The Self-Managing
Landlord's Packet
Screening, Rent, Deposits and the Rules With Teeth
Prepared By
David Torres
Realtor | MRP | PSA
Section 1: Before You Take A Dollar
Most of what goes wrong for a landlord in Texas goes wrong before a tenant ever moves in, and it goes wrong on paperwork. The rules below are not best practices. They are statutes, and nearly every one of them carries a penalty measured in months of rent.
Decide within
7 days
Refund deposits by
30 days
Typical penalty
1 mo + $500
Texas Property Code 92.3515
Written screening criteria come first
At the time you hand someone a rental application, you must make available a printed notice of your tenant selection criteria and the grounds on which the application can be denied: criminal history, rental history, income, credit history, and giving false or incomplete information.
The applicant signs an acknowledgment that they received it. It can live inside the application itself if it is underlined or in bold. If there is no signed acknowledgment, the law presumes you never provided it.
If you reject an applicant and you never made that notice available, you must return the application fee and any application deposit. Bad faith failure to refund runs $100 plus three times the amount wrongly kept plus their attorney fees.
Write your criteria once, apply them to every applicant identically, and keep them with the application. A written standard applied consistently is also your strongest fair housing defense, because it replaces judgment calls with a rule you can show.
- Minimum income, stated as a multiple of rent, and whether you count documented non-employment income
- Credit standard, stated as a number or a stated set of conditions rather than a feeling
- Rental history you will verify, and how far back you look
- How you weigh criminal history: nature of the offense, how serious, and how long ago
- Occupancy limit, and the grounds that are automatic denials
Two deadlines people get wrong
The 7 day rule is real. If you do not give notice of acceptance on or before the seventh day after a completed application, the applicant is considered rejected. If that day lands on a weekend or a state or federal holiday, it runs to the end of the next business day. Rejecting one co-applicant rejects them all.
The 30 day rule is not. Texas sets no statutory deadline for refunding an application deposit after a rejection. Many form applications print thirty days, but that is a contract term you agreed to, not a law. Read your own form and follow whatever it says.
Section 2: Screening The Application
Screening is five separate checks, and skipping any one of them is how a bad tenancy starts. Credit alone tells you almost nothing about whether someone pays rent.
Income
Gross monthly income against your stated multiple. The common standard is three times the rent. Verify with pay stubs, an offer letter, or tax returns rather than a stated figure.
Credit
You are looking for patterns, not a single number. Note that most tenant screening platforms return a rental specific score rather than a FICO score, so it will not match what the applicant sees on a credit app.
Eviction history
Court records, and the field where screening data is most often wrong. If an applicant disputes a record, take it seriously and let them show you the disposition.
Rental history
Call the landlord before the current one. The current landlord may want them gone; the previous one has no reason to shade it.
Employment
Verify the job exists and the income is current, independent of the documents the applicant handed you.
Use an applicant paid screening service
All three credit bureaus require a physical inspection of your home office before they will release full credit files to you directly. Applicant initiated screening services avoid that entirely, and because the applicant authorizes the pull it lands as a soft inquiry that does not affect their score.
Prices generally run from the mid twenties to about fifty dollars per applicant, and most services let you choose whether you or the applicant pays. Confirm current pricing before you rely on any figure.
Section 3: Where To Run Background And Credit Checks
These are the services that actually pull the credit report, the criminal background and the eviction history for you. All of them are applicant initiated, which means the applicant authorizes and usually pays, it lands as a soft inquiry that does not hurt their score, and you avoid the office inspection the bureaus require of landlords who pull reports directly. Verified August 2026 and chosen on reputation and track record rather than price.
Handles the notice for you
RentSpree
Hosts the official Texas REALTORS rental application, and it is the only service I found that generates the adverse action notice from Section 3 automatically rather than leaving it to you. Credit, criminal and eviction, with the applicant able to pay. Worth knowing: the score it returns is a rental score, so applicants often see a number well below the FICO they expect.
Straight from the bureau
TransUnion SmartMove
You are buying from the credit bureau itself rather than a middleman, with no platform to join. Applicant pays. Honest caveat: TransUnion settled a federal action in 2023 over inaccurate eviction records, so if an applicant disputes an eviction entry, take it seriously.
A human reads the report
RentPrep
A trained screener manually reviews each background report before it reaches you. That matters more than it sounds in Bexar County, where common surnames produce false matches on automated criminal searches. The cleanest complaint record of any service reviewed. Slower than instant competitors, and the background check cannot be applicant paid.
