Drafting a Texas Residential Lease That Actually Protects the Landlord

A lease is not a formality. It is the document a Bexar County Justice of the Peace will read line by line when you file for eviction, and it is the document a tenant's attorney will read when they demand three times the deposit under Texas Property Code § 92.109. If your lease is a PDF you downloaded in 2014, or a one-page handshake memo, you are already losing.

The fix is not to write something aggressive. Texas courts throw out terms that conflict with the Property Code. The fix is to use a lease form that is current, complete, and paired with the right addenda for your specific property — then to fill it in correctly.

Start with a form built for Texas, not a generic template

There are two defensible starting points for a San Antonio landlord:

• The Texas Apartment Association (TAA) Residential Lease Contract. Updated regularly, widely recognized by Bexar County JP courts, and drafted by attorneys who litigate these cases. Access is tied to TAA membership through a local affiliate (the San Antonio Apartment Association for most owners here).
• A TREC-adjacent / attorney-drafted single-family lease. TREC itself does not promulgate a residential lease (it publishes contracts for sale, like the 1-4 Family Residential Contract (Resale), currently TREC 20-17, and the Seller's Disclosure, OP-H). For leases, you need either the TAA form or a form drafted by a Texas real estate attorney.

Do not use a generic online "50-state" lease. They miss Texas-specific duties under § 92.052 (repair), § 92.153 (smoke alarms), § 92.0561 (tenant repair-and-deduct procedure), and the retaliation limits in § 92.331. A missing or wrong provision on any of these can convert a routine dispute into a statutory damages claim.

The clauses that actually do the work

Most of the lease is boilerplate. A handful of clauses decide how the document performs when something goes wrong.

Rent, late fees, and the § 92.019 ceiling

Texas caps late fees by statute. Under Property Code § 92.019, a late fee is only enforceable if it is a reasonable estimate of uncertain damages and if rent is unpaid after the second day it is due. For single-family and small multifamily, the safe-harbor structure is a capped percentage of monthly rent plus a per-day amount, both spelled out in writing. If your lease says "$150 flat late fee on day 2 plus $25/day," a JP can strike it as unreasonable and you may owe the tenant $100 plus three times the wrongfully collected fee.

Spell out: due date, grace period (even if zero days), late fee structure, returned-check fee (statutory cap applies), and the accepted payment methods. If you accept Zelle or a portal, say so and say which one controls if two payments hit.

Security deposit and the 30-day clock

Under § 92.103, you have 30 days after the tenant surrenders the property and provides a forwarding address to return the deposit or an itemized list of deductions. Miss the deadline in bad faith and § 92.109 exposes you to $100 + 3x the deposit + attorney's fees. Your lease should:

• Require the forwarding address in writing (§ 92.107 lets you off the hook for the itemization if the tenant fails to provide one).
• Define "normal wear and tear" narrowly but not in a way that contradicts the statute — you cannot deduct for normal wear, period.
• Include a move-out cleaning and condition checklist referenced as an exhibit.

Repairs and the § 92.056 procedure

A tenant's right to terminate, repair-and-deduct, or sue for damages under § 92.056 is triggered by a written notice to the landlord and a reasonable time to repair. Your lease must give the tenant a clear notice address (not just "the landlord") and should require written notice via a specific channel. If you only list a PO box and the tenant texts your cell, a court may still treat it as notice. Pick one method, put it in bold, and be consistent.

Military clause

The federal SCRA (50 U.S.C. § 3955) lets an active-duty servicemember terminate a lease on PCS or deployment orders of 90+ days with 30 days' written notice after the next rent due date. You cannot waive this, and in San Antonio — with JBSA-Lackland, JBSA-Randolph, and JBSA-Fort Sam Houston / Camp Bullis — you will use this clause. Include it verbatim and require a copy of the orders. Do not try to tack on an early-termination fee for SCRA terminations; it is unenforceable.

