A Texas JP court eviction takes 3 to 6 weeks from the day you deliver the Notice to Vacate to the day a constable physically removes a tenant, and the all-in cost on a $2,500 a month Austin rental usually lands between $8,000 and $12,000 once you count lost rent, court costs, attorney fees, and the turn after. The court costs themselves are the smallest line on that ledger. The lost rent is the big one. Texas Property Code Section 24.005 sets the 3-day default notice period unless the lease says otherwise, and the speed of the rest of the process depends entirely on getting that first step right.
Sounds like a lot right. Because it is. And every owner I have ever talked to in the middle of an eviction wished they had spent more time on tenant screening (which is the actual lesson of this post, but lets get to that in a bit).
I run Kendall Creek Properties in Austin and I am also the broker-owner of Neuhaus Realty Group, a residential sales brokerage serving Austin since 2007. We file evictions in every Travis County JP precinct when we have to. If you are in active conflict with a tenant right now, the goal here is to tell you what each step actually costs and where landlords mess up the paperwork badly enough that they have to refile.
Step 1: The Notice to Vacate
Everything starts with notice. Section 24.005 of the Texas Property Code says you must give the tenant a written Notice to Vacate before you can file a forcible detainer suit. The default is 3 days. The lease can lengthen it (some TAA leases push it to 10 or longer) and can shorten it in some non-payment scenarios. So before you do anything else, pull the lease and read the notice provision out loud. Whatever it says controls. If you give 3 days when the lease requires 10, the JP throws out your case and you start over. I have watched it happen.
Delivery methods the statute accepts:
- Personal delivery to the tenant or any person 16 or older at the property
- First-class mail, with optional certified return receipt (recommended for the paper trail)
- Securely affixed to the inside of the main entry door
- If the door is unsafe to access, posted on the outside
Mail starts the clock when you mail it, not when the tenant receives it. Posting starts the clock the day you post. Take a photo. Save the receipt. The tenant’s first defense in court is usually “I never got the notice.”
In our PM practice we deliver every Notice to Vacate two ways at once: certified mail plus securely affixed to the inside of the door, with a date-stamped photo of both. Belt and suspenders. The extra postage is cheap. Refiling because the judge questions service is not.
The broader Texas eviction process walkthrough covers the upstream and downstream pieces. This post is the JP court middle in detail.
Step 2: File the Forcible Detainer Suit
After the notice period expires (and not one minute before), you file the eviction suit in the JP court for the precinct where the property is located. Travis County has five JP precincts and each one handles its own docket on its own pace.
Filing costs in Travis County run roughly $54 to $121 in court fees plus $75 to $160 for service. Total to get the case moving is usually $130 to $280. Exact numbers vary by precinct and get updated, so call the clerk and ask. Do not trust the number from a forum post.
The clerk will want:
- The completed eviction petition (forcible detainer)
- The Notice to Vacate plus proof of delivery
- A copy of the lease
- The rent ledger (for non-payment cases)
- Filing fee
For non-payment, the petition should match the ledger to the dollar. The judge will compare them. Math errors get cases tossed.
Step 3: Service of Process
Once filed, a constable (or court-certified private process server) serves the tenant. The tenant must be served at least 6 days before the hearing. If personal service fails after diligent effort, the citation gets posted on the door plus mailed first class (“nail and mail”).
If the tenant is dodging service, expect a delay of one to two weeks. Some landlords use private process servers because they are faster than overworked constable offices, which is worth the extra fee in a hot eviction.
Step 4: The Hearing
The hearing is set for 10 to 21 days after filing under Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 510.4. Both sides show up at the JP court on the date and time on the citation. The judge hears the case (usually in 10 to 20 minutes) and rules from the bench in most situations.
What to bring:
- Lease
- Notice to Vacate with proof of delivery
- Ledger
- Photos if relevant (damage cases)
- Any communication trail with the tenant (texts, emails)
- A clean one-page summary of the timeline
JP court is not formal court. No jury. The judge is moving through 30+ cases in a morning. Bring printed copies, organized in order. Hand the judge your packet first. Do not argue with the tenant. Walk through the facts.
Things that will lose you the case faster than anything:
- You accepted partial rent after the Notice to Vacate expired (can be interpreted as waiver)
- The notice period in your delivery did not match the lease
- The lease is unsigned, expired, or the tenant disputes a clause that is genuinely unenforceable
- You retaliated against the tenant for a legitimate repair complaint (Section 92.331)
Wins go to the prepared landlord with a clean ledger and clean notice trail. Losses go to the one who showed up with shoebox documentation.
Step 5: The 5-Day Appeal Window
After the judgment, the tenant has 5 days to appeal to county court (or file a pauper’s affidavit if they cannot afford the appeal bond). If they appeal, the timeline resets and you are looking at another 30 to 90 days on the county court docket.
If no appeal is filed within 5 days, you can request the writ of possession. Most uncontested non-payment evictions never get appealed. Tenants who do not show up at the hearing almost never appeal. Tenants who show up and lose appeal more often than not.
Step 6: Writ of Possession
Once the 5 day appeal window closes, you go back to the JP clerk and request a writ of possession. The writ costs another $150 to $200 to issue and execute. The constable posts a 24-hour warning on the property, and after that 24 hours expires, returns with movers and physically removes the tenant and their belongings to the curb or to a bonded warehouse.
This step takes another 6 to 10 days from writ request to constable execution. The constable’s office sets the actual time.
You do not put the tenant’s stuff out yourself. The constable does. You can be present and you usually want to be (to take possession, change locks immediately, document condition).
The Realistic Total Timeline
For a clean uncontested non-payment eviction with no appeal:
- Notice to Vacate period: 3 to 10 days (depends on lease)
- Filing to hearing: 10 to 21 days
- Appeal window: 5 days
- Writ request to constable execution: 6 to 10 days
Total: 24 to 46 days, or roughly 3 to 6 weeks.