Use with care
A note on the big listing sites
Zillow and Apartments.com both include screening, and the applicant pays once and reuses the report across listings, which they like. Zillow pulls from a different credit bureau than most, so its scores will not line up with the others. Neither offers adverse action tooling, so that obligation stays fully yours.
Whichever you choose, the adverse action duty in the next section is yours as the landlord, not the screening company's. Only one of these will do it for you.
Section 4: The Notice Almost Nobody Sends
This is the single most commonly skipped legal obligation in small scale landlording, and it is federal.
Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681m(a)
If a report influenced your decision, you owe a notice
Deny an applicant, require a co-signer, or charge a higher deposit based even partly on a credit or background report, and you must give the applicant an adverse action notice. Not just for denials. Any decision that is worse for them than what they asked for.
Statutory damages run from $100 to $1,000 per violation, plus punitive damages with no cap, plus their attorney fees.
The adverse action itself
That you took the action. May be given orally, in writing, or electronically.
The credit score you used
Plus the related disclosures. This part must be in writing or electronic. Telling them out loud does not satisfy it.
The screening company
Name, address and phone number, toll free if it is a nationwide agency.
That the company did not decide
State plainly that the screening company did not make the decision and cannot explain the reasons.
Their rights
A free copy of the report within 60 days, and the right to dispute anything inaccurate.
Two things you may have read that are wrong
Risk based pricing notices do not apply to you. Those rules cover extensions of credit. A residential lease is not credit. If you charge a higher deposit because of a report you still owe the adverse action notice above, but not a risk based pricing notice.
The FCRA does not require written applicant authorization for tenant screening. That is the rule for employment screening. Get written consent anyway, because every screening service requires it and it protects you, but do not let anyone tell you the FCRA is the reason.
Shred the reports when you are done
The FCRA disposal rule at 16 CFR 682.3 applies to anyone holding consumer information for a business purpose, which includes you. Shred paper copies and properly erase electronic ones. Do not keep a folder of old applicants' credit reports in a desk drawer.
Section 5: Fair Housing In Bexar County
Federal law protects seven classes: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and disability. Texas adds nothing beyond that. San Antonio adds four more.
Federal, 42 U.S.C. 3604
Protected everywhere
Race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability. Familial status means children, and it is the one small landlords most often trip over with occupancy rules.
City ordinance
Also protected in San Antonio
Sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and age 40 and over. A property inside the city limits is covered by all eleven, not just the federal seven.
Describe the property, never the tenant
This one rule prevents most advertising complaints. Say what the home has. Never say who it would suit.
Safe: three bedrooms, fenced yard, near Randolph, no smoking indoors.
Not safe: perfect for a young couple, ideal for a single professional, great for a small family.
Housing vouchers
Texas law bars cities from requiring landlords to accept federal housing assistance, with an express exception for military veterans. So there is no general source of income protection in Texas.
San Antonio acted on that veteran exception in 2026. The scope, which properties it reaches, and the penalties are outside what belongs in a printed handout. If you are considering turning down a voucher holder who is a veteran, call the City or an attorney first. This is the fastest changing rule in this packet.
Criminal history, as the law actually stands
HUD withdrew its 2016 guidance on criminal records in tenant screening, effective September 2025. Most landlord articles online still quote it. What did not change is the underlying law: disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act remains in force, the Supreme Court decision recognizing it still stands, and federal regulation independently bars applying different criteria to different applicants because of a protected class.
A blanket ban on anyone with any record is the risky approach. What is defensible regardless of how the rules move: publish one written standard, apply it to everyone, never deny on an arrest that did not lead to a conviction, weigh how serious the offense was and how long ago it happened, and document every denial.
The small landlord exemption, and its three traps
The exemption sometimes called the Mrs. Murphy rule is much narrower than people think.
One. The advertising ban still applies to you even if you are otherwise exempt.
Two. The exemption requires renting without using any real estate agent or broker. The moment you hire one, it is gone.
Three. A separate federal civil rights statute bars race discrimination in property transactions with no small landlord exemption at all.
Occupancy limits
Two people per bedroom is generally considered reasonable under longstanding federal guidance, but that is guidance rather than a hard rule and it can be rebutted based on the size of the bedrooms, the configuration of the home, and other factors. Do not treat it as a safe harbor you can apply mechanically.
Keep this handy
The one page version
These eight rules on a single sheet, sized to keep by the phone or hand to whoever shows the property for you.
