Texas 3-Day Notice to Vacate: Form, Delivery, and Counting Days

A Texas 3-day notice to vacate is the written demand a landlord must give a tenant before filing an eviction suit, and under Texas Property Code Section 24.005 the default notice period is three days unless the lease sets a different one.¹ Getting this notice right is the most consequential step in the eviction process. A flawed notice can get the whole case dismissed before a judge ever reaches the merits, so the type of form you choose, what you put on it, and how you deliver it all need to match the situation.

Pick the Right Type of Notice

Texas law distinguishes between a straight “notice to vacate” and a “notice to pay rent or vacate.” Using the wrong one is one of the most common ways landlords lose eviction cases.

First-time nonpayment. If the tenant was not late or delinquent in paying rent during the month before you send the notice, you must use a “notice to pay rent or vacate.” That form gives the tenant a window to pay the overdue rent and stay.¹
Repeat nonpayment. If the tenant was already late or delinquent the previous month, you can use either a “pay rent or vacate” notice or a straight notice to vacate.¹
Holdover after the lease ends. Use a straight notice to vacate, and also comply with the tenancy-termination requirements of Section 91.001.¹
Lease violations other than nonpayment. Use a straight notice to vacate.
Tenant at will or by sufferance. Use a notice to vacate with at least three days’ notice, unless a written agreement sets a different period.¹

The distinction matters. A “pay or vacate” notice is conditional by design; it has to give the tenant a chance to cure. Serving a straight notice to vacate in a first-time nonpayment situation gives the tenant grounds to have the case dismissed.

What to Include on the Form

The statute itself is lean. It requires a “written notice to vacate” with at least three days’ notice and does not spell out specific content fields.¹ A judge reviewing the notice at an eviction hearing will nonetheless want to see enough on the page to confirm the right tenant at the right property was told to leave for a clear reason. At minimum, your notice should include:

Tenant names. List every adult occupant on the lease. The statute doesn’t require names, but identifying the tenants prevents confusion in court.
Property address. Full street address, including any apartment or unit number.
Reason for the notice. Nonpayment of rent with the amount owed, lease violation with the specific provision cited, or holdover after lease expiration.
Notice period. State that the tenant has at least three days to vacate, or the period your lease specifies if it differs from the statutory default.
Date of the notice. This anchors the start of the notice period and becomes evidence at the hearing.
Landlord’s name and signature. The owner or an authorized agent should sign.

If the form is a “pay rent or vacate” notice, state the exact amount owed and that the tenant can avoid eviction by paying the full amount within the notice period. Vague language about what is owed invites arguments at trial.

Make sure the notice period you write matches what your lease actually says. If the lease sets a longer period than three days, use the lease period. A mismatch between the lease and the notice is one of the fastest ways to lose.

Where to Get a Template

The Texas Justice Court Training Center maintains a forms library that includes landlord-tenant documents.² The Texas State Law Library also links to official court forms and resources for landlord-tenant matters.³ Many Justice of the Peace courts also publish their own templates, sometimes with precinct-specific instructions. Court-provided forms reduce the risk of drafting errors that can get the notice challenged later.

When filling out a template, confirm it reflects the right type of notice for your situation. A generic “notice to vacate” form will not work for a first-time nonpayment case that calls for a pay-or-vacate notice.

How to Deliver the Notice

Texas Property Code Section 24.005 formerly set out specific delivery methods in subsections (f) and (f-1), but the Texas Legislature repealed both subsections effective January 1, 2026.¹ Before the repeal, the statute authorized the methods below, and most court-provided templates and justice courts still follow them:

Personal delivery. Hand the notice to the tenant or to anyone at least 16 years old living at the property.
Posting inside the front door. Affix the notice to the inside of the main entry door.
Mail. Send by regular mail, registered mail, or certified mail with return receipt requested to the property address.
Posting outside the front door, in limited situations. If the property has no mailbox and a keyless deadbolt, alarm, or dangerous animal prevents access to the interior, or if the landlord reasonably believes personal delivery would cause harm, the notice may be placed in a sealed envelope on the outside of the front door. The envelope must show the tenant’s name, address, and the words “IMPORTANT DOCUMENT” in capital letters. A copy must also be mailed from the same county by 5:00 p.m. the same day.

