Texas · State Breaking a Lease Guide

Texas Breaking Lease Laws: When a Tenant Can End a Lease Early

Texas gives victims of family violence, sex offenses, and stalking statutory early-outs under Property Code Sections 92.016 and 92.0161, protects servicemembers under Section 92.017 and federal law, and requires the landlord to mitigate under Section 91.006. Here is how breaking a lease works in 2026.

Breaking a lease early in Texas sits between two rules. A fixed-term lease is a binding contract, so a tenant cannot simply leave without consequences – but the Property Code carves out specific statutory grounds to terminate without penalty, and even when none applies, the landlord’s duty to mitigate limits what the tenant owes. Knowing which rule applies decides the bill. This guide covers the statutory early-termination rights, the servicemember protections, the uninhabitable-unit remedy, the duty to re-rent, and what a tenant owes with no justification. If you are filling a unit a tenant left early, our overview of how to screen tenants step by step pairs well with the rules below, and our companion Texas lease termination laws guide covers ending a tenancy at its natural end.

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Video: a plain-language walkthrough of Texas early lease-termination rules – the statutory grounds to break a lease and the landlord’s duty to mitigate under Property Code Section 91.006.

Key Takeaways: Texas Breaking Lease Laws

• Family-violence victims may terminate under Texas Property Code Section 92.016 – with documentation and at least thirty days’ written notice – and are released from future rent.
• Sex-offense and stalking victims may terminate under Section 92.0161 when the offense occurred in the preceding six months, on thirty days’ notice with statutory documentation.
• Servicemembers may terminate under Texas Property Code Section 92.017 and the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3955) with qualifying orders and written notice.
• An uninhabitable unit is a ground under Sections 92.056 and 92.0561 – terminate after written notice and a reasonable time (presumed seven days) if the landlord does not diligently repair.
• The landlord must mitigate under Texas Property Code Section 91.006 – a duty that cannot be waived – so with no statutory ground the tenant owes the vacancy gap, not the full remaining term.
• The deposit returns within thirty days under Section 92.103; bad-faith retention triggers a Section 92.109 penalty of one hundred dollars plus three times the withheld amount plus attorney’s fees.
• Subletting needs consent under Section 91.005, and self-help lockouts or utility cutoffs are barred by Sections 92.0081 and 92.008.

Legal Grounds to Break a Lease Early in Texas

Texas is unusual among states in how much of its early-termination law is written directly into the statute books rather than left to common-law doctrine. The Property Code lists specific categories of tenant who may terminate a fixed-term lease without penalty, each with its own notice clock and documentation requirement, and getting those details right is what separates a penalty-free exit from full contract liability. The grounds below cover family-violence victims, victims of certain sex offenses and stalking, the estate of a deceased sole-occupant tenant, military servicemembers, and an uninhabitable unit. Outside these grounds, a tenant still has the protection of the duty to mitigate, covered later.

Family Violence – Property Code Section 92.016

The clearest statutory early-out is Texas Property Code Section 92.016, titled the right to vacate and avoid liability following family violence. A tenant who is a victim of family violence – or whose occupant or household member is the victim – may terminate the tenant’s rights and obligations under the lease and vacate the unit. To exercise the right, the tenant provides the landlord documentation of the family violence and gives written notice on or before the thirtieth day before the date the tenant intends to move out. Once the tenant terminates, moves out, and provides the documentation, the tenant is not liable for rent or charges accruing after the move-out date.

The documentation that satisfies Section 92.016 is set by the statute, so a landlord cannot demand more than the law specifies: a copy of a protective order – a temporary ex parte order, a protective order, or an order of emergency protection – or documentation of the family violence from a licensed health care services provider who examined the victim. One important wrinkle: if the family violence was committed by a cotenant or occupant of the dwelling, the victim may exercise the termination right without giving the standard thirty-day notice, because forcing the victim to keep living alongside the abuser would defeat the protection.

