Notice to Vacate in Texas: What It Must Say and How to Deliver It

Most Texas evictions that fall apart do not fall apart at trial. They fall apart at the notice, weeks earlier, in a document the landlord wrote in ten minutes and taped to the wrong side of a door. The notice to vacate is the cheapest step in the process and the one that most often costs a San Antonio owner a month.

It is also the step that changed most recently. Senate Bill 38 from the 2025 legislative session rewrote how a notice to vacate may be delivered in Texas, and the new rules apply to any eviction suit whose petition is filed on or after January 1, 2026. If your notice template still says "affix to the inside of the main entry door," it was written against a subsection that no longer exists.

One honest note before we start: this is a guide written by a property manager, not legal advice. Statutes get amended and specific facts matter. For a dispute, talk to a Texas landlord-tenant attorney.

What is a notice to vacate in Texas?

A notice to vacate is the written demand that ends a tenant's right to stay and starts the waiting period Texas requires before a justice court will hear your eviction case. It is not a court filing. It is not served by a constable. Nothing about it is submitted to anyone but the tenant.

That last point matters, because the notice is a precondition rather than a proceeding. If you file the eviction suit before the notice period has fully run, the strength of your underlying case is irrelevant. The tenant can be four months behind on rent in a Stone Oak house and still walk out of the justice court because the petition was filed on day two.

Texas uses the term "forcible detainer" for what everyone else calls eviction, and Chapter 24 of the Property Code is where the rules live. The notice to vacate is Section 24.005 of that chapter.

How many days notice do you have to give?

Three days, unless your lease says something different. Section 24.005(a) requires a landlord to give a tenant who defaults or holds over beyond the end of the rental term or renewal period "at least three days' written notice to vacate the premises before the landlord files a forcible detainer suit."

The same three-day floor runs through the rest of the section. Section 24.005(b) covers a tenant at will or by sufferance and requires "at least three days' written notice to vacate before the landlord files a forcible detainer suit unless the parties have contracted for a shorter or longer notice period in a written lease or agreement." The Texas State Law Library states the rule the same way: "The landlord must give the tenant at least 3 days' notice to vacate unless the lease says otherwise."

Read that escape clause carefully, because it cuts both directions. Plenty of Texas leases, including many drafted for larger portfolios, set a seven-day or ten-day notice period. If yours does, three days is not your number, and serving three when the lease promised ten is a dismissal waiting to happen.

Situation	Statutory notice	Where it comes from
Tenant under a written lease or oral rental agreement who defaults or holds over	At least 3 days' written notice	§24.005(a)
Tenant at will or by sufferance	At least 3 days' written notice	§24.005(b)
Lease sets a different period	Whatever the lease says, shorter or longer	§24.005(a), (b)
Qualifying residential tenant after a tax or trustee's foreclosure sale	At least 30 days' written notice	§24.005(b)
Occupant who is a tenant of someone who took possession by forcible entry	At least 3 days' written notice	§24.005(c)
Forcible entry under §24.001	Oral or written notice to vacate	§24.005(d)
Ending a month-to-month tenancy (not an eviction)	Later of the date in the notice or one month after notice	§91.001

What SB 38 changed on January 1, 2026

SB 38 repealed the old delivery subsections outright and replaced them with a shorter, broader list. Section 15 of the bill reads: "The following provisions of the Property Code are repealed: (1) Sections 24.005(f), (f-1), (f-2), (g), (h), and (i)."

Subsection (f) is where the familiar "inside of the main entry door" language lived. Subsections (f-1) and (f-2) were the workaround for properties with a locked gate or a dangerous animal, the one that let you seal the notice in an envelope marked IMPORTANT DOCUMENT and attach it to the outside of the door. Subsection (g) was the day-counting rule. All of it is gone.

In its place, SB 38 added Section 24.005(f-3), which lists four delivery methods, and Section 24.0042, which now governs how the days are counted for everything in Chapter 24. Section 18(a) of the bill states that "this Act takes effect January 1, 2026," and Section 17 limits it to "an eviction suit in which the petition is filed on or after January 1, 2026."

Why this matters more than it sounds: a landlord following a 2024 checklist in 2026 is not merely out of date. Under the old rule, outside-the-door posting was prohibited except in narrow circumstances. Under the new rule, the statute simply requires delivery "to the inside of the premises, in a conspicuous place" as one option among four, and the main-entry-door framing has no statutory home at all.

How to deliver a notice to vacate in Texas

Pick one of the four methods in Section 24.005(f-3). The subsection says a notice required by the section "must be delivered using at least one of the following methods":

• Mail — "including first class mail, registered mail, certified mail, or a delivery service"
• Delivery to the inside of the premises, in a conspicuous place
• Hand delivery to any tenant of the premises who is 16 years of age or older
• Electronic communication, but only "if the parties have agreed in writing"

Read that list again, because the main entry door language is gone from the statute entirely.

