Tenant Stopped Paying Rent in Austin? Here's What to Do This Week

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If your tenant did not pay rent this month, the single most important thing you can do in the next 72 hours is document, communicate in writing, and stop yourself from doing anything that Texas Property Code Section 92.0081 makes illegal: locking them out, shutting off utilities, removing their property, or threatening any of those. That statute alone exposes a landlord to one month’s rent plus $1,000, actual damages, attorney fees, and court costs per violation. Most owners who lose money in a non-payment situation do not lose it to the tenant. They lose it to themselves, in the first week, by doing something the law calls “self-help” eviction.

Landlord Crisis Playbook on Kendall Creek Properties — Austin Property Management

Tenant Stopped Paying Rent in Austin? Here's What to Do This Week