How to Evict a Roommate in Texas (and Other Household Situations)
What Texas law says about roommates who are not on the lease, guests who won't leave, family members, renting a room in your own home, and tenancies at will — each with the statute or official source.
Short answer: Under Texas residential tenancy law, a tenant is a person authorized by a lease to occupy a dwelling to the exclusion of others, and a lease can be written or oral. 'Landlord' includes a sublessor. A roommate not on the written lease is a tenant only if a lease (including an oral one) with the landlord or with a tenant acting as sublessor authorizes them to live there. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.001(2), (3), (6)
| Roommate not on the lease | Under Texas residential tenancy law, a tenant is a person authorized by a lease to occupy a dwelling to the exclusion of others, and a lease can be written or oral. 'Landlord' includes a sublessor. A roommate not on the written lease is a tenant only if a lease (including an oral one) with the landlord or with a tenant acting as sublessor authorizes them to live there. |
|---|---|
| Removing a roommate or subtenant | No roommate-specific statute. A tenant or subtenant who refuses to leave on written demand after their right of possession ends commits forcible detainer, as does a tenant at will or by sufferance. The person entitled to possession must give at least three days' written notice to vacate (unless a written lease sets a different period) and then file an eviction (forcible detainer) suit. When the tenancy is ended for holding over beyond the rental term, the landlord must also meet the tenancy termination requirements of Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001 (§ 24.005(a)). |
| Guests who won't leave | No statute sets when a guest becomes a tenant. A person who entered another's property without the consent of the person in possession (or of a tenant at will or by sufferance) and refuses to leave on demand commits forcible entry and detainer; the person entitled to possession must give oral or written notice to vacate, which may be immediate or by a deadline, before filing suit. If the occupant is instead a tenant at will or by sufferance, at least three days' written notice to vacate is required before an eviction suit. No more than three adults per bedroom may be allowed to occupy a rental dwelling, with exceptions for fair-housing requirements and up to one month for an adult seeking sanctuary from family violence (§ 92.010). |
| Tenancy at will | Texas eviction law recognizes tenants at will and by sufferance (including an occupant at the time of a foreclosure). A tenant at will or by sufferance who refuses to surrender possession on written demand commits forcible detainer. The landlord must give at least three days' written notice to vacate before filing an eviction suit, unless the parties agreed in a written lease to a shorter or longer period. |
| Hotel and extended-stay guests | No statute sets a number of days after which a hotel guest becomes a tenant. Texas residential tenancy law applies to a 'dwelling', defined as rooms rented for use as a permanent residence under a lease, and some protections (such as the security-device rules) expressly do not apply to a room in a hotel, motel, inn, or similar transient housing. |
Never remove someone by changing the locks or taking their belongings: if the person has become a tenant, only a court can order them out. If there is violence or a threat, call 911 and ask about a protective order.
Templates
Texas eviction laws · Free legal help in Texas · Roommate rules in other states
General legal information, not legal advice. Laws change and local rules can differ; check the linked official source or talk to a lawyer about your situation.