Certain Sex Offenses and Stalking – Property Code Section 92.0161

Texas Property Code Section 92.0161 – the right to vacate and avoid liability following certain sex offenses or stalking – is a parallel early-out for a distinct class of victim. A tenant may terminate the lease if the tenant or an occupant who is a minor child of the tenant was the victim of a qualifying offense during the preceding six-month period. The qualifying offenses include sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, indecency with a child, sexual performance by a child, continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual, and stalking. A parent or guardian of a victim who resides with the victim may exercise the right on the victim’s behalf.

As with the family-violence statute, the tenant gives written notice on or before the thirtieth day before the intended termination date, paired with statutory documentation. The proof options are broader here: an examination or records from a licensed health care provider, an evaluation from a licensed mental-health professional, documentation from an authorized victim-services provider, or a protective order other than a temporary ex parte order. For a stalking claim specifically, the statute pairs victim-services documentation with a law-enforcement incident report. The six-month recency requirement is the feature most often missed – the right keys to a recent offense, not one from years earlier.

Death of a Sole-Occupant Tenant – Property Code Section 92.0162

A point of accuracy worth flagging, because the section number is easy to confuse: Texas Property Code Section 92.0162 is not a sexual-assault statute – it is the right to vacate and avoid liability following a tenant’s death. The representative of the estate of a tenant who dies before the lease expires, and who was the sole occupant of the unit at the time of death, may terminate the tenant’s rights and obligations under the lease and avoid liability for future rent and other sums by giving the landlord written notice and surrendering the unit. It is the statute that prevents a landlord from billing a deceased tenant’s estate for the balance of an unexpired term.

Military Service – Property Code Section 92.017 and the Federal SCRA

Servicemembers have two overlapping rights: Texas Property Code Section 92.017, the right to vacate and avoid liability following certain decisions related to military service, and the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act at 50 U.S.C. Section 3955, which preempts any conflicting lease term. Both cover a tenant who enters service after signing and a servicemember who receives orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of ninety days or more. A Texas servicemember can rely on whichever path is cleaner for the facts; the notice, documentation, and effective-date mechanics are detailed in the servicemember section below.

Uninhabitable Unit – Property Code Sections 92.056 and 92.0561

An uninhabitable unit is a ground to leave, but Texas ties it to a precise repair procedure rather than a free walk-away. Under Section 92.056, a landlord becomes liable when a condition materially affecting the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant goes unrepaired after the tenant follows the statutory notice steps, and one of the tenant’s express remedies is to terminate the lease. The repair remedies and the constructive-eviction overlap are detailed in the habitability section below; the headline is that termination is available only after written notice, a reasonable cure window, and the landlord’s failure to act diligently.

Uninhabitable Units and Repair Remedies in Texas

Texas habitability law gives a tenant facing a serious defect a menu of remedies under Property Code Chapter 92, and they are not interchangeable – electing one can foreclose another. The landlord’s repair duty under Section 92.052 requires the landlord to make a diligent effort to repair a condition that materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant, and that duty cannot be waived except in the narrow, statutory ways the Code allows. Our guide to Texas habitability laws covers the repair standards in full; the focus here is how those remedies interact with breaking the lease.

The first remedy is termination under Section 92.056. A tenant who completes the notice procedure and whose landlord still fails to make a diligent repair effort may end the lease, recover a pro-rata refund of prepaid rent, and deduct the security deposit from any amount owed. The trade-off is in Section 92.056(f): a tenant who elects to terminate gives up the right to also pursue repair-and-deduct or the judicial remedy for the same condition. It ends the tenancy but closes the door on the in-place remedies.

The second remedy is repair-and-deduct under Section 92.0561. A tenant who stays may, after written notice describing the intended repair and the applicable waiting period, arrange the repair and deduct the cost from rent. The deduction may not exceed one month’s rent or five hundred dollars, whichever is greater, and several repairs in a single month cannot collectively exceed that cap. The waiting periods are condition-specific: immediate action is allowed for sewage backup or flooding, three days for a total loss of water or for inadequate heating or cooling after the proper notice, and seven days for other health-and-safety conditions a local official has cited.

The third path is the common-law doctrine of constructive eviction, which runs alongside the statutory remedies. When a landlord’s failure makes the unit unusable for its intended purpose and the tenant gives notice and vacates within a reasonable time, the tenant may treat the lease as terminated because the landlord effectively evicted them. For any of the three paths, the records carry the claim: document the defect, the written notice and its date, the landlord’s response or silence, and the move-out.