Open the Fair Housing Card movingtexas.ai/landlord-fair-housing-cardSection 6: The Lease
Start here
Texas has no government issued residential lease
The Texas Real Estate Commission does not publish one. Their own contracts page says so directly. The only lease forms they promulgate are temporary residential leases used around a closing, capped at 90 days. So every Texas landlord is using an attorney drafted lease, an association lease, or something off the internet.
The two most battle tested Texas leases are both membership restricted, and this matters more than it sounds: each contains a clause that can make the lease voidable by the tenant if the person who prepared it was not a member.
- Attorney drafted for your property is the cleanest path. It is reusable, has no membership condition, and is worth refreshing every couple of years.
- The Texas REALTORS lease can be prepared for you by a REALTOR representing you in the leasing transaction.
- The Texas Apartment Association lease is available through local apartment association membership. Whether an individual owner can join, and at what cost, is worth one call to the San Antonio Apartment Association at 210-692-7797 before you count on this route.
- A downloaded form you are not authorized to use is the one genuinely risky option. If you are using one now, have it reviewed.
Electronic signatures, and the one carve out
Leases are fully enforceable when signed electronically, under both federal and Texas law. There is no exclusion for residential leases.
Eviction notices are different. Federal e-signature law specifically carves out notices of eviction for a primary residence. Texas law also lets a party who agreed to one electronic transaction refuse others, and that right cannot be waived by agreement.
The practical rule: sign the lease electronically without worry. For any notice you actually intend to act on, also deliver it by hand or by mail. Do not rely on email alone for the notice that starts an eviction.
Section 7: Collecting Rent
Payment apps built for splitting dinner are not built for tenancy. What you lose with them is not convenience, it is evidence.
What Venmo And Zelle Cost You
- No ledger. In a deposit dispute or an eviction you need a payment history a judge can read, not a scroll of app notifications.
- No automatic late fee. Enforcing it manually every month is how landlords quietly stop enforcing it.
- No receipts. A tenant who says they paid and a landlord who says they did not is a bad place to be without records.
- No credit reporting. On platforms that offer it, on time rent can help a good tenant build credit, which is a genuine reason for them to stay.
- No separation. Rent, deposits and your own money in one account is exactly what makes a deposit itemization hard to defend later.
Choosing a platform. Verified August 2026 on each vendor's own pages. Prices and features change, so confirm before you sign up. Pick on which column matters most to you.
Best late fee controls
RentRedi
About $12 a month billed annually, flat for unlimited units, so the cost per door drops as you add properties. Reports to all three credit bureaus. The late fee settings are the most precise of any platform here, which matters for the Texas rule below. Separate deposit account per property. Funding in two to three days.
Best deposit handling
Baselane
Free core tier. Reports to all three bureaus. It is the only one that lets you open a genuinely separate deposit account per tenant or property at no cost, which is exactly the discipline the deposit rules reward. Funding takes five business days unless you pay for the faster tier.
Free, and best reviewed
Innago
Free to landlords, the strongest review record of any platform here, and the fastest funding at one to two business days. The tradeoff is real: it reports to TransUnion only and cannot report past payments, so it is the weakest choice if credit building is what you are offering tenants.
Simple free option
Avail
Free tier where tenants pay $2.50 per bank transfer, waived on the paid plan. Reports to TransUnion only, at a few dollars a month paid by the tenant, and can back report up to two years. Funding up to three business days.
Two notes worth knowing. If reporting rent to all three bureaus matters to you, RentRedi and Baselane are the two confirmed to do it. And platforms priced per unit get expensive faster than flat rate ones, so run the math at the number of doors you expect to own, not the number you own today.
Texas Property Code 92.019
Late fees have three conditions
A late fee is only enforceable if the fee is stated in a written lease, the amount is reasonable, and any part of the rent is still unpaid two full days after it was due. Charging on day one is not allowed no matter what the lease says.
For a building with four units or fewer, a fee up to 12 percent of the monthly rent is considered reasonable. Above four units it is 10 percent. Going higher is only defensible up to your actual costs from the late payment. An initial charge plus daily charges together count as one late fee.
Charge one that violates this and you owe $100 plus three times the fee collected plus their attorney fees. Separately, if a tenant asks in writing whether a late fee is owed, you must answer in writing.
Check your platform's grace period setting today
Several rent platforms let you set the grace period to zero, which would charge a late fee on day one and violate the rule above. Whichever platform you use, set the grace period to at least two days and make the fee match what your written lease actually says. A default setting is not a legal defense.