Add a continuance and you add 2 to 4 weeks. Add a county court appeal and you add 30 to 90 days. The worst eviction I have personally watched in Austin ran 4 months from notice to recovered unit. That owner burned through about $14,000 in lost rent and turn costs before re-leasing.
The Real Cost on a $2,500 a Month Austin Unit
Court costs are a rounding error. The math for a typical non-payment case running 12 weeks from missed rent to new tenant move-in:
- Lost rent during dispute and process: 3 months at $2,500 = $7,500
- Court filing, service, writ fees: $300 to $480
- Attorney fees if used: $500 to $2,000
- Turn costs after a hostile move-out: $2,000 to $4,000
- Vacancy after writ until new tenant: 53 day Austin average at $2,500 = roughly $4,350
Total: $8,000 to $12,000 for a routine case. Five figures is possible if the tenant is destructive on the way out. Court costs are the cheap part. Lost rent is the expensive part.
Self-Help Eviction Will Cost You More Than the Eviction Itself
This is where landlords get themselves into real trouble. Texas does not allow self-help eviction. You cannot:
- Change the locks (except under the very narrow Section 92.0081 lockout-for-nonpayment process)
- Shut off the utilities
- Remove the tenant’s belongings
- Threaten or harass to force a move-out
- Refuse maintenance to drive the tenant out
The penalty for an illegal lockout under Section 92.0081 is one month’s rent plus $1,000 plus actual damages plus attorney fees and court costs. I have seen one Austin owner do an illegal lockout on a tenant 6 weeks behind on an $1,800 rental, get sued, and end up owing the tenant more than the entire annual rent. The tenant kept the keys, kept living there, and walked out with a check.
The narrow lockout exception in Section 92.0081 lets you change locks for non-payment if you follow a very specific written notice procedure and give the tenant a new key on request. It does not end the tenancy. We do not use the lockout process at Kendall Creek Properties. JP court ends the tenancy. Lockout just collects late rent.
The Texas landlord tenant laws overview walks through the rest of Chapter 92.
Cash for Keys: When It Beats the Courthouse
Sometimes the right answer is to pay the tenant to leave. This is not weakness. This is math.
If you offer a tenant $500 to $2,500 to move out clean by a specific date and they take it, you skip 6 weeks of process, you skip the turn cost of a hostile move-out, and you get the unit back faster. Compare that to $8,000 to $12,000 of full eviction costs and cash for keys is often cheaper even at the high end of the offer.
What we look at before making a cash-for-keys offer:
- Is the tenant going to leave anyway, just slowly?
- Is the unit at risk of getting trashed on the way out?
- Is the JP precinct docket backed up?
If two of those are yes, we usually offer. The agreement is written, signed, and conditioned on a clean walkthrough and a specific move-out date. The check is paid at the walkthrough, not before. The tenant signs a release of all claims. We do not pay up front because a tenant who takes the money and squats has now wasted both the offer and the eviction process.
What Owners Should Have Done Six Months Ago
Every eviction is an upstream screening failure. If you are in JP court right now, the next eviction is the one you are about to prevent.
Tenant screening in Texas is the prevention work. Verified income at 3x rent. Real landlord references (not the friend pretending to be the prior landlord). Eviction history check. Credit check you actually read. None of this is hard. It just takes time, which owners skip when the unit has been vacant for a month and they are panicked about the mortgage.
The other prevention layer is process. A tenant 1 day late gets a polite-but-firm reminder. 4 days late gets the late fee notice in writing. 10 days late means a real conversation about a payment plan or soft cash-for-keys exit. By the time you are filing a Notice to Vacate, you have already missed the off-ramps.
If you self-manage, build the calendar. If that sounds like a job and a half (because it is), hiring a property manager in Austin is the version where someone else owns the calendar. We file evictions less often than self-managing owners do, because the upstream work catches bad placements before they sign.
For the day-by-day moves when rent is late and not coming, the tenant wont pay rent Austin playbook covers the decision tree before filing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a Texas JP court eviction really take?
3 to 6 weeks from the Notice to Vacate to the constable removing the tenant, assuming no appeal and no continuance. Add 30 to 90 days if the tenant appeals to county court.
What is the filing fee for an eviction in Travis County?
Roughly $54 to $121 in court fees plus $75 to $160 for service. Total filing cost lands between $130 and $280 depending on the precinct. Call the precinct clerk for the current fee schedule.
Can I change the locks if my tenant has not paid rent?
Only under the narrow conditions in Texas Property Code Section 92.0081, and the lockout does not end the tenancy. Outside those conditions a lockout is illegal: penalty is one month’s rent plus $1,000 plus actual damages and attorney fees.
Do I need a lawyer for a JP court eviction?
No. JP court is designed for self-represented parties. For contested cases, complicated lease disputes, or habitability counterclaims, an attorney is worth $500 to $2,000.
What happens if the tenant does not show up to the hearing?
The judge almost always rules in the landlord’s favor by default, assuming your paperwork is correct. Tenants who do not show up rarely appeal.
Can I evict for lease violations other than non-payment?
Yes. Unauthorized occupants, pets in violation, documented noise complaints, illegal activity. Notice period and process are largely the same. The lease should specify which violations are curable.
If You Are In It Right Now
If you are in active conflict with a tenant and trying to figure out the next move, reach out to our team. We can walk through where you are in the process and whether cash for keys or full eviction is the cleaner exit. We do not usually take over mid-eviction (upstream documentation is too deep by then) but the conversation is free.
For owners who want someone else to own this on future tenancies, here is what our property management service covers. Prevention is most of the value. Execution is the other part.
Be safe, be good, be nice to people. And document everything.