The Landlord’s Duty to Mitigate in Texas – Property Code Section 91.006

Texas is firmly a duty-to-mitigate state, and unlike many states it says so by statute. Texas Property Code Section 91.006 provides that a landlord has a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons the leased premises in violation of the lease, and that any lease provision purporting to waive the duty or exempt the landlord from it is void. In plain terms, a Texas landlord cannot let an abandoned unit sit empty and bill the departed tenant for the whole remaining term; the landlord must make a reasonable, good-faith effort to re-rent.

So a Texas tenant who leaves early without a statutory ground generally owes rent only for the time the unit sits vacant before a reasonable re-rental would have filled it, plus the landlord’s actual re-rental costs such as advertising or a leasing commission – not the rest of the lease. A landlord who makes no genuine effort to re-rent forfeits the rent that effort would have replaced.

What a Tenant Actually Owes – A Worked Mitigation Example

Put real structure on the Section 91.006 math. Suppose a tenant leaves with six months left on the term in a market where a diligent landlord re-rents in about two months. The starting figure is the rent that would have come due over the remaining six months. From that, the duty to mitigate subtracts what a reasonable re-rental recovers – here, four of the six months, because a diligent landlord would have a new tenant paying by the third month. The tenant’s exposure is the two-month vacancy gap, plus the landlord’s actual re-rental costs such as advertising or a leasing fee – not the full six months. Crucially, the math is the same against a landlord who does nothing: if that landlord never lists the unit and lets it sit all six months, Section 91.006 still measures damages by what a reasonable re-rental would have avoided, so the landlord cannot collect the four months a diligent effort would have recovered. That is why the documented listing date, asking rent, showings, and applications are the records that decide the bill in a Justice of the Peace Court suit.

Military Servicemembers – Property Code Section 92.017 and 50 U.S.C. Section 3955

Servicemembers get the strongest early-termination protection, and in Texas it comes from two sources that work together: state Property Code Section 92.017 and the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act at 50 U.S.C. Section 3955. Each lets a qualifying servicemember end a residential lease, any lease clause that tries to waive the right is unenforceable, and a landlord who resists a valid termination faces both state and federal liability.

The right is triggered when a person signs a lease and then enters military service, or when a servicemember already in service receives orders for a permanent change of station or for a deployment of ninety days or more. In either case the servicemember delivers written notice to the landlord with a copy of the orders or a government document showing entry into service.

The effective date is the part most people miss. Under Section 92.017, for a lease that pays rent monthly, termination takes effect on the thirtieth day after the first date on which the next rental payment is due after the notice is delivered – not the day the notice landed. The federal SCRA sets the same monthly-lease timing. Rent is owed only through the effective date, and the landlord must refund any prepaid rent within thirty days. A Texas landlord may not charge a lease-break fee, impose a penalty, or hold the servicemember liable for the remaining balance of the term on that basis.

Lease-Break Fees, Reletting Charges, and Liquidated Damages in Texas

Many Texas leases include a flat lease-break fee or a reletting charge – often one or two months’ rent – that the landlord treats as the price of leaving early. Texas does not automatically void such a clause the way some states do, but it does not rubber-stamp it either. A liquidated-damages or reletting provision is enforceable only when, at the time of signing, actual damages from an early exit were difficult to estimate and the stated amount is a reasonable forecast of the likely loss. A charge that is really a penalty – untethered from any realistic estimate of harm – is unenforceable.

The duty to mitigate is the limit that keeps a reletting fee honest. Because Section 91.006 requires the landlord to re-rent, a landlord cannot collect a reletting fee and also bill the tenant for the full remaining rent – that double recovery is forbidden. So a reasonable reletting fee that stands in for the landlord’s actual re-rental costs and short vacancy may hold up, while a fee stacked on top of unmitigated full-term rent will not. A genuine, mutually negotiated buyout signed at the exit is a settlement rather than a pre-set penalty and is generally enforceable.