Occupancy, guests, and unauthorized pets

HUD's guidance under the Fair Housing Act generally treats 2-per-bedroom as a reasonable baseline, but local conditions matter. Name every adult occupant on the lease and require all adults to sign. Set a guest-stay limit (e.g., 7 consecutive days or 14 in a calendar month) so you can document unauthorized occupancy. Pet policy should specify: pet rent vs pet deposit (deposit counts against the § 92.109 cap, pet rent does not), breed and weight restrictions if any, and an explicit carve-out that assistance animals under the FHA are not pets and not subject to pet fees.

The addenda that belong on almost every San Antonio lease

The lease is the trunk. The addenda are where property-specific risk gets handled.

• Lead-Based Paint Disclosure — federally required for any dwelling built before 1978. A big swath of inside-410 San Antonio (Monte Vista, Beacon Hill, Alta Vista, Southtown's King William and Lavaca, Mahncke Park, older Alamo Heights) is pre-1978. Missing this is a federal violation, not a Texas one, and the fine is steep.
• Mold addendum — TAA publishes one. Use it.
• Bed bug addendum — documents condition at move-in and allocates treatment cost.
• HOA rules addendum — if the property is in an HOA (most of Stone Oak 78258, Alamo Ranch 78253, Cibolo, Schertz master-planned communities), attach the rules and make violations a lease default. Otherwise the HOA fines you and you cannot pass them through.
• Utilities addendum — state clearly who pays CPS Energy (electric and gas) and SAWS (water and sewer). For properties on well/septic outside the SAWS footprint (parts of far north Bexar, Boerne, unincorporated areas), spell that out.
• Pool / spa addendum — liability and maintenance responsibility.
• Smoke and CO alarm acknowledgment — § 92.153 requires smoke alarms; document that they were tested at move-in.
• Lease Guaranty — for thin-file tenants or recent grads, a separate guaranty signed by a creditworthy guarantor is worth more than a larger deposit.

What most people get wrong

1. Writing in a waiver of the repair duty. You cannot waive § 92.052 except in narrow circumstances under § 92.006, and even then only with specific language and underlined notice. A blanket "tenant accepts property as-is and waives all repair claims" clause is void and signals to a judge that you are not a careful landlord.
2. Treating the security deposit as forfeitable for early termination. Texas law does not let you keep the deposit as liquidated damages just because the tenant broke the lease. You can charge actual damages (lost rent during re-let, reasonable re-letting costs) under your duty to mitigate per § 91.006. Build an early-termination fee clause with a fixed amount tied to re-letting, separate from the deposit.
3. No re-letting / mitigation language. § 91.006 requires the landlord to make reasonable efforts to re-let. If your lease is silent, a tenant can argue you sat on the vacancy. Include a clause that describes your mitigation process and preserves the right to pursue the balance.
4. Notice to vacate not aligned with § 24.005. Eviction starts with a proper 3-day written notice to vacate (unless the lease specifies a different period — it can be shorter or longer). If your lease says "10-day notice" and you serve 3, the JP will dismiss and you restart. Either leave the default at 3 days or follow what you wrote.
5. Using a month-to-month without a termination clause. Under § 91.001, either party can terminate a month-to-month with one month's written notice ending on the rent due date. If you want a different notice period, put it in the lease in writing.
6. No venue clause. Specify that any eviction or breach action is filed in the Bexar County JP precinct where the property sits (4 precincts in Bexar). It avoids arguments and it is where you will file anyway through eFileTexas.
7. Electronic signatures without an e-sign clause. If you use DocuSign, Dotloop, or a portal, include a clause authorizing electronic records and signatures under the Texas UETA. Otherwise a tenant can challenge authenticity.

Execute it correctly

A great lease signed wrong is a weak lease. Have every adult occupant sign. Initial every addendum. Date the move-in inspection form the same day keys are handed over, with photos time-stamped and stored somewhere you will still have access to in 18 months. Deliver a fully executed copy to the tenant within 3 business days — § 92.024 requires it, and failure gives the tenant statutory remedies.

If any of this is outside your comfort zone, pay a Texas real estate attorney for a one-time review of your lease and addenda stack. It is a few hundred dollars that prevents a $3,000–$8,000 mistake.

When you are ready to get the unit rented, list it free at /list-your-home, or if you would rather hand the leasing and paperwork to a pro, browse vetted San Antonio agents at /agents. More landlord resources are at /resources.