Free Texas 3-Day Notice to Vacate (Lease Violation)

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Free Texas 3-Day Notice to Vacate (Lease Violation) — overview

A Texas 3-Day Notice to Vacate (Lease Violation) is the statutory notice to vacate under Texas Property Code §24.005 for lease violations. The 3-day period is the statute default; the lease may specify a longer period. If the lease provides a cure right, the landlord must satisfy that cure period BEFORE serving this notice.

Complete the 3-Day Notice to Vacate (Lease Violation)

Complete the form below to generate a Texas 3-Day Notice to Vacate (Lease Violation). The notice must include the tenant’s full name, complete property address, the statutory deadline to vacate, the legal basis (if required by your state), and proper service. Improperly drafted or served notices can be dismissed by the court and force you to start over.

About the Texas 3-Day Notice to Vacate (Lease Violation)

Texas’s eviction notice process is unique. TPC §24.005 requires a notice to vacate before the landlord may file forcible detainer – the statutory default is 3 days, but the lease may specify a longer period (and the lease controls if it does). Texas does NOT mandate a cure period for lease violations – cure rights come from the lease itself. Most Texas leases (especially TAA standard leases) provide cure rights of 3-10 days for material violations. If the lease provides a cure period, the landlord MUST give that period BEFORE serving the 3-day notice to vacate. The 3-day notice to vacate is then served after the cure period expires without cure, or for violations that the lease excludes from cure (typically drug-related activity, violence, severe damage).

Texas Notice Framework

• Statute: Texas Property Code §24.005 (notice to vacate)
• Notice period: 3 days (statute default; lease may specify longer)
• Cure rights: come from the lease, not statute – must be satisfied first if applicable
• Service: one of the four methods in TPC §24.005(f-3) – mail (first class, registered, certified, or a delivery service); delivery to the inside of the premises in a conspicuous place; hand delivery to any tenant 16 or older; or, only if agreed in writing, electronic communication
• Court: Justice of the Peace court (forcible detainer)

Common Mistakes That Get Notices to Vacate Dismissed

• Skipping the lease-required cure period before the 3-day notice
• Using statute 3-day when lease requires longer notice
• Vague description of the violation
• Improper service method (must comply with TPC §24.005)
• Filing forcible detainer before the 3-day period expires
• Demanding amounts owed in a lease-violation notice (use separate nonpayment notice instead)

Service Requirements

Texas Property Code §24.005(f-3), as rewritten by S.B. 38 (Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 960), effective January 1, 2026, sets out the only permitted methods of delivering a notice to vacate: (1) mail, including first class mail, registered mail, certified mail, or a delivery service; (2) delivery to the inside of the premises, in a conspicuous place; (3) hand delivery to any tenant of the premises who is 16 years of age or older; or (4) electronic communication, including e-mail or other electronic means, but only if the parties have agreed in writing. S.B. 38 repealed the former §24.005(f), (f-1), (f-2), (g), (h) and (i) – the subsections that used to authorize affixing the notice to the inside of the main entry door and the outside-of-the-door sealed-envelope posting with a mailed copy. Those procedures are no longer law and must not be used. Under §24.005(f-4) the delivery list does not apply if the tenant actually receives the notice, and §24.0042 computes the notice period by excluding the day of delivery, counting Saturdays, Sundays and state or federal holidays, and rolling the last day forward if it falls on a Saturday, Sunday or such a holiday. Texas courts strictly enforce TPC §24.005 service requirements.

What Happens If Tenant Does Not Vacate

If the tenant does not vacate within 3 days (or the longer lease period if applicable), the landlord may file a forcible detainer action in the Justice of the Peace court of the precinct where the property is located. Under §24.0051(g) the justice court sets trial not earlier than the 10th day and not later than the 21st day after the petition is filed, and not earlier than the fourth day after the tenant is served. If the landlord prevails, the court issues a judgment for possession and a writ of possession authorizing the constable to remove the tenant. The tenant may appeal to the County Court at Law for de novo trial. CONSULT a Texas landlord-tenant attorney – JP forcible detainer is procedurally strict.

Related Resources

• Texas lease termination laws
• Texas eviction notice laws
• Texas breaking lease laws
• Texas landlord tenant laws
• Texas habitability laws
• Lease termination laws by state

Can the Lease Change the 3-Day Notice Period?