Two practical consequences follow. First, plain first class mail is now expressly named, which it was not before, so the certified-mail reflex is no longer a legal requirement, though it remains the better evidentiary choice. Second, email is genuinely available to Texas landlords for the first time in this context, and it is the only method on the list with a condition attached. The parties must have agreed to electronic communication in writing. The Texas State Law Library puts it as "by e-mail or other electronic means, if the written lease agreement says so."

If your lease template does not authorize electronic notice, add the clause at the next renewal. It costs nothing and it converts your fastest, most timestamped delivery channel from unusable to usable.

Section 24.005(f-4) adds a safety valve worth knowing: "Subsection (f-3) does not apply if the tenant actually receives the notice." That is a defense to a technical delivery objection, not a strategy. Build your process around one of the four listed methods and treat (f-4) as the thing that saves you when a tenant admits receipt after you fumbled the mechanics.

What must the notice actually say?

Texas does not prescribe the contents. Section 24.005 sets a notice period and, as amended, a set of delivery methods. It does not enumerate required language, and it does not adopt a form. That absence is the single most misunderstood thing about this document.

What it means in practice: no magic words will save a notice, and no missing phrase automatically kills one, but every gap becomes something you have to prove later with testimony instead of paper. A notice that does the job answers six questions on its face.

Element	What it does
Full property address, including unit	Ties the notice to the premises in the eventual petition
Every adult occupant by name, plus "and all other occupants"	Prevents an unnamed adult from claiming they were never noticed
The reason, stated plainly	Nonpayment, lease violation, or holdover after the term ended
An unequivocal demand for possession by a specific date	Distinguishes a notice to vacate from a warning letter or a payment reminder
The deadline computed under §24.0042	Shows the period actually ran before you filed
Date, signature, and the delivery method used	This is your proof, and you will need it

One structural note from SB 38 worth flagging for anyone in federally assisted housing or under a lease that requires a chance to respond. Section 24.005(e) now says that where the lease or applicable state or federal law requires an opportunity to respond to a notice of proposed eviction, the notice period "may, at the landlord's discretion, run concurrently with the period provided for the tenant to respond," and the notice "may include the required opportunity to respond." SB 38 also added subsection (c-1) addressing how state and federal notice requirements interact. If you hold a voucher tenant, take that pair of provisions to counsel rather than to a template.

How to count the three days

You do not count the day you delivered it, and you do count weekends. Section 24.0042, new with SB 38, sets one counting rule for all of Chapter 24. A period of time prescribed by the chapter:

• "does not include the day of the event that begins the period"
• "includes Saturdays, Sundays, and state or federal holidays"
• "includes the last day of the period"
• "if the last day of the period is a Saturday, Sunday, or state or federal holiday, is extended so that the last day of the period is the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or state or federal holiday"

Worked example. You deliver on a Wednesday. Thursday is day one, Friday is day two, Saturday is day three, and because the last day falls on a Saturday it extends to Monday. You may file on Tuesday. A landlord who counted business days would have waited too long; one who counted from Wednesday itself would have filed a day early and risked the whole case. Neither error is exotic, and both are free to avoid.

When is it a 30-day notice instead?

Thirty days is a lease-termination number, not an eviction number. Landlords search for "30 day notice to vacate Texas" constantly, and they are almost always looking at one of two situations that have nothing to do with a nonpayment eviction.

Ending a month-to-month tenancy. Section 91.001 governs. When the rent-paying period is at least one month, the tenancy terminates on "whichever of the following days is the later: (1) the day given in the notice for termination; or (2) one month after the day on which the notice is given." That statutory default yields to agreement: the section does not apply "if a landlord and a tenant have agreed in an instrument signed by both parties on a different period of notice to terminate the tenancy or that no notice is required." A month-to-month termination is not an eviction, and it does not need a reason. If the tenant then stays past the termination date, they are a holdover, and now you serve the three-day notice to vacate under §24.005.

After a foreclosure. Section 24.005(b) requires that when a building is purchased at a tax foreclosure sale or a trustee's foreclosure sale under a lien superior to the tenant's lease, and the tenant timely pays rent and is not otherwise in default, "the purchaser must give a residential tenant of the building at least 30 days' written notice to vacate if the purchaser chooses not to continue the lease." If you bought a rental at the Bexar County courthouse steps with a paying tenant inside, this is your rule, not the three-day one.

Is there an official Texas notice to vacate PDF?

No. There is no state-mandated form. The Texas State Law Library's eviction guide notes that the Texas Real Estate Guide contains a notice-to-vacate form as an available resource, but nothing in Chapter 24 requires you to use it or any other template.

Which is why the PDF you downloaded is not the risk. The risk is what the PDF assumes. A generic form written before 2026 will tell you to post on the inside of the main entry door, and a multi-state form will import a notice period from a state whose legislature never wrote §24.005. Whatever document you use, check it against the four delivery methods and the counting rule above before you use it on a real tenancy, and keep a scan of the signed, dated notice with a photograph or receipt showing how it went out.

What happens after the notice period ends

The notice does not remove anyone. Filing does. Once the period has run, SB 38 requires a sworn petition: Section 24.00505 provides that "to initiate an eviction suit, a sworn petition must be filed with the court," and that "the petition must include the contents required by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure." You file in the justice court for the precinct where the property sits.

