Free Texas Lease Renewal Offer

No Texas statute imposes a general duty to renew a residential lease. Property Code Chapter 92 governs the tenancy while it exists; it does not compel a landlord to extend a fixed term past its stated end date. Whether a renewal is owed is therefore a contract question, decided by the lease itself. Read your own document first: an automatic-renewal or evergreen clause, an option-to-renew paragraph, or a notice-of-non-renewal requirement you agreed to will control, and a renewal offer that ignores a clause you drafted is the usual source of a dispute. Federal or state assisted-housing programmes can add their own renewal obligations on top of the lease.

For a fixed term, the lease supplies the answer, because Chapter 92 sets no statutory non-renewal notice period. The term simply expires on its stated date. If the tenant then stays on, you are dealing with a holdover, and Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(a) requires at least three days’ written notice to vacate before filing a forcible detainer suit unless the parties have contracted for a shorter or longer notice period in a written lease or agreement. Note that the statute permits either direction. Section 24.005(a) also requires a landlord suing on holdover grounds to comply with the tenancy termination requirements of § 91.001.

Section 91.001(b) says that where the rent-paying period is at least one month, the tenancy terminates on the later of the day given in the notice or one month after the day the notice is given. That is one calendar month, not thirty days. Where the rent-paying period is shorter than a month, § 91.001(c) substitutes a period equal in days to the rent-paying period. Section 91.001(d) provides that if the tenancy ends on a day that does not match the beginning or end of a rent-paying period, the tenant owes rent only up to the termination date. Under § 91.001(e)(1) none of this applies where both parties signed an instrument setting a different notice period or providing that no notice is required.

Texas has no statewide rent control, and no provision of Property Code Chapter 92 caps a renewal increase or dictates how far ahead you must announce one. The renewal rent is an offer, and the tenant is free to decline it and move out at the end of the term. What is not optional is the process: if your lease requires notice of a change in rent, that clause binds you, and an increase applied mid-term without an agreed variation is a breach rather than a renewal. Anti-discrimination law also constrains you, since a rent increase aimed at a protected class is unlawful regardless of the amount.

Give the tenant a copy, and do it quickly. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.024(a) requires a landlord to provide at least one complete copy of the lease to at least one tenant party not later than the third business day after the date the lease is signed by each party. Section 92.024(b) gives a second tenant who did not receive one the right to request a copy, again due within three business days. Section 92.024(e) allows delivery on paper, electronically if the tenant requests it, or by e-mail where the parties have communicated by e-mail about the lease. Section 92.024(d) lets a court abate an enforcement action, other than one for nonpayment of rent, until you supply the copy.

You have a holdover, and possession has to be recovered through the eviction statutes rather than self-help. Section 24.005(a) supplies the written notice to vacate, at least three days unless your written lease contracts for a shorter or longer period. Counting matters: § 24.0042, added by S.B. 38 with effect from 1 January 2026, provides that a period of time prescribed by Chapter 24 does not include the day of the event beginning the period, does include Saturdays, Sundays, and state or federal holidays, includes the last day, and rolls the last day forward if it falls on a weekend or holiday. By its terms the new computation rule reaches suits whose petition is filed on or after that date.

It can, because a renewal is a new agreement the tenant is free to accept or reject, and it is cleaner to state every change on the face of the offer than to bury it in a replacement lease. Some changes carry their own statutory formalities, though. If you are adding vehicle towing or parking rules for a tenant in a multiunit complex, Tex. Prop. Code § 92.0131(b) requires the copy to be signed by the tenant, included in the signed lease, or included in a signed attachment the lease expressly refers to, and § 92.0131(c) requires the paragraph title to read Parking or Parking Rules and be capitalized, underlined, or in bold.

Nothing in Chapter 92 requires it, so re-screening at renewal is practice rather than statute, adopted because credit, judgment, and eviction records can change materially across a twelve-month term. If you do pull a report, the federal obligation follows the decision. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681m(a), a person taking an adverse action based in whole or in part on information in a consumer report must notify the consumer, identify the consumer reporting agency that furnished the report, state that the agency did not make the decision and cannot give the specific reasons, and tell the consumer of the right to a free copy and to dispute the information.