Section 8: Security Deposits
More small landlords get sued over deposits than over anything else, and the penalties are structured so that losing costs far more than the deposit ever was.
Refund within 30 days of surrender
Thirty days from the date the tenant surrenders the property. Missing that deadline creates a legal presumption that you acted in bad faith, and you carry the burden of proving otherwise.
Their forwarding address starts your clock
You are not obligated to refund or itemize until the tenant gives you a written forwarding address. But they do not lose their rights by failing to give one, so do not treat that as a way out.
Itemize every deduction in writing
A written description and itemized list of each deduction, with the balance. The exception is narrow: only if the tenant owed rent when they left and there is no dispute about the amount.
Normal wear and tear is not deductible
Carpet worn along a hallway is wear. A hole in the door is damage. Photograph the property at move in and again at move out, dated, and the argument mostly disappears.
Texas Property Code 92.109
What it costs to get this wrong
Keeping a deposit in bad faith: $100 plus three times the portion wrongly withheld plus their attorney fees.
Failing in bad faith to give the written description and itemized list: you forfeit the right to keep any of the deposit at all, and you forfeit the right to sue the tenant for damages to the property. That second part is what turns a small dispute into a total loss.
The burden of proving a deduction was reasonable is yours, not theirs.
Texas does not require an escrow account, but keep one anyway
There is no cap on the deposit amount, no requirement to hold it separately, and no requirement to pay interest. None of that helps you when you have to prove where the money went. A separate account holding only deposits is what makes a thirty day itemization straightforward instead of an archaeology project.
Section 9: Repairs You Cannot Contract Away
An as is clause does not waive your repair duties. Texas law makes those duties non waivable, and a lease term purporting to waive them is void.
- The duty triggers when the tenant gives notice to where rent is normally paid, is not behind on rent at that moment, and the condition materially affects health or safety
- Seven days is presumed to be a reasonable time to repair, and that presumption can be rebutted either way
- You are not responsible for damage the tenant caused
- A tenant can repair and deduct up to one month's rent or $500, whichever is greater
- Failing the repair duty exposes you to a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500, on top of actual damages
Disclosures your lease has to carry. The flood disclosure rule changed in September 2025: it may now sit in the lease itself, in an addendum, or in a separate document, and both you and the tenant must sign whichever document contains it.
Flood history and floodplain
Both parties sign the document containing it. Rule changed September 2025.
Owner and manager identity
Name and address of the owner or the person managing the property.
Security devices
Keyless bolts, door viewers and window latches, installed at your expense.
Smoke alarms
Installed, and repaired within seven days of written notice.
Emergency phone number
A number the tenant can reach for emergencies.
Lead based paint
Federal requirement for any housing built before 1978.
Section 10: The Penalty Table
If you read one page of this packet twice, make it this one. These are statutory penalties that stack on top of whatever actual damages a tenant proves, plus their attorney fees.
What Each Mistake Costs
- Locking a tenant out or removing doors. One month's rent plus $1,000, plus actual damages and fees. Another month's rent on top if you fail to provide a key.
- Shutting off utilities to force someone out. Actual damages plus one month's rent plus $1,000, plus fees.
- Retaliating within six months of a repair request, a good faith code complaint, or tenant organizing. One month's rent plus $500 plus actual damages.
- Not rekeying between tenants. Required within seven days of turnover, at your expense. One month's rent plus $500. The most commonly missed rule in this packet.
- Missing security devices. One month's rent plus $500.
- Smoke alarms not installed, or not repaired within seven days of written notice. One month's rent plus $100.
- Not disclosing the owner or manager. One month's rent plus $100 to the tenant.
- Not giving a lease copy within three business days. No dollar penalty, but a court must pause any enforcement action against the tenant until you provide it.
Section 11: Insurance
A homeowner policy assumes you live there. Once tenants move in, the carrier can rescind it. A rental property needs a landlord policy, and in Texas the fine print on the roof is where the money is.
What you want
Replacement cost
An open peril landlord policy that pays replacement cost. It covers the dwelling, lost rent while the property is uninhabitable, and liability.
What you may have
Actual cash value
A named peril policy paying depreciated value. Appropriate for a vacant rehab, painful on a rented house with a ten year old roof.
The expensive Texas surprise
Read your declarations page for these four things
Many Texas policies quietly convert roof coverage from replacement cost to depreciated value once the roof reaches a certain age, often fifteen years and sometimes ten. On a $20,000 roof that can be the difference between paying your deductible and paying most of the bill.