Because the specific delivery subsections were repealed in 2026, check with your Justice of the Peace court for any updated local guidance. Your lease may also specify how notices must be served; follow those terms if they exist.

Whichever method you use, keep proof. A signed acknowledgment from the tenant, a certified mail return receipt, a timestamped photograph of the posted notice, or a witness who can later sign an affidavit all work. Without proof of delivery, you have no evidence the notice period ever started.

How to Count the Three Days

The notice period does not start on the day you deliver. It begins the following day. Hand-deliver on a Monday, and day one is Tuesday; the three-day window expires at the end of Thursday. The statute does not exclude weekends or holidays, so a notice delivered on a Friday runs through the weekend and expires Monday.

Mail complicates the count because the clock runs from when the tenant actually receives the notice, not when you drop it in the mailbox. Certified mail with a return receipt gives you a documented delivery date. Regular mail creates ambiguity, and a judge may or may not accept your estimate of when it arrived. Personal delivery or certified mail is almost always the better choice when the three-day window matters.

Once the notice period expires and the tenant has not vacated, or paid in the case of a pay-or-vacate notice, you can file the eviction suit. Filing even one day too early gives the tenant a procedural defense.

When Three Days Isn’t Enough

A properly drafted three-day notice is not always the right notice. Several situations require more time or a different approach.

Properties Bought at Foreclosure

If you acquired the property at a tax foreclosure sale or a trustee’s foreclosure sale under a lien that was senior to the tenant’s lease, and the tenant has been paying rent on time and is otherwise complying with the lease, you must give at least 30 days’ written notice to vacate, not three.¹ This longer period applies only to residential tenants whose lease was subordinate to the foreclosed lien. Investors acquiring property at auction routinely overlook it.

Federally Backed Properties (CARES Act)

The CARES Act requires landlords of “covered dwellings,” meaning properties with federally backed mortgages or federal subsidies, to give tenants at least 30 days’ notice to vacate regardless of state law.⁴ Covered properties include those financed through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, USDA, or participating in federal housing programs like Section 8 project-based rental assistance and public housing.

Texas Property Code Section 24.005(c-1) states that a landlord who complies with the state’s notice requirements is not required to delay filing based on a federal notice requirement, and that federal notice rules are not grounds for a court to delay the proceeding.¹ How the state provision interacts with the federal 30-day rule has not been definitively resolved. If your property is federally backed or subsidized, giving the full 30 days is the safer course.

Active-Duty Servicemembers (SCRA)

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act prohibits evicting an active-duty servicemember or their dependents without a court order, as long as the property is the servicemember’s primary residence and monthly rent falls under the annually adjusted threshold. For 2026 that threshold is approximately $10,240 per month, which covers nearly all residential rentals. If military service has materially affected the servicemember’s ability to pay, the court can stay the proceedings for 90 days or adjust the lease terms. Knowingly evicting a covered servicemember without a court order is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.⁵ If the tenant does not appear at the hearing, the court must receive an affidavit of military status before entering a default judgment.

Retaliation Window

Texas law prohibits a landlord from filing eviction within six months after a tenant exercises certain protected rights, including requesting repairs, complaining to a housing or building code agency, or participating in a tenant organization.⁶ Sending a notice to vacate within that window lets the tenant raise retaliation as a defense, and the timing alone may shift the burden to you to prove the eviction was not retaliatory. You can still evict for legitimate, documented grounds, but the documentation should predate the tenant’s protected activity.

1
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 24-005 – Notice Required Before Filing Certain Eviction Suits
2
Texas Justice Court Training Center. Forms
3
Texas State Law Library. Commonly Requested Legal Forms – Landlord/Tenant
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 9058 – Temporary Moratorium on Eviction Filings
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress
6
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92-331 – Retaliation by Landlord