Landlord Security Responsibilities in Texas

Title 8, Chapter 91 of the Texas Property Code incorporates the respective rights and duties between Texas landlords and their tenants. According to the Texas Property Code, Texas landlords have implicit duties to provide their tenants with clean and habitable housing, to respect their tenants' peaceful possession and use of their homes, and to provide safe housing. When Texas landlords breach any of their implicit duties, including their duties to provide their tenants with safe premises, their tenants can sue them or terminate their leases. Since state laws can change frequently, do not use this information as a substitute for legal advice. Seek advice through an attorney licensed to practice law in your state.

Texas Property Code

The Texas Property Code requires that landlords provide their tenants with safe living conditions. Landlords must install keyed dead bolts on all of their tenants' exterior doors, peepholes and sliding door security latches. Landlords may have additional security duties, as required by local ordinance. Generally, landlords must provide their tenants with these minimum-security measures at their own expense. Failure to provide them may allow Texas courts to assess fines against them, require them to return security deposits and rent to tenants, and may require them to cease their rental activities until they comply with the housing codes.

Locks and Smoke Detectors

Texas law requires landlords to provide their landlords with new locks or re-key their exterior doors between tenancies. After each tenant moves out, landlords must re-key or change their locks before a new tenant moves in, and at the latest, they must re-key or change their locks within seven days after their tenants move in. Furthermore, Texas law requires that landlords test all of their smoke detectors to ensure they work properly before their tenants move in.

Expenses

Landlords cannot charge their tenants for re-keying their doors, changing their locks, or installing or repairing smoke detectors if they fail to work properly because of normal use. However, landlords can require their tenants to pay for these repairs if their tenants or their guests damage their security devices.

Tenants' Rights to Re-Key or Change Locks

Tenants can demand that their tenants re-key or change their locks if they experience attempted or actual burglaries or break-ins within their units or to other units in their complexes within a two-month period. Landlords must re-key or change their locks within three days. For all other re-key or lock change requests, landlords must provide them if their tenants request them in writing within seven days.

Tenants' Remedies

Tenants can sue their landlords to force them to provide these security measures or they may be able to terminate their leases prematurely. Furthermore, Texas law allows tenants to implement repair and deduct remedies. This allows tenants to repair their homes to provide the adequate security measures and to deduct the costs of doing so from their monthly rental payments. To use these remedies, tenants must comply with the Texas Property Code by providing their landlords with written notice and opportunity to repair. Tenants may be able to collect civil penalties of up to $500, a month of rent, legal fees and attorneys' fees if their landlords fail to re-key or change their locks

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