Squatters' Rights in Texas: What Changed in 2025–2026 (SB 1333 + SB 38)

Texas does not have a law that hands your house to someone who moves in without permission. "Squatters' rights" is everyday shorthand for adverse possession — a narrow legal doctrine that only rewards someone after they openly occupy a property, in plain sight, continuously, for years, usually while paying the taxes and acting like the owner the whole time. A person who breaks into your vacant rental in Plano, Arlington or East Dallas and stays a few weeks has no ownership claim. What they can cost you is time, rent and repairs — and since 2025 Texas has given owners two much faster ways to end that. Want a Texas team to keep your property occupied, watched, and protected? Get a free rental analysis.

Informational, not legal advice. This article summarizes Texas law as of August 2026 for general guidance. For your specific situation, confirm with a Texas attorney. Statutes referenced: Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §§16.024–16.028, Texas Property Code Chapter 24 as amended by Senate Bill 38 (2025), and Texas Property Code Chapter 24B (Senate Bill 1333, 2025).

The Short Answer

Texas passed two laws that transformed how fast owners can remove squatters. Since September 1, 2025 (SB 1333), a property owner or their authorized agent can ask the county sheriff or constable to remove a true unauthorized occupant — no eviction lawsuit required. And for occupants who must go through court, SB 38 (January 1, 2026) cut clear-cut cases to a judgment as early as the 10th day after filing. A squatter still has no path to owning your home short of years of open, tax-paying possession. The real risk remains time and damage, and both are now far more controllable if you act in the first week.

Texas squatter law 2026 — key numbers: sheriff removal of a true squatter (SB 1333): days, no lawsuit, effective Sept 1, 2025 · fastest uncontested eviction judgment (SB 38): day 10 after filing · notice to vacate: 3 days (§24.005) · writ of possession: no earlier than day 6 after judgment, executed within 5 business days · adverse-possession clock: 3/5/10/25 years, never weeks · wrongful sheriff removal: 3x fair market rent in exemplary damages · presenting a fake lease or deed: Class A misdemeanor.

Squatter vs. Trespasser vs. Adverse Possessor

The words get used loosely, but the legal differences decide which removal path you are allowed to use — and picking the wrong one is the single most expensive error an owner makes here.

• Trespasser: someone with no right to be there who just entered and is not living there. Police can sometimes remove a recent trespasser outright.
• Squatter (unauthorized occupant): a person who moves into a vacant or unsecured dwelling without a lease or the owner's permission and treats it as a residence. Since September 2025 this is the person Texas Property Code Chapter 24B was written to remove.
• Holdover tenant: someone who did have permission — a lease, oral or written — and stayed past the end of it. Removed through eviction, never through the sheriff-removal path.
• Adverse possessor: the rare occupant who has met every legal element of adverse possession over the full statutory period and can actually sue to claim title. This is what "squatters' rights" really refers to.

Do Squatters Actually Have Rights in Texas?

Not the way the headlines suggest. Nobody gains a right to your property by occupying it for weeks or months. To ever convert occupancy into ownership, a person must satisfy all of the elements of adverse possession under the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, Chapter 16. Possession must be:

• Actual — physically using the property;
• Open, notorious, and visible — obvious to anyone, not hidden;
• Exclusive — not shared with the true owner or the public;
• Hostile / adverse — without the owner's permission;
• Peaceable — not maintained by force or constant dispute;
• Continuous — uninterrupted for the entire statutory period.

Miss any one element, and the claim fails. Permission is the killer: if you ever let someone stay, their possession is not hostile, and the adverse-possession clock never starts. So is attention — an owner who inspects the property and acts on what they find interrupts continuity before it ever matters.

The 3, 5, 10 & 25-Year Clock

How long someone must hold a property before they can claim it depends on what paperwork, if any, backs them up. Texas runs a tiered scheme, and the shorter periods demand more documentation, not less.

