Free Texas Notice of Non-Renewal

▶ Watch overview

Free Texas Notice of Non-Renewal — overview

A Texas Notice of Non-Renewal is the written notice a landlord uses to end a periodic tenancy or to communicate that a fixed-term lease will not be renewed at expiration. Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001(b) sets the default period: the tenancy ends on the later of the day named in the notice or one month after the day on which the notice is given. Section 91.001 prescribes no form, no writing requirement and no delivery method, and § 91.001(e)(1) lets a lease signed by both parties set a different period or require no notice at all. Getting the notice right is high-stakes work: a notice that ends the tenancy too early does not terminate it on the date claimed, and the landlord must start over — pushing recovery of possession back by months. The form on this page handles the mechanics; the rest of this guide walks through the requirements.

▶ Watch: Texas Notice of Non-Renewal — § 91.001 explained

What a Notice of Non-Renewal does

A Texas Notice of Non-Renewal is the document that ends a residential tenancy without alleging tenant fault. It is the formal communication that the tenancy will not continue past the date specified in the notice. Two distinct scenarios trigger its use: (1) ending a periodic (month-to-month) tenancy, and (2) declining to renew a fixed-term lease at expiration.

The notice is procedurally similar to other Texas eviction-related notices, but substantively different. A pay-rent-or-quit notice alleges nonpayment. A cure-or-quit notice alleges a curable lease breach. A notice of non-renewal does not necessarily allege any wrongdoing — it simply ends the tenancy at the end of the notice period.

What the notice accomplishes practically: it establishes the date on which the tenant’s legal right to occupy the premises ends. After that date the tenant is holding over. Recovering possession then takes a second document: Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(a) requires the landlord to give a written notice to vacate — at least three days unless the written lease sets a shorter or longer period — before filing a forcible detainer suit in the justice court of the precinct where the property is located. Section 24.005(a) also provides that a landlord suing on a holdover theory must comply with the tenancy-termination requirements of § 91.001, so both the termination notice and the notice to vacate have to be right.

The form on this page produces a Notice of Non-Renewal that satisfies Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001 and complies with Texas’s notice-period requirements. The mechanical accuracy of the document is critical: a notice that ends the tenancy earlier than § 91.001 or the lease permits does not terminate it on the date claimed, and the landlord must start over.

Texas legal framework

Texas non-renewal of a residential tenancy operates under several layered sources of law. Three primary frameworks apply to most non-renewal notices in this state.

1. Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001 — the termination statute. Section 91.001(a) says a monthly tenancy or a tenancy from month to month “may be terminated by the tenant or the landlord giving notice of termination to the other.” It prescribes no form, no writing requirement and no delivery method. Under § 91.001(b), 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 on which the notice is given — a calendar month, not thirty days. Under § 91.001(c), where the rent-paying period is shorter than a month, the substitute is a period equal to the number of days in the rent-paying period. Section 91.001(d) makes the tenant liable for rent only up to the date of termination where that date falls mid-period. Crucially, § 91.001(e) disapplies all of (a)–(d) where the parties “have agreed in an instrument signed by both parties on a different period of notice to terminate the tenancy or that no notice is required,” or where there is a breach of contract recognized by law.

2. Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005 — the separate notice to vacate. Section 24.005 does not govern the § 91.001 termination notice at all. It governs the written notice to vacate a landlord must give a tenant who defaults or holds over before filing a forcible detainer suit: at least three days, “unless the parties have contracted for a shorter or longer notice period in a written lease or agreement.” Its delivery list was rewritten by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 960 (S.B. 38), effective January 1, 2026, which also repealed subsections (f), (f-1), (f-2), (g), (h) and (i). The current list is § 24.005(f-3): mail (including first class, registered, certified, or a delivery service); delivery to the inside of the premises, in a conspicuous place; hand delivery to any tenant of the premises who is 16 years of age or older; or, if the parties have agreed in writing, electronic communication including e-mail. Section 24.005(f-4) makes the list irrelevant where the tenant actually receives the notice. The pre-2026 post-and-mail-to-the-outside-of-the-door fallback no longer exists.