Yes. Texas Property Code §24.005(a) sets 3 days as the statutory default notice-to-vacate period, but the statute lets the landlord and tenant contract for a shorter or longer period in a written lease or agreement. If the lease sets its own notice period for a lease violation, that lease term controls instead of the 3-day default — check the lease’s default/notice clause before drafting the notice, since a notice that under-counts a contractually longer period can be challenged in court.

Holding Over vs. a Lease Violation: Two Different Notice Triggers

§24.005(a) covers a tenant “who defaults or holds over beyond the end of the rental term or renewal period” — meaning the same 3-day default notice-to-vacate applies whether the tenant broke a lease term (a “default,” which includes a lease violation) or simply stayed past the end of the lease term without a new agreement (a “holdover”). The two situations are not identical for everything that follows the notice, though: a landlord who files a forcible detainer suit on holdover grounds — rather than on a lease violation — must also satisfy the tenancy-termination requirements of Property Code §91.001 in addition to the §24.005 notice. A landlord evicting for a lease violation proceeds under §24.005 alone.

The 30-Day Exception After a Foreclosure Sale

Property Code §24.005(b) carves out a longer notice period in one specific situation unrelated to lease violations but worth knowing if the rental property changes hands: if a building is purchased at a tax foreclosure sale or a trustee’s foreclosure sale under a lien superior to the tenant’s lease, and the tenant has timely paid rent and is not otherwise in default, the purchaser must give that residential tenant at least 30 days’ written notice to vacate if the purchaser chooses not to continue the lease. This 30-day floor does not shrink the 3-day period for an ordinary lease-violation notice — it is a separate protection that applies only to a post-foreclosure purchaser who is ending the tenancy outright.

Federal Notice Overlay for Federally-Backed or Assisted Rentals

Some rental properties are subject to an additional federal notice requirement layered on top of Texas law. Property Code §24.005(c-1) addresses what happens when “a federal law or rule requires a landlord to give notice to a tenant before the landlord requires the tenant to vacate the premises”: a landlord who satisfies the Texas notice requirements is not required to delay filing an eviction suit based on the federal requirement, and the federal requirement is not a basis for a court to delay or abate the eviction suit — but a writ of possession may not be served on the tenant until the period between delivery of the §24.005 notice and service of the writ equals or exceeds the period the federal requirement prescribes. According to the Texas State Law Library, the federal CARES Act requires a 30-day notice to vacate where the property participates in certain federal housing programs or the owner holds a federally-backed mortgage — landlords of federally-backed or federally-assisted units should confirm whether that 30-day federal floor applies before relying on the 3-day state default.

After the 3 Days Expire: The Eviction Suit Timeline

The notice to vacate is only the first step. Per the Texas State Law Library’s eviction-process guide, once the §24.005 notice period has passed and the tenant has not vacated, the landlord may file an eviction (forcible detainer) suit — the landlord cannot file before the notice period runs. After filing, the tenant must be served with the eviction citation at least 4 days before the hearing, and the court sets the hearing between 10 and 21 days after the suit is filed. In most cases the tenant is not required to file a written answer but must appear at the hearing or risk losing by default; a losing party may appeal to county court within 5 days of judgment. Landlords planning a lease-violation eviction should build this multi-week timeline into their expectations — the 3-day notice ends the notice stage, not the eviction itself.

Quick Answers: Texas 3-Day Notice to Vacate for a Lease Violation

• Does the 3-day period have to be exactly 3 days? No — 3 days is only the Property Code §24.005(a) default. A written lease can set a longer or shorter notice period, and that lease term governs instead.
• Can the landlord file the eviction suit as soon as the notice is served? No. The landlord must wait for the notice period to run in full; the eviction (forcible detainer) suit cannot be filed until after that period passes and the tenant is still in possession.
• Does a lease violation ever require a cure period before this notice? Only if the lease itself creates one. §24.005 does not build in a statutory cure right for lease violations the way it does for certain nonpayment scenarios — if the lease promises a chance to cure, that promise must be honored before this notice is used.
• Is holding over past the lease end the same as a lease violation for notice purposes? The 3-day default notice period is the same either way under §24.005(a), but a holdover eviction also requires the landlord to satisfy Property Code §91.001’s tenancy-termination requirements, which do not apply to a straightforward lease-violation eviction.

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