Statute	Period	What it requires
§16.024	3 years	Possession under title or color of title — a chain of transfer connected back to the sovereignty of the soil. Narrow, and rarely available to a stranger who broke in.
§16.025	5 years	Cultivate or use the property, pay the property taxes, and claim under a recorded deed (not a forged one)
§16.026	10 years	Cultivate, use or enjoy the property with no deed; capped at 160 acres (or the actual enclosed area). The most commonly cited basis.
§16.027	25 years	Runs "regardless of whether the person is or has been under a legal disability" against an occupant who cultivates, uses or enjoys the property
§16.028	25 years	Possession in good faith under a recorded instrument purporting to convey the property — and it counts "even though the instrument is void on its face or in fact"

The practical takeaway: a true squatter almost never wins a single-family home this way, because they cannot quietly pay your taxes, record a deed, and openly hold the home for a decade without you noticing — unless the property is neglected. Adverse possession is a vacant-and-forgotten-property problem, not a tenant problem. It is also why the highest-risk profile in Dallas–Fort Worth is an inherited or long-vacant house held by an out-of-area owner, not a rental with somebody's eyes on it. For the broader rulebook on Texas landlord obligations, see our Texas Property Code Chapter 92 guide.

How Do You Remove a Squatter in Texas in 2026?

One of two ways, and choosing correctly is the whole game. If the occupant never had a lease or your permission, you can go to the sheriff. If they ever did — even by a handshake — you must go to court.

• Path 1 — Sheriff removal (SB 1333, Property Code ch. 24B): for pure unauthorized occupants. Sworn complaint, officer verification, notice to immediately vacate, removal — measured in days. Details in the next section.
• Path 2 — Eviction on the SB 38 fast track: for anyone with a tenancy history — holdovers, expired leases, occupants you once allowed, subtenants of a former tenant. A forcible entry and detainer suit in the Justice of the Peace (JP) court for the precinct where the property sits.

Self-help is still illegal. Changing the locks, shutting off utilities, removing belongings, or threatening an occupant can expose you to liability — even when the occupant has no right to be there. What changed in 2025–26 is not that owners can act alone; it is that law enforcement and the courts now move fast enough that going around them makes even less sense.

The five steps of the court path:

1. Serve a written notice to vacate. Texas requires at least three days unless the lease specifies a different period (Property Code §24.005(a)–(c)). It may be hand-delivered to the occupant or any resident 16 or older, affixed to the inside of the main entry door, or mailed — with an alternative method allowing a sealed envelope on the outside of the door plus simultaneous mailing.
2. File a sworn petition for eviction in the correct JP court, with proof you own or control the property. If the case is clear-cut, file the summary-disposition motion with the petition — that is what unlocks the 10-day track.
3. Service of the petition. A constable must make a diligent effort to serve within five business days; if not, the owner may use other qualified law enforcement, including a trained off-duty officer.
4. Summary disposition or trial (see SB 38 below).
5. Judgment, then a writ of possession. The court issues the writ no earlier than the 6th day after judgment; a constable executes it within five business days, and only an officer may physically remove the occupant.

The New Sheriff-Removal Path: Senate Bill 1333

Since September 1, 2025, you may not need an eviction suit at all. SB 1333 (89th Legislature) created a new chapter of the Texas Property Code — Chapter 24B — that lets a property owner, or the owner's authorized agent such as a property manager, file a sworn complaint asking the county sheriff or constable to immediately remove someone who unlawfully entered and is occupying a dwelling.

You qualify for sheriff removal when all of these are true:

• The occupant unlawfully entered a dwelling and remains there without your consent;
• The property was not open to the public when they entered;
• You (or your agent) have directed them to leave and they refused;
• The occupant is not a current or former tenant under a lease (oral or written) and not an immediate family member of the owner;
• There is no pending litigation between you and the occupant related to the property.

How it works: submit the complaint under oath, or as an unsworn declaration under §132.001 of the Civil Practice & Remedies Code (§24B.002). The officer verifies you are the record owner, then serves a notice to immediately vacate — by hand delivery or by affixing it to the entrance — and removes the occupant without delay (§24B.003). You pay a fee equal to what the county charges to execute a writ of possession, and you can pay an hourly rate for the officer to stand by while you change the locks and move the occupant's belongings to the property line. Section 24B.004 shields both the officer and the owner from liability for property damage during the removal, and §24B.006 preserves every other remedy — the chapter does not limit anyone's authority to arrest for trespass, vandalism or other offenses.