3. Implied covenant of quiet enjoyment. Independent of any specific statute, every Texas residential lease carries an implied covenant that the tenant will have peaceful, exclusive possession of the premises for the duration of the tenancy. A non-renewal notice that is part of a pattern of harassment, retaliation, or discrimination breaches this covenant and exposes the landlord to claims for damages, attorney’s fees, and equitable relief.

Anti-retaliation protections. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.331(a) bars retaliation against a tenant who in good faith exercises a right or remedy, gives a notice to repair, complains to a code-enforcement or utility body, or participates in a tenant organization; § 92.331(b) applies that bar to acts within six months of the tenant’s protected action, expressly including terminating the tenant’s lease and filing an eviction proceeding. Texas creates no presumption of retaliation and no California-style burden-shifting: instead, § 92.332(a) gives the landlord a complete defence if the landlord proves the action was not made for purposes of retaliation, and § 92.332(b) lists grounds that are never retaliation — including, at § 92.332(b)(5), a tenant who holds over after the landlord gives notice of termination at the end of the rental term where the tenant did not act under § 92.331 until after that notice. The remedy under § 92.333 is a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $500, actual damages, court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.

Anti-discrimination protections — federal Fair Housing Act and the Texas Fair Housing Act. A non-renewal notice that targets a tenant based on a protected class (race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status or disability) violates fair housing law regardless of whether the technical notice-period requirements are met. The state statute is the Texas Fair Housing Act, Tex. Prop. Code ch. 301, enforced by the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division. Disparate-impact analysis can also reach facially neutral policies that disproportionately affect a protected class.

Notice period under § 91.001

Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001 sets the default notice period for terminating a month-to-month tenancy in Texas. It is one month, not thirty days, and it is a default the lease can displace.

The clock starts on the day the notice is given. Section 91.001(b)(2) measures one month “after the day on which the notice is given” — not from the date on the face of the notice, and not from the start of the next rental period. A notice prepared on the 1st but handed over on the 15th runs from the 15th. Because the statute prescribes no delivery method, the giving date is a fact the landlord has to be able to prove; that, and not any statutory service rule, is the reason to deliver in a documented way.

Length of tenancy is irrelevant in Texas. Section 91.001 has no tiers. A tenant of two months and a tenant of twelve years get the same one-month default. Tiered periods that lengthen with occupancy — thirty days under a year, sixty days over a year — are California’s rule under Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.1, and they have no counterpart in the Texas Property Code. Do not build a Texas notice around cumulative occupancy.

Fixed-term leases — non-renewal vs. termination. A fixed-term Texas lease expires by its own terms on the last day of the term, and Texas imposes no statutory non-renewal notice at all. Section 91.001 addresses monthly and month-to-month tenancies; it does not reach a fixed term running to its end date. Any non-renewal notice obligation on a fixed-term Texas lease is a creature of the lease itself. Many Texas leases do impose one, and failing to give it commonly converts the tenancy to month-to-month on the same terms — at which point § 91.001 begins to apply. Check the lease before assuming the fixed term simply expires.

The notice CAN be shortened by lease provision — and eliminated. This is where most out-of-state templates get Texas wrong. Section 91.001(e)(1) provides that subsections (a)–(d) “do not apply if … a landlord and a tenant have agreed in an instrument signed by both parties on a different period of notice to terminate the tenancy or that no notice is required.” There is no non-waivable statutory floor. A Texas lease signed by both parties may lawfully require ten days’ notice, or none. The rule that a lease may lengthen but never shorten the statutory minimum is another state’s rule, not Texas’s.

The notice can also be lengthened by lease provision. A lease requiring 60 or 90 days is equally enforceable under the same subsection — the landlord must give the longer period the lease specifies. Longer-notice provisions are common in larger rental developments and corporate-owned properties. The practical rule for Texas is simply this: whatever the signed lease says about notice, that is the period; § 91.001 fills the gap only when the lease is silent.

