Wrongful Eviction in Texas: Writ of Re-entry, Damages, and Filing

If you’ve been locked out, had your utilities cut, or had your belongings dumped on the curb by your landlord in Texas, that’s a wrongful eviction, and Texas law lets you sue for one month’s rent plus $1,000 in civil penalties, your actual out-of-pocket losses, attorney’s fees, and court costs. A judge can also order you back into the property within days of filing. Your landlord is required to go through the courts to remove you, no matter what you owe or what the lease says.

What Your Landlord Is Not Allowed to Do

Three landlord actions are singled out in the Texas Property Code as self-help eviction, and each is illegal without a court-issued writ of possession, even if you’re behind on rent or in breach of your lease.

Shutting off utilities. Your landlord cannot cut off or interfere with water, wastewater, gas, or electricity you pay for directly to the utility company, and the same rule applies when the landlord furnishes utilities as part of the lease.¹ The only legitimate reasons for a disconnection are genuine repairs, construction, or emergencies.

Locking you out. Changing the locks, adding a padlock, or physically blocking a door to keep you out of your unit is prohibited except through the court system.² There are three narrow exceptions: emergency repairs or construction, cleaning out a unit the tenant has truly abandoned, and the overdue-rent lockout discussed below.

Removing your property. Hauling furniture to the curb, putting belongings in storage without authorization, or throwing items away, without a writ of possession, violates the same statute. When a landlord both locks you out and removes your property, the civil penalty increases by an additional month’s rent on top of the standard damages.

Any lease clause that tries to waive your rights under these statutes is void. You cannot sign them away.

The Lockout-for-Unpaid-Rent Exception

Texas does permit lock changes on a tenant who owes rent, but only if two conditions are both satisfied. Miss either one and the “allowed” lockout is illegal.

First, the lease itself must contain a provision authorizing the landlord to change locks for nonpayment.² No clause, no legal lockout.

Second, a written notice must be posted on your front door that gives you three things:

Either an on-site location where you can get a new key around the clock, or a 24-hour phone number that will get a key delivered within two hours.
A statement that the landlord must provide the new key at any hour, regardless of whether you’ve paid the overdue rent.
The specific dollar amount of rent and other charges owed.

Read that middle item again. Even in an “authorized” lockout for nonpayment, the landlord has to hand you a key whenever you ask, day or night, paid or not. A landlord who refuses to give you the key has converted a technically allowed lockout into an illegal one, and the full set of penalties kicks in.

Retaliation Counts Too

Texas treats retaliation as its own form of wrongful eviction. If within the past six months you exercised a legal right (reporting a code violation, requesting repairs under the property code, or joining a tenant organization) and the landlord responds by filing eviction, cutting services, raising your rent, or ending your lease, the law presumes retaliation and shifts the burden to the landlord to prove a legitimate reason.³

The penalty is calculated differently from the lockout and shutoff penalties: one month’s rent plus $500, plus actual damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees.⁴ If your rent is subsidized through a government program, the one month’s rent portion is calculated using the unit’s fair market rent, not what you personally pay.

If You’re Locked Out Right Now: The Writ of Re-entry

When you need to get back into your home immediately, the writ of re-entry is the strongest tool Texas gives you. You file a sworn complaint in the Justice of the Peace court for the precinct where the property sits, and you state the facts under oath directly to the judge.⁵ If the judge believes an unlawful lockout likely occurred, the writ can issue immediately, with the landlord not present, giving you temporary possession until a full hearing.

A sheriff or constable serves the writ, using reasonable force to execute it. From that point the landlord has seven days to request a hearing. Ignore it past the eighth day and the court can enter judgment for costs against the landlord. A landlord who refuses to comply with the writ at all faces contempt, and the judge can jail them without bail until they obey.

For utility shutoffs specifically, Texas provides a parallel remedy called a writ of restoration, which focuses on getting your utilities turned back on rather than restoring physical access.⁶ If your water or electricity is off but the locks haven’t been touched, this is the specific tool to request.

What You Can Recover

For an illegal lockout, you can recover a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $1,000, plus your actual damages, reasonable attorney’s fees, and court costs.² If the landlord also physically removed your belongings, add another month’s rent on top. For a tenant paying $1,500 a month, that works out to $4,000 in statutory penalties alone before actual damages are counted.

