of your trade, and one car and one truck. It must leave an itemized list and a notice of the rent owed, and you can get the property back before any sale by paying the rent owed plus all reasonable packing, moving, storage, and sale costs your written lease allows.

What notice comes before an eviction filing?

Texas Property Code section 24.005 requires at least three days' written notice to vacate before a landlord files an eviction suit, unless your lease sets a shorter or longer period. Changes that took effect January 1, 2026, set how the notice works:

• Pay-or-vacate notices. If the eviction is only for unpaid rent and you were not late or behind before the month the notice is given, the notice must be a notice to pay rent or vacate, which lets you stay by paying by the deadline. If you were late before, whether the landlord can use a plain notice to vacate depends on the court's interpretation: Texas REALTORS reports that some courts consider any earlier late payment during the lease, while others consider only lateness in the immediately preceding month.
• Delivery. The notice must be mailed, left inside your home in a conspicuous place, handed to a tenant who is 16 or older, or sent electronically if you agreed to that in writing. These delivery-method requirements do not apply if you actually receive the notice.
• Counting days. The day of delivery does not count, weekends and holidays do, and a period that would end on a weekend or holiday runs to the next day that is not one.

If your building takes part in certain federal housing programs or has a federally backed mortgage, the federal CARES Act requires 30 days' notice to vacate. Texas still lets the landlord file after the state notice period, but the court's order removing you, called a writ of possession, cannot be served until 30 days after the notice was delivered.

Once the notice period ends, the landlord files in the justice court where the rental is located. Our guide to Texas eviction protections covers the hearing and appeal deadlines.

Does Texas limit rent increases?

No. Texas has no statewide limit on how much rent can rise when a lease renews, and a city can adopt rent control only during a declared disaster in which it finds a housing emergency, with the governor's approval. During a fixed-term lease, the rent stays as written unless you agree to a change, and a landlord cannot raise your rent to retaliate against you for exercising a legal right, such as requesting repairs. Our guide to Texas lease rights covers renewal and move-out notice terms, and rent payment rules for tenants explains due dates, late fees, and receipts in other states.