If you are the one being evicted

The rest of this site is written from the landlord's side. This page is not. It exists because a procedural guide that only helps one party is a worse guide — and because the deadlines on your side are shorter and less forgiving than most people realise.

Showing up is the single highest-value thing you can do

If you do not appear at the hearing, the landlord can ask for a default judgment, and in the ordinary case they will get one. The court hears one side, and that side wins. Everything below matters less than this.

Appearing also does something subtle and useful for you: it puts your side of the facts in front of a judge who has otherwise only read the landlord's paperwork. Even a tenant with no legal defence often leaves with more time than they would have had.

The deadlines that matter most on your side

You can appeal even if you have no money

This is the single most under-used right in Texas eviction practice, and the reason it deserves its own heading.

An eviction judgment from a justice court can be appealed to the county court, where the case is heard completely fresh — not as a review of what the justice court decided, but as a new trial. Appeals are ordinarily perfected by filing a bond or depositing cash. But Texas also allows a tenant who cannot afford those to file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs instead.

TexasLawHelp publishes the current forms and step-by-step instructions for both the appeal and the Statement of Inability. Use those rather than anything you read here.

Things that are, and are not, defences

Often worth raising

• You were never properly served, or the notice to vacate was not delivered in a way the law allows. The delivery rules changed in 2026 and a lot of landlords are still following the old ones.
• The notice period had not expired when the suit was filed.
• You actually paid, in whole or in part — bring bank records, receipts, or app transaction histories.
• The landlord accepted rent after giving the notice, which can undercut the termination.
• Retaliation — Texas restricts evicting a tenant for making a good-faith repair complaint or exercising a legal right.
• You are on active military duty, or a dependant of someone who is. Federal law gives you specific protections including the ability to have proceedings paused.
• The amount claimed is wrong. Justice-court eviction jurisdiction is narrow. Charges beyond rent frequently do not belong in the case at all.

Usually not defences on their own

• Needing more time, or having nowhere to go. Sympathetic, and worth saying, but not a legal defence.
• Repairs that were never requested in writing, or where the statutory repair procedure was not followed. Raise the conditions — but understand a judge may treat them as a separate claim.
• A verbal promise from the landlord that contradicts a written lease, without something in writing to back it.

None of this is a substitute for having someone look at your actual documents. A legal-aid attorney can spot a defence in ten minutes that you would never find in a week of reading.

What your landlord may not do

Even with a judgment in hand, a landlord may not take possession by self-help. Only an officer executing a writ can remove you. Texas law provides real financial penalties — damages, a statutory penalty, a month's rent, and your attorney's fees — against a landlord who:

• changes the locks outside the narrow, specific circumstances the statute permits;
• shuts off or cuts electricity, water, gas or wastewater to force you out;
• removes doors, windows, or your belongings; or
• otherwise locks you out without following the court process.

If this happens to you, document it immediately — photographs, timestamps, witnesses — and call legal aid the same day. These claims are worth real money and lawyers take them.

The eviction record follows you

An eviction judgment is a public court record and shows up in tenant screening for years. That consequence usually outlasts the money.

It is worth asking, early and directly, whether the landlord will accept an agreed move-out — you leave by a definite date, they dismiss or never file the case. Many landlords will take that deal, because possession is what they actually want and litigation is slow and expensive. Get any agreement in writing before you rely on it, and be precise about what happens to the money claim.

This page is written by a landlord, in good faith, and is not legal advice. If you spot something here that is wrong or that disadvantages tenants, please say so — corrections to this page are especially welcome.