Subletting, Assignment, and the Consent Requirement

Subletting or assigning the lease is often the cleanest way to leave early, and it interacts with the duty to mitigate in the tenant’s favor. Texas Property Code Section 91.005 is blunt: during the term of a lease, the tenant may not rent the leasehold to any other person without the prior consent of the landlord. That default makes the landlord’s written consent a precondition for any sublet or assignment, and a tenant who sublets in violation of the lease has breached it.

But the consent requirement does not let the landlord ignore mitigation. When a departing tenant presents a qualified, creditworthy replacement in writing and the landlord refuses without a sound reason, that refusal works against the landlord: by turning away a tenant who would have filled the unit, the landlord undercuts the Section 91.006 good-faith duty, and the rent the replacement would have paid becomes a loss the landlord could have avoided. Screening that replacement to the same standard is what makes the hand-off defensible – our look at Texas tenant screening laws covers what a landlord may check.

Self-Help Is Illegal – Lockouts and Utility Cutoffs

A lease break can tempt a frustrated landlord toward self-help, and Texas law slams that door hard. Property Code Section 92.0081 bars a landlord from removing a door, window, or lock, or from intentionally preventing a tenant from entering the unit, except through a court judgment or the narrow statutory exceptions. A landlord who unlawfully locks out a tenant is liable for a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus one thousand dollars, actual damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees. Our guide to Texas eviction notice laws covers the lawful court process a landlord must use instead.

Section 92.008 does the same for utilities. A landlord may interrupt water, gas, or electric service only for bona fide repairs, construction, or an emergency, or – for submetered electricity – for nonpayment under tightly defined conditions and notice. An unlawful cutoff exposes the landlord to the same penalty – one month’s rent plus one thousand dollars, actual damages, and attorney’s fees – and the tenant may either recover possession or terminate the lease. Both statutes void any clause that tries to waive these protections.

Security Deposit at an Early Exit – Property Code Sections 92.103 and 92.109

The deposit is handled separately from the rent claim, and its rules are strict. Under Texas Property Code Section 92.103, the landlord must refund the security deposit – or the balance after lawful deductions – on or before the thirtieth day after the tenant surrenders the unit and gives a forwarding address. When the landlord withholds part of the deposit for reasons other than rent, the landlord must deliver an itemized statement describing the deductions. The deposit may be applied to unpaid rent the tenant owes after mitigation and to damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, but not inflated to cover the full remaining term, because the rent claim is still capped by Section 91.006.

The enforcement teeth are in Section 92.109. A landlord who in bad faith retains a deposit in violation of the subchapter is liable for one hundred dollars, plus three times the portion of the deposit wrongfully withheld, plus the tenant’s reasonable attorney’s fees. A landlord who fails to refund the deposit or to provide the written itemization by the thirtieth day is presumed to have acted in bad faith, and one who fails to provide the required documentation forfeits the right to withhold any of the deposit at all. Our overview of Texas security deposit laws covers the deduction rules and the penalty exposure in full.

Landlord Entry, Retaliation, and Fair Housing in Texas

How a landlord responds to an early-termination request is bounded by entry rules, anti-retaliation law, and fair housing. A landlord cannot retaliate against a tenant for exercising a statutory right such as a Section 92.016 family-violence termination or a Section 92.056 repair demand; Chapter 92 protects a good-faith tenant from retaliatory rent increases, service cutoffs, or eviction within a protected window. Improper entries can also figure into a constructive-eviction or harassment claim – our guide to Texas landlord entry laws covers the access rules. On the federal side, a landlord may not apply a harsher early-exit standard because of a protected characteristic; see our Fair Housing Act guide for landlords.

Step-by-Step: Breaking a Lease in Texas

Whether you are the tenant invoking a ground or the landlord responding to a request, the order of operations is the same, and following it is what keeps the exit penalty-free and defensible.

