How to File Theft of Services in Texas: Reports, Evidence, and Penalties

To file a theft of services complaint in Texas, send the person a written demand for payment, wait ten days, and then take your documentation to your local police or sheriff’s office to open a criminal report. That ten-day window matters: under Texas Penal Code Section 31.04, a properly delivered demand followed by ten days of silence creates a legal presumption that the person intended to avoid paying, and that presumption is what turns an unpaid bill into a prosecutable case.¹

Start With a Written Demand for Payment

Most people skip this step and regret it. Without the demand, you’re asking a prosecutor to prove the debtor’s state of mind from scratch. With it, the statute does that work for you.

The demand must be in writing and delivered through one of four approved methods: certified or registered mail with return receipt requested, a commercial delivery service, email, or text message.¹ Send it to the address, email, or phone number listed on your service agreement, rental contract, or business records. If the person paid you by check at any point, the address on the check or the bank’s records also works.

State the amount owed, describe the services you provided, and set a payment deadline. Keep a copy of the letter and proof of delivery. The law presumes the demand was received within five days of being sent; if ten days pass after that receipt with no payment, the intent element is legally established.

One situation lets you skip the demand entirely: if the person left without paying in a setting where immediate payment is expected, like a restaurant, hotel, or campground, the statute presumes intent to avoid payment without any letter.¹

File a Report With Law Enforcement

Once the ten-day window closes, go to your local police department or sheriff’s office. Bring everything you have: the demand letter, the delivery receipt, the original contract or invoice, and any messages exchanged with the person who owes you. Organized documentation gets a report taken seriously; a vague verbal complaint often does not.

Officers evaluate what you bring against Section 31.04. The statute reaches several scenarios: securing services through deception, walking out of a place where payment is expected on the spot, ignoring a written demand after receiving services, and holding rented property past the return date.²

Get the report number, ask who the assigned officer is, and stay in contact. Investigators may pull surveillance footage, interview witnesses, or consult experts before forwarding the case to the prosecutor’s office. Cases with a clean demand letter and clear paperwork move; cases without them tend to stall.

If Police Won’t Act: Filing a Private Criminal Complaint

Texas gives you a second route when law enforcement declines to investigate or the file goes quiet. You can prepare a sworn affidavit and present it directly to a magistrate, who decides whether probable cause exists to issue a summons or an arrest warrant.³

Your affidavit needs the accused’s name, or a detailed physical description if you don’t have one. It needs a direct statement that the person committed theft of services, or the facts giving you good reason to believe they did. It needs the time and place of the offense stated as specifically as you can manage. And you must sign it in the magistrate’s presence.³

Bring the same evidence you brought to police: contract, invoices, demand letter and delivery receipt, and any communications where the person acknowledged the debt. A thin affidavit with no supporting documents rarely produces a warrant.

Evidence That Makes the Case

Start pulling records together the moment you decide to file. Memories fade, phones get replaced, and surveillance systems overwrite themselves on cycles that can run as short as thirty days.

The core documents are the service agreement, your invoices, and proof the work was actually done. Contractors should photograph completed work. Businesses should preserve POS records or register receipts. Rental cases turn on the signed agreement and the records showing when the property was due back.

Electronic communications carry weight, especially messages where the person acknowledges the debt, asks for more time, or makes excuses. Save texts, emails, and voicemails. Screenshots are useful, but keep the originals on your device so you can authenticate them later if needed.

Surveillance footage is decisive in walkout cases. If your business has cameras, pull and save the relevant clip before the system recycles it. Statements from employees or bystanders who saw the services being provided or saw the person leave without paying help too. Talk to them early, while what happened is still fresh.

Penalties by Dollar Value

Theft of services uses the same seven-tier offense ladder Texas applies to other theft crimes, and the value of the unpaid services determines the grade of the charge.²

Under $100 is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $500 with no jail time.⁴
$100 to $749 is a Class B misdemeanor, up to 180 days in county jail and a fine up to $2,000.⁵
$750 to $2,499 is a Class A misdemeanor, up to one year in county jail and a fine up to $4,000.⁵
$2,500 to $29,999 is a state jail felony, 180 days to two years and a fine up to $10,000.⁵
$30,000 to $149,999 is a third-degree felony, two to ten years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.⁵
$150,000 to $299,999 is a second-degree felony, two to twenty years and a fine up to $10,000.⁶
$300,000 or more is a first-degree felony, five to ninety-nine years or life and a fine up to $10,000.²

Courts can also order restitution on top of any fine, requiring the offender to repay you for the full value of what was taken.

Rented Property Uses Different Deadlines

If your case involves someone holding rented equipment or other personal property past the return date under a written rental agreement, the demand still goes out through one of the four approved methods, but the deadline the renter has to return the property depends on the property’s value:

Property worth less than $2,500: five days after receiving the demand.
Property worth $2,500 to $9,999: three days after receiving the demand.
Property worth $10,000 or more: two days after receiving the demand.¹

Miss the deadline and the law presumes the renter intended to keep the property. Rent-to-own agreements that let an individual use property for personal or household purposes and become the owner after enough payments are specifically excluded from these standard rental presumptions.¹

You Can Sue at the Same Time

Filing criminally does not lock you out of civil court. The Texas Theft Liability Act lets you sue the person directly, and for many victims that route recovers money faster because you control the case instead of waiting on a prosecutor.

Under the Act, you can recover your actual damages plus additional damages of up to $1,000. If you’re suing a parent or guardian because the person who took the services was a minor, actual damages are capped at $5,000.⁷ The prevailing party also gets court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, which makes smaller claims worth pursuing.

Civil and criminal cases run independently. You don’t need a conviction to win the lawsuit, and the civil standard of proof (preponderance of the evidence) is lower than the criminal one (beyond a reasonable doubt).

Don’t Wait Too Long to File

Charges have to be filed within a set window measured from the date of the offense. For misdemeanor theft of services (under $2,500 in value), that window is two years. For felony-level cases ($2,500 and above), it’s five years.⁸

Those deadlines run to when charges are formally filed by the prosecutor, not to when you file your report or send your demand. If you sit on a Class B misdemeanor for a year and a half before reporting it, everyone downstream is working against a short clock. Send the demand as soon as it’s clear you won’t be paid voluntarily, and report promptly after the ten days run out.

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Chapter 31 – Theft
2
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 31.04 – Theft of Service
3
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 15 – Arrest Under Warrant
4
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.23 – Class C Misdemeanor
5
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Chapter 12 – Punishments
6
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.33 – Second Degree Felony Punishment
7
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 134 – Theft Liability Act
8
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 12 – Limitation