The bigger change is Section 24.005106, which lets a landlord file a sworn motion for summary disposition together with the petition. If the motion shows no genuinely disputed facts, the court may enter judgment without a trial unless the tenant files a response "not later than the fourth day after the date the tenant is served" that raises a genuinely disputed fact. If a real dispute exists, the court sets trial "not earlier than the 10th day and not later than the 21st day after the date the petition is filed."

The strategic point for owners: the fast path exists only if your paperwork is clean enough to survive a no-trial review. A sloppy notice is exactly the kind of genuinely disputed fact that pushes a three-week case into a trial setting. Our step-by-step walkthrough of the Texas eviction process under the 2026 rules covers the filing sequence in detail, and if the occupant never had permission to be there in the first place, the squatter rules changed too.

What this means in Bexar County and the surrounding cities

Chapter 24 is state law, so the notice rules are identical in Alamo Heights, Stone Oak, Converse, Universal City, Schertz, New Braunfels and Boerne. Texas cities cannot write their own eviction procedure, and House Bill 2127 in 2023 removed the local right-to-cure ordinances that once made Austin and Dallas different. What varies across the San Antonio metro is not the law but the logistics.

Three things we watch here specifically. Precinct matters. Bexar County's justice courts are organized by precinct and you file where the property sits, so an owner with houses on both sides of Loop 1604 is dealing with different courtrooms and different dockets for the same portfolio. Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall County properties are not Bexar County properties. New Braunfels straddles a county line, Schertz sits across three, and the notice is fine either way but the filing is not. Military tenancies deserve their own pause. With JBSA-Lackland, Fort Sam Houston and Randolph anchoring this market, a meaningful share of San Antonio tenants are service members, and the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act adds protections that sit entirely outside Chapter 24. Confirm status before you file.

Related reading for Texas owners: what a landlord cannot do in Texas covers the self-help lines you cannot cross while a notice is pending, and our Chapter 92 guide handles the repair and deposit obligations that a tenant will raise as a defense if you have been ignoring them.

Six mistakes that reset your clock

1. Serving three days when the lease says seven or ten. The statutory floor is a floor, and your own contract can raise it. Read the lease before you draft the notice, every time.
2. Counting the delivery day as day one. Section 24.0042 excludes it. Filing a day early is the most common self-inflicted dismissal in Texas eviction practice.
3. Emailing the notice without a written agreement to accept electronic communication. Email is a valid method under §24.005(f-3) only when the parties agreed to it in writing.
4. Using a pre-2026 template. If it references the main entry door or an IMPORTANT DOCUMENT envelope on the outside of the door, it is written against repealed subsections.
5. Sending a warning instead of a demand. "Please bring your account current or we may pursue legal action" is not a notice to vacate. The document must unequivocally demand possession by a date.
6. Keeping no proof of delivery. There is no filed copy and no constable's return on a notice to vacate. If you cannot show how and when it went out, you cannot show the period ran.

How we handle notices

Flat Fee Landlord manages single-family rentals across the San Antonio metro, including Bexar County plus the Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall County suburbs, from Alamo Heights and Stone Oak out to Schertz, Cibolo, New Braunfels and Boerne. When a tenancy goes sideways, notice drafting and delivery is a step we run ourselves rather than hand back to the owner, because it is the step where a month gets lost.

In practice that means the lease governs the period, not a default; the deadline is computed under §24.0042 before anything goes out; delivery uses one of the four listed methods with the proof captured the same day; and the file is built so a summary-disposition motion under §24.005106 has something clean to stand on.

We charge a flat monthly management fee rather than a percentage of rent, which is relevant here in a specific way. Eviction coordination is an included benefit on our Preferred and Concierge plans, on annual billing, for tenants we placed, with filing fees, court costs, attorney fees and constable invoices billed at cost. Our plans are $139 (Basic) / $179 (Preferred) / $349 (Concierge) on annual billing, the same dollar amount whether your house rents for $1,600 or $3,600 — your management cost should not rise just because your rent did.

Get your free rental analysis and we will send you a current market rent range for your specific San Antonio address, with the leased comps behind it. If you want the full picture on what we do, our San Antonio property management page covers what is included.

Sources and last reviewed

• Texas Property Code §24.005, Notice to Vacate Prior to Filing Eviction Suit — texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_24.005
• Texas Property Code §91.001, Notice for Terminating Certain Tenancies — texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_91.001
• Senate Bill 38, 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session (2025), enrolled text — the source of §24.005(c-1), (f-3), (f-4), §24.0042, §24.00505, §24.005106 and the Section 15 repealer — capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB00038F.htm
• Texas State Law Library, Landlord/Tenant Law: The Eviction Process — guides.sll.texas.gov/landlord-tenant-law/eviction-process

All sources fetched and verified on August 28, 2026. Statutory quotations are from the enrolled text of SB 38 and the Property Code sections cited. Laws change; confirm the current text before relying on any figure here.