Texas premises liability law lets you recover for injuries caused by a dangerous condition on someone else’s property, but only if you can show the owner knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to deal with it, your own share of fault stays at 50 percent or less, and you act within the deadlines. Those deadlines are short: two years to file suit, and just six months to put a government entity on notice.
What You Have to Prove
A premises liability claim comes down to four linked facts. If any one of them falls apart, the claim fails.
You first have to show the property owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition. Actual knowledge is simple: the owner knew it was there. Constructive knowledge requires evidence that the hazard existed long enough that a reasonable owner would have found it through ordinary inspection. Security footage, maintenance logs, and employee shift records are the usual tools for showing how long a spill sat on the floor or how long a broken railing went unrepaired.
Second, the condition has to pose an unreasonable risk of harm. A slightly uneven sidewalk may not qualify. A gaping hole covered by loose plywood likely does. The question is whether the danger was serious enough that a reasonable owner would have done something about it.
Third, the owner must have failed to take reasonable steps to reduce or remove the danger. A warning sign near a wet floor, caution tape around a damaged area, or a repaired step can all satisfy the duty. The owner does not have to make the property perfectly safe; they cannot ignore known problems.
Finally, the owner’s failure has to be the actual cause of your injury. If a store posted clear wet-floor signs and you simply did not look, the connection weakens. Courts look at whether the owner’s inaction caused the harm or was just background to it.
How Your Visitor Status Changes What the Owner Owed You
The duty an owner owes depends on why you were on the property. Texas uses three categories.
Invitees
You are an invitee when you enter for a purpose that benefits both you and the owner, such as shopping at a store or visiting a business office. Invitees get the strongest protection. The owner has to actively inspect for hidden dangers and either fix them or warn you. A grocery store that never checks its aisles for spills is falling short of this duty even if no employee personally saw the puddle.
Licensees
Licensees enter with permission but mostly for their own reasons. Social guests at a dinner party are the classic example. The owner only has to address hazards they actually know about and is not obligated to go looking for problems. A homeowner who had no idea a deck board was rotting underneath generally is not liable when a guest steps through it.
Trespassers
Trespassers enter without permission or any legal right to be there. The owner’s only duty is to avoid injuring them intentionally or through gross negligence, meaning awareness of an extreme risk and a conscious decision to ignore it.1State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 75-007 – Trespassers Setting a hidden trap for trespassers crosses that line.
Children Are Treated Differently
The low duty owed to trespassers has a major exception for children. Section 75.007(c) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code allows liability for injuries to trespassing children caused by dangerous artificial conditions on the land.1State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 75-007 – Trespassers This is the attractive nuisance doctrine. It applies when the owner should have known children were likely to come onto the property, knew the condition posed a serious risk of death or bodily harm, the child was too young to appreciate that risk, the cost of fixing or securing the hazard was small compared to the risk, and the owner failed to take reasonable protective steps. Unsecured swimming pools are the textbook case, but abandoned machinery and open construction sites fit too. Age matters: a four-year-old wandering into an unfenced pool gets far more protection than a teenager who climbed a marked fence to reach the same pool.
Premises Defect or Negligent Activity
Texas treats these as two separate claims, and filing under the wrong one can sink your case before trial.2Supreme Court of Texas. United Scaffolding Inc v James Levine
A premises defect claim involves a dangerous physical condition: a hole in a parking lot, a broken escalator, ice on an entryway. The focus is on the owner’s failure to maintain or warn about the condition over time, and the visitor-status categories above control what duty applied.
A negligent activity claim involves an injury caused by someone’s conduct at the moment it happens. A store employee who swings a mop handle into your face is a negligent activity. The test is ordinary negligence: did the person act as a reasonable person would under the circumstances?
The distinction matters most when an activity creates a condition that later causes injury. If an employee spills cleaning solution and a customer slips on it two hours later, the claim is a premises defect, not a negligent activity. Courts look at whether the injury happened during the activity or because of a condition left behind afterward.2Supreme Court of Texas. United Scaffolding Inc v James Levine
How Your Own Fault Cuts Your Recovery
Texas uses a modified comparative fault system under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. If your percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent, you recover nothing.3State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33-001 – Proportionate Responsibility A jury that finds you 51 percent at fault for your own injury sends you home empty-handed.
