{"id":105948,"date":"2025-12-31T06:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T06:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/105948\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T06:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T06:49:06","slug":"texas-to-make-changes-to-eviction-process-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/105948\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas to Make Changes to Eviction Process \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin is a city of majority renters, and Texas will be making some changes to the way it handles evictions starting in the new year. Senate Bill 38<\/a> will take effect for all eviction filings starting Jan. 1, empowering landlords and property owners to more easily evict \u201csquatters\u201d \u2013 individuals illegally occupying someone else\u2019s property \u2013 from their apartment or other rental unit.<\/p>\n

Last legislative session, an early version of SB 38 would\u2019ve allowed landlords to evict tenants in as little as five days through what\u2019s called \u201csummary disposition,\u201d allowing landlords to obtain an eviction judgment without giving the tenant a hearing in court, if the tenant does not respond to the court within four days. After heavy pushback<\/a> by attorneys and tenants\u2019 rights advocates, arguing that the bill eliminated due process for tenants, lawmakers limited those abilities, giving landlords summary disposition rights solely to evict squatters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think most people would agree that I think we don\u2019t want to encourage squatting; we want to make sure property rights are preserved. But I think what the bill really did, and it became very clear early on, was it really conflated what a squatter and a renter is,\u201d said Awais Azhar, executive director of the nonprofit HousingWorks Austin. \u201cThe bill is so much less harmful than it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, other aspects of the eviction process have changed that will affect all Texas tenants. Shoshana Krieger, project director of BASTA, a nonprofit legal aid organization for tenants, explained that, before SB 38, the law made clear how landlords needed to deliver a written \u201cnotice to vacate\u201d to tenants at least three days before filing for eviction: It could be placed inside of their front door, sent via mail, or given in-hand to an adult resident in the unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, SB 38 allows an eviction notice to be placed anywhere inside the unit, and electronic communication is also now possible if all parties agree to it. It also allows any form of delivery as long as the tenant receives the notice.<\/p>\n

Krieger told the Chronicle that those blurring requirements for notice delivery complicates how legal aid groups like BASTA can educate the community about the eviction process. \u201cIt makes it harder for us to say, \u2018How should you get the notice? Here are the places to check. You know you\u2019re behind on rent, so keep an eye out for these things,\u2019 right?\u201d Krieger said. \u201cWe can\u2019t do that in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, the writ of possession \u2013 the court order that forcibly removes a tenant and their belongings from a property \u2013 previously could only be delivered and executed by a sheriff or constable. Now, after a certain number of days have passed, landlords can use hired off-duty or plainclothes officers with identification to physically evict tenants. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to use someone uniformed, and trained, and a constable to be serving papers,\u201d Krieger said.<\/p>\n

One pro-tenant change that SB 38 brings is the right to \u201ccure\u201d a late rent payment offense to avoid eviction, which hasn\u2019t existed previously in Texas, Krieger explained. For the first time a tenant has ever been late on rent, they can repay the late payment within the one-to-three-day \u201cnotice to vacate\u201d period listed in their lease. \u201cSo that means, for most tenants in Austin, they would have a one-day right to \u2018cure\u2019 the first time they\u2019re late on rent,\u201d Krieger clarified. \u201cSo it\u2019s not much, but it\u2019s something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krieger emphasized that, even after SB 38 goes into effect, renters should know that they cannot be evicted, even after being given a notice to vacate by a landlord, until a judge actually orders them to vacate. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if your landlord says otherwise: You have your due process rights,\u201d Krieger says.<\/p>\n

This article appears in January 2 \u2022\u00a02026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin is a city of majority renters, and Texas will be making some changes to the way it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,47788,47789,4530,47790],"class_list":{"0":"post-105948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-awais-azhar","12":"tag-basta","13":"tag-eviction","14":"tag-shoshana-krieger"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}