Authorized delivery methods

Two different documents, two different delivery rules — and only one of them has a statutory list. Texas landlords routinely conflate the § 91.001 termination notice with the § 24.005 notice to vacate. They are separate instruments, given at different points, and only the second has a statutory delivery list.

The § 91.001 termination notice: no prescribed method. Section 91.001 says only that the tenancy “may be terminated by the tenant or the landlord giving notice of termination to the other.” It names no method, requires no writing, and imposes no mailing or posting formality. Anything that in fact gives the other party notice will do. Because § 91.001(b) measures the period from “the day on which the notice is given,” the only thing that actually matters evidentially is your ability to prove that day — which is why hand delivery in front of a witness, or mail with tracking, is the sensible practice even though no statute demands it.

The § 24.005 notice to vacate: a four-method statutory list, rewritten for 2026. Before filing a forcible detainer suit against a tenant who has held over, the landlord must give a written notice to vacate under § 24.005(a) — at least three days unless the written lease contracts for a shorter or longer period. Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 960 (S.B. 38), effective January 1, 2026, rewrote how that notice is delivered and repealed subsections (f), (f-1), (f-2), (g), (h) and (i) outright. The operative list is now § 24.005(f-3), and it is exhaustive:

Counting the three days: Tex. Prop. Code § 24.0042. S.B. 38 also added a computation-of-time section for the whole of chapter 24. It excludes the day of the event that begins the period; includes Saturdays, Sundays and state or federal holidays; includes the last day; and extends the period if the last day is a Saturday, Sunday or state or federal holiday, so that the last day is the next day that is not. Weekends count during the run; they only matter if the period ends on one.

One live “inside the main entry door” rule survives, and it is not this one. Section 92.0081(d)(3) — the advance notice a landlord must give before changing the locks for rent delinquency — still permits posting on the inside of the main entry door by the third calendar day before. That is a different statute with a different subject. Do not import it into a notice to vacate, and do not let a “the outside-door rule was repealed” correction sweep it away.

Document delivery rigorously. Whatever method is used, the landlord should document the date, time, method, and circumstances of delivery. The landlord’s position in any later challenge — including in the forcible detainer suit itself — depends almost entirely on this documentation. Keep delivery documentation in the property file for the duration of the tenancy plus the applicable limitations period; a forcible detainer action carries a two-year limitations period under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a).

Required information for the notice

Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001 prescribes no content requirement at all — it does not even require the notice to be in writing. What follows is therefore settled Texas practice rather than a statutory checklist, built around the one fact the statute does make decisive: the day on which the notice is given.

Termination date must be calculated correctly. The date stated in the notice must be on or after one calendar month from the day the notice is given, or whatever the signed lease requires. A notice that says “tenancy terminates X days from the date of this notice” without identifying a specific calendar date creates ambiguity and is on weaker enforcement ground. Pick a specific calendar date and verify the math.

The landlord’s identity must be unambiguous. If a property-management company is serving the notice on behalf of an owner, the notice should make that relationship clear. A notice signed in an ambiguous capacity invites disputes about authority.

Documentation supports the notice. Beyond the notice itself, the landlord should retain a copy of the lease (showing the tenancy duration and terms), a record of delivery (proof of service), and any communications with the tenant about the non-renewal. These documents become evidence if the tenant disputes the notice.

Common mistakes that void the notice

Counting thirty days instead of one month

The single most common Texas error, and the reason this page exists. Section 91.001(b)(2) says “one month after the day on which the notice is given.” One month is a calendar month: notice given on 15 March runs to 15 April, which is thirty-one days, not thirty. A landlord who counts thirty days from 15 March lands on 14 April and terminates the tenancy a day early. On a 31-day month the difference is one day; on a notice given 31 January it is more. Count months, not days.

Calculating the period from the wrong date

The period runs from the day the notice is given, not from the date the notice was prepared, signed, or dated. A notice signed on March 1 and handed over on March 15 runs from March 15. The miscalculation is one of the most common reasons a holdover forcible detainer suit fails in the justice court.