When your fault is 50 percent or less, your award is reduced by your percentage. Damages of $100,000 with a 30 percent fault finding leave you with $70,000. The jury assigns a percentage to every party in the case, including you, the owner, any third parties, and anyone who settled before trial.4State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33-003 – Determination of Percentage of Responsibility
This is where premises cases get contentious. Owners argue you were distracted by your phone, wore the wrong shoes, ignored a warning sign, or should have seen the hazard. Every percentage point they move onto you directly reduces what you take home.
Defenses That Can Defeat Your Claim
Beyond blaming you for part of the injury, property owners rely on three main defenses.
The Hazard Was Open and Obvious
Owners generally have no duty to warn about a danger any reasonable person would have noticed and avoided.5Supreme Court of Texas. Open and Obvious Hazards A large pothole in daylight, a clearly wet floor with visible puddles, or a visibly broken step can all qualify. The condition serves as its own warning.
This defense is not absolute. Texas courts recognize a necessary use exception. If you had no reasonable way to avoid the hazard because you had to pass through that area, the owner can still be liable even when the danger was obvious. A building’s only exit stairwell with a broken railing is the kind of situation where an invitee cannot simply choose a different route.5Supreme Court of Texas. Open and Obvious Hazards
No Knowledge of the Hazard
Owners also argue they had no actual or constructive knowledge of the condition. If one customer drops a banana peel and another slips on it 30 seconds later, the store will say there was no reasonable time to find and address the hazard. This puts the burden on you to show the condition sat there long enough that inspection should have caught it.
Something Else Caused the Injury
Even with a clear hazard, an owner can argue it did not cause your injury. If you blame a broken tile but footage shows you tripped over your own bag, the condition is irrelevant no matter how neglected the property was.
What You Can Recover
A successful claim allows both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are what you can document with records: medical bills, lost wages, rehabilitation, transportation to appointments, damaged property. Non-economic damages cover the harder-to-measure harm: physical pain, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of daily activities, disfigurement, and a spouse’s loss of companionship.
Texas does not cap economic or non-economic compensatory damages in standard premises liability cases against private owners. Exemplary damages are capped and are available only when the owner acted with fraud, malice, or gross negligence. The cap is the greater of $200,000, or two times economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000.6State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 41-008 Most premises cases do not involve exemplary damages. An owner who forgot to fix a broken step is negligent, not grossly negligent.
Deadlines
You have two years from the date of your injury to file a premises liability lawsuit in Texas.7State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16-003 – Two-Year Limitations Period If the injury causes death, the two-year clock starts on the date of death. Miss this deadline and the court will almost certainly dismiss the case regardless of how clear the owner’s negligence was.
Claims against government entities run on a much shorter clock for notice. You can technically file suit within two years, but if you did not give formal notice within six months, the government has a strong procedural defense. Treat six months as your real deadline whenever the property is public.8State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101-101 – Notice
Special Situations That Change the Rules
Injuries on Government Property
Getting hurt on government-owned property like a public park, courthouse, or school adds layers. Texas governmental entities are generally immune unless a statute waives that immunity. The Texas Tort Claims Act waives it for certain premises claims, but with strict notice requirements and damage caps.
The notice must describe the injury, when and where it happened, and the basic facts, and it must reach the entity within six months.8State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101-101 – Notice The only exception is if the entity already had actual notice of the injury.
Damage caps limit what you can recover:
- State government: $250,000 per person and $500,000 per incident for bodily injury or death.
- Local government, including counties and school districts: $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for bodily injury or death.
- Municipalities: $250,000 per person and $500,000 per incident for bodily injury or death.
- Property damage against any governmental unit: $100,000 per incident.9State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101-023 – Limitation on Amount of Liability
Contractors Hurt on the Job
Injuries to contractors working on someone’s property follow Chapter 95 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which shields owners from liability when a contractor, subcontractor, or their employee is hurt doing construction, renovation, or repair work. The owner can still be held liable only if two things are both true: the owner retained some control over how the work was actually performed (not just the right to start, stop, or inspect it), and the owner had actual knowledge of the danger that caused the injury but failed to warn. An owner who hires a roofing company, never visits the site, and never directs the crew’s methods will be very hard to hold responsible. An owner who tells the crew exactly where to stand and which boards to step on, knowing some are rotted, has real exposure.
Recreational and Agricultural Land
Chapter 75 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives extra protection to owners of agricultural or recreational land who allow activities like hunting, fishing, or hiking without charging a fee. Liability exposure drops significantly in those situations.10Justia Law. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Code – Limitation of Landowners Liability If you were hurt during that kind of activity on private rural land, your claim is harder than a standard premises case.