For an illegal utility shutoff, the formula is the same: one month’s rent plus $1,000 as a civil penalty, actual damages (think hotel bills and spoiled food), attorney’s fees, and court costs.¹ Any rent you owed is subtracted from the total. You also get to choose between returning to the property or terminating the lease outright.

Actual damages mean documented, out-of-pocket losses. Hotel stays, restaurant meals eaten because you had no kitchen, groceries that spoiled when the power went off, storage fees, laundromat costs, and lost wages from time you had to take off work all qualify. Judges want receipts, not estimates.

Filing Your Case

Wrongful eviction claims are filed in the Justice of the Peace court for the precinct where the rental is located. You prepare a sworn written complaint describing the lockout or shutoff with dates and specifics.⁵ Filing fees vary by county and typically run from about $54 to $134. If you can’t afford them, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs to request a waiver.

After the clerk accepts your filing, the court issues a citation that a constable delivers to the landlord. Service fees usually run around $75 to $80. The case can’t move forward until the landlord has been formally notified.

JP courts move faster than most civil courts. A standard hearing is generally set 10 to 21 days after the suit is filed.⁷ If you’re currently locked out, the writ of re-entry process can move far faster than that.

Building Your Evidence

These cases live and die on documentation. Start with your signed lease and payment records: bank statements, canceled checks, and payment-app receipts that show whether you were current when the landlord acted. If utilities were cut, call the utility company and get written confirmation that your account was active and in good standing at the moment service stopped.

Photograph everything, with timestamps. Changed locks, padlocks on gates, disconnected meters, your belongings outside, any notice the landlord posted (or any notice that was missing). Save every text message, email, and voicemail from the landlord, especially anything that reads as a threat or an admission.

Keep a running log of expenses from the day you were displaced forward. Hotel bills, meals out, replacement groceries, storage charges, laundry, lost work hours. The more organized this file looks when you walk into the courtroom, the more credible everything else becomes.

If You’re Active-Duty Military

Servicemembers get additional protection under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. A landlord cannot evict a servicemember or dependents from a primary residence without a court order when monthly rent falls below an annually adjusted threshold, which was $9,812.12 in 2024 and covers virtually all Texas rentals.⁸⁹ A judge must also grant a 90-day stay if military service materially affects your ability to pay. The protection is not automatic. You have to raise it.

If the Eviction Was Discriminatory

An eviction motivated by your race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability violates the federal Fair Housing Act, regardless of whether the landlord followed Texas procedure.¹⁰ A landlord trying to push you out because you have children, because of your nationality, or through sexual harassment is engaged in discriminatory eviction even where the paperwork looks correct.

You can file a HUD complaint by phone at 1-800-669-9777, online through HUD’s FHEO portal, or by mail. Federal filing deadlines apply, so don’t wait.¹¹

Two Things to Know After You Win

Money from a wrongful eviction judgment or settlement is generally taxable. The IRS looks at what the payment replaces, and statutory penalties like the one month’s rent plus $1,000 count as gross income because they aren’t compensating for physical injury.¹² Set aside a portion for taxes and consider talking to a tax professional before you spend the award.

Also, the court filing itself can show up on tenant background checks for up to seven years under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, even when you won.¹³ Keep a copy of the judgment and share it proactively when applying for new rentals. Some screening companies will update or remove records if you dispute them with proof of the outcome.

1
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.008 – Interruption of Utilities
2
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.0081 – Removal of Property and Exclusion of Residential Tenant
3
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.331 – Retaliation by Landlord
4
Texas Property Code. Texas Property Code Subchapter H – Retaliation
5
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.009 – Residential Tenants Right of Reentry After Unlawful Lockout
6
Texas State Law Library. Utility Shutoffs
7
Texas State Law Library. The Eviction Process
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress
9
Federal Register. Publication of Housing Price Inflation Adjustment
10
U.S. Department of Justice. The Fair Housing Act
11
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Report Housing Discrimination
12
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments
13
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Can Information Like Eviction Actions and Lawsuits Stay on My Tenant Screening Record