Ignoring the lease

Texas is one of the states where the lease genuinely wins. Under § 91.001(e)(1) a signed agreement on a different notice period — or on no notice at all — displaces subsections (a) through (d) completely. A landlord who gives one month when the lease says sixty days has given a defective notice; a landlord who agonises over one month when the lease says ten days has wasted three weeks. Read the lease first, every time.

Applying tiered notice periods that Texas does not have

Thirty days for tenancies under a year and sixty days for longer ones is a real rule — in California, under Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.1. Texas has no such tiering, and § 91.001 makes no reference to how long the tenant has occupied the unit. Templates carrying the tiered rule into Texas produce a notice period with no statutory basis.

Assuming Texas requires a reason

Texas has no just-cause termination requirement. A landlord ending a month-to-month tenancy under § 91.001, or declining to renew a fixed term, need give no reason. What Texas does have is § 92.331(b), which bars a termination or eviction filing within six months of protected tenant conduct, and fair housing law. Those are prohibitions on particular motives, not a requirement to state a permitted one.

Serving the wrong notice, or only one of the two

The § 91.001 notice ends the tenancy. It does not authorise a suit. Where the tenant holds over, Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(a) requires a separate written notice to vacate — and the same subsection provides that a landlord suing on a holdover theory must also comply with § 91.001. Landlords lose forcible detainer suits both ways: by giving a notice to vacate without ever having terminated the tenancy, and by terminating the tenancy and filing suit without a notice to vacate.

Delivering the notice to vacate by a method S.B. 38 repealed

Since January 1, 2026 the § 24.005(f-3) list is 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 agreed-in-writing electronic communication. Affixing the notice to the outside of the main entry door in a sealed envelope marked “IMPORTANT DOCUMENT” with a same-day mailing was repealed by S.B. 38 § 15(1), along with the whole of subsections (f), (f-1), (f-2), (g), (h) and (i). Every form still describing that fallback is a year out of date.

Issuing a non-renewal inside the six-month retaliation window

Tex. Prop. Code § 92.331(b) prohibits terminating a tenant’s lease or filing an eviction proceeding within six months of the tenant’s protected action. There is no presumption either way; § 92.332(a) lets the landlord escape liability by proving the action was not made for purposes of retaliation, and § 92.332(b) lists grounds that never constitute retaliation. But the tenant’s remedy under § 92.333 — one month’s rent plus $500, actual damages, court costs and attorney’s fees — makes a poorly documented non-renewal inside that window expensive.

Targeting a tenant in a protected class

Even where the technical notice-period requirements are met, a non-renewal that targets a tenant based on race, religion, national origin, familial status (including pregnancy or having children), disability, source of income, or other protected characteristics under federal and Texas fair housing law is illegal. Disparate-impact analysis can also reach facially neutral patterns. A pattern of non-renewals concentrated in one demographic exposes the landlord to fair housing claims.

Failing to identify all tenants on the notice

Every adult tenant named on the lease should be named on the non-renewal notice. A notice that omits one of the named tenants is on weaker ground and may not support an eviction action against the omitted tenant. Some courts also require service on each named tenant individually.

Believing the termination date must land at the end of a rental period

Texas does not require the termination date to fall at the end of a rental period — § 91.001(d) expressly contemplates termination “on a day that does not correspond to the beginning or end of a rent-paying period” and makes the tenant liable for rent only up to that date. Aligning the termination date with the end of a rental period is a bookkeeping convenience, not a legal requirement, and a template that treats it as mandatory imports another state’s rule.

Not retaining a copy of the notice and proof of service

The notice and proof of service are the landlord’s primary evidence in any later eviction proceeding. Failing to retain copies leaves the landlord without the foundation to prove proper notice was given. Maintain the notice, proof of service, and any related communications in the property file.

Tenant remedies for defective notice

A Texas tenant who receives a defective non-renewal notice — wrong period, improper service, missing required information, or retaliatory or discriminatory motive — has multiple potential remedies. Understanding these helps landlords appreciate why getting the notice right matters.

