What it costs
Out-of-pocket costs for an uncontested eviction taken without an attorney, plus the cost nobody puts in a table: the rent you were never going to see either way.
Court filing fees are set by statute and by county commissioners, and constable fee schedules are adopted county by county and revised periodically. Every figure below is an order of magnitude, not a quote. Call your clerk and your constable's office for current numbers before you budget. Where I could not verify a figure from a primary source, I say so rather than guessing.
The out-of-pocket costs
| Item | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Eviction petition filing fee | $50–$125 | Set by statute and county. Tex. Gov't Code § 51.317 |
| Constable service of citation | $80–$150 | Per defendant served. County fee schedule. |
| Certified mail for the notice | $8–$15 | Optional, but cheap corroboration that the notice arrived. |
| Printing the exhibit packets | $30–$80 | Three sets, colour, single-sided. Mine ran to roughly 190 pages in total and colour mattered — markings on an envelope were printed in red. |
| Writ of possession — court fee | ~$5 | Nominal. |
| Writ of possession — constable service | $150–$250 | The big one. Some counties add an hourly charge per deputy once execution runs past a set number of hours. Ask. |
| Card convenience fee, if e-filing | ~3% | Applied to the whole transaction. |
| Labour crew for the set-out | $250–$450 | Three workers, three hours, labour only. Over $600 and you are being overcharged; under $150 and confirm they will actually show. How to hire one. |
| Locksmith or rekey | $75–$200 | Cheaper if you rekey the cylinders yourself. |
| Abstract of judgment (optional) | ~$5 + recording | Court fee is nominal; the county clerk charges separately to record it. Read this first. |
| Realistic total, uncontested, no attorney | $650–$1,300 | Before a single dollar of lost rent. |
The costs that are not on the table
- Lost rent. This dwarfs everything above. Every month of procedure is another month unpaid, and the procedure has hard minimum waits you cannot buy your way past.
- Your time. Assembling a proper exhibit packet, chasing the return of service, and coordinating the set-out consumed several full days across the case. If your time has a market value, it is the largest line item after lost rent.
- Turnover. Cleaning, repairs, and re-letting after a contested departure are routinely worse than after a normal move-out.
- A second suit, if you pursue non-rent damages. Justice court eviction jurisdiction does not reach them. Tex. Prop. Code § 24.004(c)
Would a lawyer have been cheaper?
Honestly: possibly, and it depends almost entirely on whether the case is contested.
For a straightforward uncontested nonpayment case, doing it yourself saves real money and the procedure is genuinely followable. What you spend instead is attention — and the failure mode of pro se filing is not losing the argument, it is missing a procedural step and having to start over.
The moment the calculus changes: the tenant retains counsel, raises a repair or retaliation defence, demands a jury, or appeals to county court. At that point the value of an attorney rises steeply, and an appeal in particular narrows who may represent an entity. Tex. Prop. Code § 24.011(b)
The money judgment is mostly theoretical
I won a judgment for unpaid rent. I have collected none of it. I do not expect to. That is the normal outcome, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
Why it usually goes nowhere:
- A tenant evicted for nonpayment generally has no money. That is why you are there. A judgment does not create assets.
- Texas exemptions are broad. Wages are largely protected from garnishment for ordinary debts, the homestead exemption is generous, and a great deal of personal property is exempt from execution.
- Collection costs money and time — and each step is another fee out of your pocket against an uncertain return.
- Post-judgment interest may be set at zero. Check what rate your judgment actually specifies. A 0% rate means the amount never grows, so waiting costs you and costs them nothing.
The abstract of judgment, realistically
On application by the person in whose favour a judgment was rendered, the justice who rendered it must prepare, certify and deliver an abstract. Tex. Prop. Code § 52.002(a) The abstract must contain specified information. Tex. Prop. Code § 52.003 It does nothing until you record and index it with the county clerk — that is what creates a lien on the debtor's non-exempt real property in that county, including property acquired later. Tex. Prop. Code § 52.001
A judgment lien continues for ten years from recording and indexing, and ceases if the judgment becomes dormant. For a private judgment creditor it is not renewable. Tex. Prop. Code § 52.006
It is cheap, and it is passive. If the debtor ever buys real property in that county within ten years, a recorded abstract can surface at closing. That is the entire realistic theory of recovery — a lottery ticket with a ten-year expiry, not a collection plan.
Record it in any county where they might plausibly own or later acquire real property. Note that the unsworn-declaration shortcut does not apply to instruments required to be filed with a county clerk. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 132.001(b)
How to think about the whole spend
The useful reframe: you are not buying a debt recovery. You are buying possession — the ability to stop the loss and re-let the property. Measured that way, roughly $650 to $1,300 and about a month to halt an ongoing monthly loss is a reasonable trade.
Measured as a way to recover unpaid rent, it is close to a total loss. Go in understanding which of those two things you are buying, and the process is much less demoralising.
Fee ranges are illustrative and were not verified against any current county schedule. If you have current figures for a specific Texas county, contributing them would make this page substantially more useful.