1. Identify the legal ground first. Check whether a statutory exit applies – family violence under Section 92.016, a sex offense or stalking under Section 92.0161, military service under Section 92.017 or the federal SCRA, or an uninhabitable unit under Sections 92.056 and 92.0561. The ground decides the notice period and whether any rent is owed.
2. Match the notice clock to the ground. The family-violence and sex-offense statutes run on thirty days’ written notice; Section 92.017 terminates thirty days after the next rent due date for a monthly lease; an uninhabitable-unit termination follows the Section 92.056 notice steps with a seven-day reasonable-time presumption.
3. Gather the documentation the statute names. A protective order or health-provider record for family violence; the broader Section 92.0161 proof list for a sex offense or stalking; military orders for a servicemember; dated written repair notices for a habitability claim.
4. Deliver written notice with proof. Put the ground, the effective date, and a forwarding address in writing, and deliver it by a method that creates a record – certified or tracked mail, or personal delivery with a signed receipt.
5. Mitigate, or help the landlord mitigate. With no statutory ground, the Section 91.006 duty to re-rent caps the bill; a tenant who presents a qualified replacement under Section 91.005 effectively performs the mitigation and cuts the vacancy.
6. Close out the deposit. Within thirty days under Section 92.103, the landlord delivers an itemized statement and refunds the balance, deducting only the mitigated rent owed and damage beyond ordinary wear.

Texas Lease-Break Documentation Checklist

Keep this file from the day the tenant first raises an early exit. It is the record that answers a disputed balance, a deposit dispute, or a fair housing inquiry.

• The written termination request and the statutory ground claimed.
• The supporting documentation – protective order, health or victim-services record, military orders, or repair notices.
• The written notice itself, with its delivery date and proof of service by certified or tracked mail.
• For a habitability exit, the dated repair notices, the landlord’s response or silence, and the date the reasonable cure window ran.
• The re-rental record: the listing date, the asking rent, showings, and applications received – the Section 91.006 evidence.
• The date the unit was actually re-rented and the new rent.
• The deposit accounting and the itemized statement delivered within thirty days under Section 92.103.

Common Mistakes That Create Liability in Texas

The recurring Texas errors are refusing a valid family-violence, sex-offense, or servicemember termination; billing a departed tenant for the full remaining term without trying to re-rent; resorting to a self-help lockout or utility cutoff that triggers the Section 92.0081 and 92.008 penalties; mishandling the deposit at an early exit; and failing to document the re-rental effort. Almost every one turns on the statutory grounds and the duty to mitigate – so the records that prove honored grounds and a diligent re-rental are the landlord’s strongest rebuttal to a disputed balance. Our guide to verifying tenant income rounds out the financial side of managing a Texas tenancy.

Texas Breaking Lease Laws: FAQ

Can a Texas tenant break a lease for family violence?

Yes. Under Texas Property Code Section 92.016, a tenant who is a victim of family violence may terminate the lease early by giving the landlord documentation of the violence and at least thirty days’ written notice. A protective order or documentation from a licensed health care provider satisfies the proof requirement, and the tenant is released from liability for future rent.

What statutory grounds let a Texas tenant break a lease early?

Texas codifies several: Property Code Section 92.016 for family violence, Section 92.0161 for certain sex offenses and stalking, Section 92.0162 for the death of a sole-occupant tenant, and Section 92.017 for military servicemembers. Federal law, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act at 50 U.S.C. Section 3955, adds a separate military right. An uninhabitable unit under Section 92.056 is a further ground.

Can a Texas tenant break a lease for military service?

Yes, twice over. Texas Property Code Section 92.017 lets a servicemember who enters service, or who receives orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of ninety days or more, terminate with written notice and a copy of the orders. The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. Section 3955, provides the same right; the lease ends thirty days after the next rent payment is due following notice.

Does a Texas landlord have to mitigate damages?

Yes. Texas Property Code Section 91.006 imposes a duty to mitigate when a tenant abandons the premises in violation of the lease, and any lease clause that purports to waive that duty is void. The landlord must make a reasonable effort to re-rent, so the departed tenant owes the vacancy gap, not the entire remaining term.

Can a Texas tenant break a lease for sexual assault or stalking?

Yes. Texas Property Code Section 92.0161 lets a tenant – or a parent or guardian residing with a victim – terminate the lease when the tenant or a minor child was the victim of a qualifying sex offense or stalking during the preceding six months. The tenant gives at least thirty days’ written notice plus statutory documentation such as a protective order, a health or mental-health provider’s record, or a victim-services and law-enforcement report.