Affirmative defense in eviction proceedings

The most common scenario: the landlord gives a defective notice, the tenant does not vacate by the termination date, the landlord files a forcible detainer suit in the justice court, and the tenant raises the defective notice as a defence. If it succeeds, the suit fails and the landlord must give a corrected notice and start over. The tenant typically remains in possession during the do-over. On attorney’s fees, Tex. Prop. Code § 24.006(c) is unusually favourable to the tenant: where the landlord gave the § 24.006(a) fee-demand notice or the written lease entitles either party to fees, the prevailing tenant recovers reasonable attorney’s fees — and § 24.006(c) expressly provides that the prevailing tenant need give no notice to do so.

Anti-retaliation damages

If the non-renewal was retaliatory under Tex. Prop. Code § 92.331 (a termination or eviction filing within six months of protected tenant conduct — a good-faith exercise of a right or remedy, a notice to repair, a code-enforcement or utility complaint, or tenant-organisation activity), § 92.333 gives the tenant a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $500, actual damages, court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, less any delinquent rent owed. Where the rent is subsidised, the penalty is measured by the fair market rent plus $500. Texas creates no presumption of retaliation; the landlord escapes liability under § 92.332(a) by proving the action was not made for purposes of retaliation, and § 92.335 makes retaliation a defence in the eviction suit itself.

Fair housing claims — federal FHA and the Texas Fair Housing Act

A non-renewal that targets a tenant based on a protected class violates the Texas Fair Housing Act, Tex. Prop. Code ch. 301, and the federal Fair Housing Act, independent of any notice-period issue. Remedies include actual damages, civil penalties, attorney’s fees, and injunctive relief. HUD accepts complaints, as does the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division, which administers ch. 301; private actions are also available.

Constructive eviction and quiet-enjoyment claims

A non-renewal that is part of a pattern of harassment — repeated baseless notices, threats, illegal entry, utility shutoffs — supports a constructive-eviction claim and a breach of the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment. A related and specifically Texan exposure sits in Tex. Prop. Code § 92.0081: a landlord who excludes a tenant other than by judicial process, or who changes the locks outside the narrow statutory conditions, owes possession or termination plus one month’s rent and $1,000, actual damages, court costs and attorney’s fees — with a further month’s rent for refusing a new key. Note also § 92.335: other judicial actions under chapter 92 may not be joined with an eviction suit or asserted as a crossclaim in it, so most of these claims travel as a separate suit rather than as a counterclaim.

Bottom line for landlords: the cost of getting a non-renewal notice right is small; the cost of getting it wrong can be substantial. A defective notice typically delays recovery of possession by several months (during the redo plus any eviction proceeding), exposes the landlord to attorney’s fees, and may trigger fair-housing or retaliation claims if the defects suggest bad faith. The form on this page handles the mechanics; the analysis above is the legal context.

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

Texas statute reference table

Texas statute citations are to the Texas Property Code, Local Government Code and Civil Practice and Remedies Code as currently in force, including the amendments made by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 960 (S.B. 38), effective January 1, 2026. Note that there is no “Texas Code of Civil Procedure”: Texas has the Civil Practice and Remedies Code and the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.

Frequently asked questions

Published by Tenant Screening Background Check

Established 2004 · 20+ Years · All U.S. States & Territories · Statute-Based · Attorney-Reviewed

A Private Eye Reports™ service trusted by landlords, property managers, and attorneys.

This form and the accompanying guidance are provided for general informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Texas landlord-tenant law has technical requirements that can change with legislation and case law. Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001 and related provisions vary in interpretation over time, and Tex. Prop. Code ch. 24 was substantially rewritten by S.B. 38 effective January 1, 2026. Specific situations — fixed-term leases with renewal-notice clauses, leases that set their own notice period under § 91.001(e)(1), retaliation and fair-housing defences, subsidised tenancies — depend on facts that this general guidance cannot fully address. Always verify current requirements against the Texas Property Code itself or with a qualified Texas landlord-tenant attorney before relying on this notice in any contested or sensitive situation. Review Texas eviction notice laws.