Notice to Vacate
The written demand for possession a Texas landlord must deliver before filing most eviction suits. Three days unless a written lease sets a different period, delivered by a method the Property Code permits. When the only ground is unpaid rent and the tenant has no earlier late payment, it must be a notice to pay rent or vacate.
Before filing a forcible detainer (eviction) suit, a Texas landlord must give the tenant at least three days' written notice to vacate, unless a written lease sets a shorter or longer period, under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005. The period runs from delivery and counts weekends, under § 24.0042.
A notice to vacate is the landlord's written demand that the tenant give up possession. It is a precondition to suit: a forcible detainer exists only when a person refuses to surrender possession after a written demand that meets the notice requirements of section 24.005 (Tex. Prop. Code § 24.002(b)). If the tenant stays past the deadline, the landlord's remedy is a suit in justice court.
The current text dates from January 1, 2026, when Senate Bill 38 amended Chapter 24 and the Supreme Court rewrote Rule 510 to match. A form or lease drafted before then may not track it.
- Default period
- 3 days' written notice, unless a written lease sets another period (§ 24.005(a))
- After foreclosure
- 30 days for a residential tenant current on rent, if the buyer ends the lease (§ 24.005(b))
- Delivery
- Mail, inside the premises in a conspicuous place, hand delivery to a tenant 16 or older, or agreed electronic means (§ 24.005(f-3))
- Counting
- Exclude the delivery day; weekends count; a weekend or holiday last day rolls forward (§ 24.0042)
- Where suit is filed
- Justice precinct where the property is located (§ 24.0041)
Who must get one and how long it runs
Section 24.005 sets a three-day minimum for a tenant under a written lease or oral rental agreement who defaults or holds over, for a tenant at will or by sufferance, and for a tenant of someone who took possession by forcible entry. Except for the tenant of a forcible entrant, the parties may contract for a shorter or longer period in a written lease or agreement. A person whose entry was a forcible entry under section 24.001 (including an entry without the consent of the person in possession) is treated differently: the notice may be oral or written and may demand that the occupant leave immediately (§ 24.005(d)).
A holdover adds a step. A landlord suing because the term has ended must also have terminated the tenancy as section 91.001 requires, which for a month-to-month tenancy paid monthly means notice taking effect on the later of the date stated or one month after the notice is given, unless both parties signed an instrument providing otherwise.
Notice to pay rent or vacate
Where the only ground is unpaid rent and the tenant had not been late or delinquent before the month in which notice is given, the notice must be a notice to pay rent or vacate. A tenant with an earlier late payment may receive either form (§ 24.005(a)). The sworn petition has to say which kind of notice was given, when and how, and in a nonpayment case whether the tenant had been late before that month (Tex. R. Civ. P. 510.6(a)(9), (11)).
Delivery and counting
The notice must go by at least one listed method: mail of any class or a delivery service, delivery to the inside of the premises in a conspicuous place, hand delivery to any tenant 16 or older, or e-mail or other electronic means if the parties agreed in writing (§ 24.005(f-3)). None of that matters if the tenant actually receives the notice (§ 24.005(f-4)).
Counting follows section 24.0042. The day of delivery is excluded. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays count, except that a period ending on one of them runs to the next business day. A three-day notice delivered on a Wednesday expires at the end of Saturday and so carries to Monday.
Federal notice periods
Some federally connected housing carries a longer federal notice period. The CARES Act provision bars the lessor of a covered dwelling (one in a covered housing program or the rural housing voucher program, or with a federally backed mortgage) from requiring a tenant to leave until 30 days after a notice to vacate (15 U.S.C. § 9058(c)). Texas handles the overlap in section 24.005(c-1). A landlord that meets the state notice rules need not delay filing, the federal period is no ground to abate the suit, and the writ of possession cannot be served until the federal period has run from delivery of the notice.
What is the difference between a notice to vacate and an eviction?
The notice is a private demand made before any lawsuit, and the eviction is the lawsuit. Rule 510 says so directly: it governs eviction suits and does not apply to pre-suit notices, which Chapter 24 controls (Tex. R. Civ. P. 510.1(a)). Only after a judgment for possession does the court issue a writ of possession, and the executing officer must first post a warning on the door at least 24 hours in advance (Tex. Prop. Code § 24.0061).
Does Texas require 30 days' notice to vacate?
Not as a general rule: the default is three days, and a written lease can change it. Thirty days applies when a buyer at a trustee's or tax foreclosure sale ends the lease of a residential tenant who is current on rent and not otherwise in default (§ 24.005(b)), and federal law can require 30 days for covered properties. Ending a month-to-month tenancy is a separate step, and it takes one month's notice under section 91.001 unless both parties signed an instrument saying otherwise.
What's the fastest a landlord can evict a tenant in Texas?
Each stage has a floor. After the notice period runs, the landlord files a sworn petition. The citation must set trial between the 10th and 21st day after filing, and no trial may be held until 4 days after service (Tex. R. Civ. P. 510.8(b)(10), 510.15(b)). A writ of possession cannot issue before the sixth day after judgment unless the landlord posted a possession bond (§ 24.0061(b)). An appeal perfected within 5 days, with any required rent paid into the registry, stops the writ.
Commercial landlords use the same section 24.005 notice. A written lease may set a shorter or longer period, and any notice or cure provisions in the lease sit alongside the statute's delivery list, so the petition's description of how notice went out has to fit both. A landlord that wants attorney's fees without a lease fee clause needs a separate written demand under section 24.006, sent by registered or certified mail at least 10 days before suit, warning that fees may be recovered if the tenant does not leave before the 11th day. The eviction judgment settles possession only. Claims for rent beyond the $20,000 limit or for other damages proceed separately (§ 24.008).
- The notice period runs from delivery, computed under section 24.0042, and the landlord may file suit in the precinct where the property sits once it expires.
- If suit is filed, the citation states a trial date 10 to 21 days after filing. A written answer is optional, but a tenant who neither answers nor appears faces a default judgment (Tex. R. Civ. P. 510.11, 510.16).
- An appeal must be filed within 5 days after judgment, and a residential tenant who wants to stay during the appeal must pay the rent stated in the judgment into the court registry within 5 days of filing it (Tex. R. Civ. P. 510.19).
- Tenants and landlords commonly check the notice against the lease's notice clause, the delivery methods in section 24.005(f-3) and, where the tenant had not been late before, the pay-or-vacate requirement. Conduct by a landlord that forces a tenant out without suit raises separate issues, discussed under constructive eviction.
- A Texas lawyer who handles landlord-tenant matters can review the notice, the lease and the timeline.