Can a Texas tenant break a lease if the unit is uninhabitable?

Yes, if the repair procedure is followed. Under Texas Property Code Sections 92.056 and 92.0561, a tenant who is current on rent, gives the landlord written notice of a condition that materially affects health or safety, and waits a reasonable time – presumed to be seven days – may terminate the lease if the landlord fails to make a diligent effort to repair. Choosing termination forecloses the repair-and-deduct and judicial remedies for the same condition.

How much can a Texas tenant deduct under repair-and-deduct?

Under Texas Property Code Section 92.0561, the deduction for a repair the tenant arranges may not exceed one month’s rent or five hundred dollars, whichever is greater, and multiple repairs in one month cannot collectively exceed that cap. The tenant must first give written notice describing the intended repair, and statutory waiting periods apply before acting.

Is a flat lease-break fee or reletting charge enforceable in Texas?

It depends on whether the charge is a reasonable estimate of damages or a penalty. Texas enforces a liquidated-damages or reletting fee only when actual damages were hard to estimate at signing and the amount is a reasonable forecast of the loss. Because Section 91.006 still requires the landlord to mitigate, a reletting fee cannot be stacked on top of full remaining rent, and a charge that operates as a penalty is unenforceable.

When must a Texas landlord return the security deposit after a lease break?

Within thirty days after the tenant surrenders the unit, under Texas Property Code Section 92.103, with an itemized statement of any deductions when rent was not the reason for withholding. A landlord who in bad faith keeps the deposit is liable under Section 92.109 for one hundred dollars plus three times the wrongfully withheld portion plus the tenant’s attorney’s fees.

Can a Texas landlord lock out a tenant or shut off utilities for breaking a lease?

No. Texas Property Code Section 92.0081 bars an unlawful lockout and Section 92.008 bars an unlawful utility interruption; both expose the landlord to a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus one thousand dollars, actual damages, and attorney’s fees, and a utility cutoff also lets the tenant terminate the lease. Self-help eviction is never a lawful answer to a lease break.

Can a Texas tenant sublet to get out of a lease?

Only with consent. Texas Property Code Section 91.005 prohibits subletting the leasehold to anyone without the landlord’s prior consent, so subletting without it breaches the lease. Presenting a qualified replacement still helps, because an unreasonable refusal works against the landlord’s duty to mitigate under Section 91.006.

What does a Texas tenant owe for breaking a lease with no legal ground?

The rent that comes due until a reasonable re-rental would have filled the unit, reduced by what mitigation recovers, plus the landlord’s actual re-rental costs. Because Section 91.006 requires the landlord to mitigate, a tenant who leaves a unit with several months remaining and whom the landlord re-rents after a short vacancy owes only the gap, not the full remaining term.

Does the lease have to warn tenants about these early-termination rights?

Texas requires a residential lease to state that tenants may have special statutory rights to terminate early in certain situations involving family violence or a military deployment or transfer. If the lease omits that notice, a family-violence or military tenant who terminates is not liable for the rent that was due at the time of termination, on top of being released from future rent.

Related Texas Breaking a Lease and Rental Guides

• Breaking lease laws by state – compare Texas to the rest of the country.
• Texas lease termination laws – month-to-month notice, non-renewal, and holdover rules.
• Texas security deposit laws – limits, deductions, and the thirty-day return deadline.
• Texas eviction notice laws – notice periods and the eviction timeline.
• Texas habitability laws – the repairs a landlord must make and the repair-and-deduct rules.
• Texas landlord entry laws – the access and notice rules under Chapter 92.
• Texas rent increase laws – notice periods and the limits on raising rent.
• Texas tenant screening laws – what you can check before renting.
• Free Texas lease agreement form – a configurable, fillable Texas lease PDF.
• Tenant screening laws by state – screen the replacement tenant.

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About the Author

Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team

Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful, FCRA-compliant tenant screening across all 50 states. We translate state landlord-tenant codes and federal screening rules into processes you can actually follow.

Updated 2026

Legal Disclaimer

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Texas and federal laws change, and how they apply depends on your specific facts. Before acting on any termination, fee, deposit, or fair housing question, consult a licensed attorney in Texas. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.