Evicting a Tenant in Texas?

Question

I rented out my home last November to a lady who paid me an $800 deposit, and was supposed to pay $800 in rent. From the beginning she as a bad tenant, the rent was always late, and was never paid in full, instead was a little here & a little there, & most the time was never paid by the time it was due again. I let her get away with too much. Her rent is due on the 14th of the month, it is the 4th of the month and she has only paid $500 of last months & I cant get ahold of her. I don't have her work number because she switched jobs. The water &electricity have been disconnected at the house because the bills were past due &her kids are going around neighbors houses for a place to stay. I am living in GA right now because my husband is stationed here in the Army. Can someone give me a sample eviction notice? And tell me what she is required to pay? (in the lease I said late charges were $30 after 10 days and $10 per day thereafter) Plus how long does she have to get out?

Answer 1

You only need her to be late by 3 days, but do not collect any money fro her or if you do, do not cash it. You need to give her a notice and I can email you a copy of what you need and then after three days, you can file it with the courthouse. They have a certain amount of days and then they will have an officer go over there and try to get them out. It will take about 30 days for the process.
Good luck and if you need a property manager in the Houston area, I can help you.

Answer 2

If you're not in the local area, your best bet would be to contact an attorney in local area and have them start eviction proceedings. You'll get your eviction pretty quickly in TX -- typically in 45 to 60 days for non-payment of rent. You can hold her responsible for the attorney's fees as well as any unpaid rent and late fees, the attorney will explain all of it to you.

Once the process is under way, do NOT accept any further rents from her! That will derail the eviction process and you'll have to start from scratch the next time that the rent is late.

The rules are strict so if you're not in the area you'll need an attorney or property manager to handle things for you locally. If you get it wrong you leave yourself open to significant liability and it's virtually impossible to handle this long-distance by yourself.

Once you have her out and get your property ready to rent it out again, I'd STRONGLY urge you to turn day to day management over to a professional property manager. If you're in the San Antonio area I can make a couple of recommendations for you to consider. They're both highly qualified and provide excellent service for 10% of the gross rents. I wouldn't dream of being an absentee landlord without one.

BTW, for non-payment of rent, only a 3-day notice to "Pay or Quit" is needed to start the ball rolling. That's the reason for the fairly quick eviction process. If it's for other lease violations (or hold-overs) then a 30-day notice is required.

Answer 3

in case you have a written hire or condominium settlement, you will possibly desire to attend till the hire is one unit late -- if rented or leased by utilising the month, the hire might desire to be an entire month in arrears till now you supply a written order to vacate. in the written order, specify a "might desire to vacate till now" date -- make it 7 days after the date of the letter, and hand supply the letter on the date written. on the tip of the 7 days, flow to the small claims courtroom which has jurisdiction (any small claims courtroom clerk in the county will inform you which of them one you elect for), and pay the courtroom clerk $50 to report the eviction extra healthful. in addition they're going to ask you for money (final time I did it became years in the past, and the value became $fifty 5) for them to pay a technique server to offer the interest of extra healthful to the tenant. courtroom listening to would be a pair of month after submitting, and in case you have a replica of the hire settlement, you will win and the courtroom will order the tenant to vacate interior of three days. on the tip of the three days, a deputy sherif will accompany you and the staff you hire to the homestead, and the deputy will save the peace while you and the employed help set the furnishings in the front backyard. At that factor, you adjust the locks, and wait an afternoon or 2 for the former tenant to flow their stuff. Now be waiting to purchase new lighting fixtures furnishings, homestead windows, and so on. additionally assume to might desire to repair partitions, paint and carpet, and so on. I respectfully propose choosing tenants very heavily -- place of residing complexes are very careful, and the worst offenders are the persons who'll be eager to hire a house from you. hire marketplace is extremely warm in maximum Texas cities now, you may get appropriate greenback from a high quality kinfolk if the area is in stable shape and sparkling.

Answer 4

In Texas, regardless of the reason, you have to give 30 days notice.
Go to the website of the county S.O. of the county your house is in and you should be able to find out about a copy of an eviction notice.
She sounds like a real winner (her poor kids)
Good luck