Separately, wind and hail deductibles in Texas are commonly a percentage of the dwelling coverage rather than a flat dollar amount. Two percent on a $400,000 dwelling is an $8,000 deductible before you see a dollar.
Check these four lines: the loss settlement provision, the roof payment schedule and its age trigger, the wind and hail deductible and whether it is a percentage, and whether cosmetic damage is excluded.
Two more things worth doing
Require renters insurance in the lease. It is enforceable if it is written in. State a minimum liability limit, require being named as an interested party so you are told if it lapses, and say what happens if it does.
Consider an umbrella policy before an LLC. For most owners at one to ten doors, an umbrella is cheaper, simpler, and does not complicate your financing or your taxes. Talk to your own advisors before restructuring ownership.
Section 12: Books That Survive An Audit
Rental income and expenses go on Schedule E, per property. Two habits make that painless and make you defensible if anyone ever looks closely.
- A separate bank account per property, or at minimum one account for all rentals kept entirely apart from personal money
- A security deposit is not income. It is money you are holding that belongs to someone else, and it should be tracked as a liability rather than revenue
- Track mileage from the day you start. Property visits, hardware runs and showings add up and are routinely missed
- Split your mortgage payment into principal, interest, taxes and insurance. Only some of it is deductible
- Keep every receipt with the property it belongs to, not in one pile for all of them
Capital improvements versus repairs
Fixing a leak is a repair and is deductible this year. Replacing the roof is an improvement and is depreciated over time. Getting this wrong in either direction is one of the most common findings in a rental property audit. Ask your CPA before a large job, not after.
Section 13: When It Goes Wrong
Changed January 1, 2026
Texas eviction rules were rewritten
For eviction cases filed on or after January 1, 2026, the procedure changed substantially. Anything you read online written before that date is out of date, and a great deal of it is still circulating.
The change that matters most to you: for a first missed payment during the lease term, you now generally have to give a notice to pay rent or vacate that gives the tenant a chance to cure, rather than a straight notice to vacate.
Notice
Follow the current notice rules exactly, and deliver by hand or mail. Electronic delivery is only permitted where the tenant agreed to it in writing, and even then it is not the safe route for a notice you intend to act on.
File in the right precinct
Bexar County has four Justice of the Peace precincts. You file where the property sits, not where you live. As of 2026 the petition is about $54 with roughly $117 for service.
The hearing
The constable attempts service within five business days, and trial is generally set between the tenth and twenty first day. You may represent yourself, and Texas expressly allows an authorized agent who is not an attorney to represent a party in justice court.
Writ of possession
If you win and the tenant does not leave, a writ is required. Budget roughly $287 in additional fees. Never remove someone yourself.
Where to get real help
The State Bar lawyer referral service does not cover Bexar County. Use the San Antonio Bar Association referral service at 210-227-8822 or salawhelp.org. The referral is free and many attorneys offer a free initial consultation.
The Texas Justice Court Training Center publishes an evictions deskbook that is current with the 2026 changes. Search for it on tjctc.org rather than opening an older copy from a search result, because the outdated versions still rank well and do not reflect the new rules.
Section 14: When To Stop Doing This Yourself
Honest Signals You Want A Property Manager
- You do not live here anymore. Distance turns a two hour problem into a two week problem.
- More than about four doors while working a full time job. The math stops working before the stress does.
- No contractor bench. If you are searching for a plumber when the water is already running, you are paying emergency rates every time.
- You cannot enforce a late fee without losing sleep. That is a real answer and it is common. A manager enforces the lease so the relationship is not yours to manage.
- The property costs you more evenings than it earns. Put a number on your own hours and compare it honestly to a management fee.
None of that means selling. It usually means changing who does the work. And if you do decide it is time to sell, the number that matters is what the property is actually worth today against what holding it earns you, not what you paid for it.
Your Next Step
Have Me Run The Numbers
Market rent for your property, what a turnover really costs you, or an honest hold versus sell comparison. No obligation and no pitch.
Get In Touch movingtexas.ai/contactThis packet is general information for Texas landlords, not legal, tax or insurance advice, and it does not create any professional relationship. Statutes, rules and fees cited were verified in August 2026 and do change, sometimes quickly. Verify anything you intend to rely on and talk to a Texas attorney about your specific situation. See also my renter resources for the tenant side of the same transaction, and my investor page if you are thinking about the next property.
David Torres
Realtor | MRP | PSA
Realvisor Realty
Leasing, renewals, and honest hold versus sell math for San Antonio owners.