Get the affidavit right. A wrongful removal under this chapter exposes the owner to actual damages, exemplary damages of three times the fair market rent, court costs, and attorney's fees, on a hearing set at the earliest practicable date (§24B.005). If the occupant might count as a current or former tenant, use the eviction path instead. This is the one place where moving fast can cost more than moving carefully.

SB 1333 also created new criminal offenses, which matter because they take away the classic delay tactics. Knowingly presenting a false lease or deed with intent to enter or remain on real property is a Class A misdemeanor (Penal Code §32.56). Advertising, selling or leasing residential property you have no legal authority to convey is a first-degree felony (§32.57). And criminal mischief to a habitation causing $1,000 or more but less than $300,000 in damage, committed during a trespass, is now a second-degree felony (§28.03(b)(6)(B)). The forged-lease trick is no longer just a stalling move; it is a chargeable crime.

The Faster Eviction Path: Senate Bill 38

SB 38 took effect for eviction suits filed on or after January 1, 2026. It was written specifically to stop unauthorized occupants from dragging cases out for months. The key upgrades for owners:

• Summary disposition without a trial (§24.005106). File a sworn motion with your petition. If there is no genuinely disputed fact and service was proper, the judge may enter judgment as early as the 10th day after you file — no trial — unless the occupant files a response within four days of being served that raises a real factual dispute. A late response can still be considered if it shows genuinely disputed facts and arrives before judgment is entered.
• A firm trial window (§24.0051). If a trial is needed, it is set no earlier than day 10 and no later than day 21 after filing, and no earlier than the fourth day after the occupant is served. Continuances are limited to seven days unless both sides agree in writing.
• Faster service and writs. Constables must attempt service within five business days and execute the writ within five business days; otherwise the owner may bring in other qualified law enforcement. The writ itself may not issue before the sixth day after judgment, and its issuance is a ministerial act that is not subject to review or delay (§24.0061). The court must notify the tenant of the judgment within 48 hours.
• A higher bar to appeal-and-delay (§24.005107, §24.0053). An occupant appealing to county court must post the bond no later than the fifth day after judgment is signed and affirm, under penalty of perjury, a good-faith belief in a meritorious defense. They must also pay rent into the court registry — first payment within five days of filing the appeal, then every rental pay period — with a residential floor of $250 or the court's determination of fair market rent where there is no rental agreement. The county court must try the appeal within 21 days of receiving the record.

In plain English: for a clean squatter case with no real dispute, an owner who files correctly can now get a decision in as little as 10 days instead of months. The strategic point cuts the other way too — the fast path only exists if your paperwork survives a no-trial review. A defective notice is exactly the kind of genuinely disputed fact that converts a three-week case into a trial setting.

Day-by-Day: How Fast Can a Texas Removal Actually Go?

A clean sheriff removal is measured in days; a clean eviction runs roughly three weeks from filing to lockout. Here is what each statutory deadline actually buys you.

Stage	Sheriff removal (ch. 24B)	Eviction, summary disposition (SB 38)	Eviction that goes to trial
Before you start	Direct the occupant to leave; they refuse	3-day notice to vacate (§24.005)	3-day notice to vacate (§24.005)
Filing	Sworn complaint to sheriff or constable (§24B.002)	Petition + summary-disposition motion, same day	Petition; constable serves within 5 business days
Occupant's window to respond	None — the officer verifies ownership, not a defense	4 days after service (§24.005106)	Answer, then trial no earlier than day 4 after service
Decision	Notice to immediately vacate, served without delay	Judgment as early as day 10 after filing	Trial between day 10 and day 21 after filing
Physical removal	Officer removes the occupant; owner may pay hourly standby to change locks	Writ no earlier than day 6 after judgment, executed within 5 business days	Same writ rules
Realistic total	Days	About 3 weeks	4–6 weeks, longer if appealed

Two caveats worth stating plainly. First, these are statutory ceilings, not service-level guarantees — a busy Dallas County precinct in August does not move at the same speed as a quiet one in February. Second, the appeal track can still add weeks, but SB 38's rent-into-the-registry requirement means an occupant who appeals is now paying to do it.

What It Costs in Dallas–Fort Worth

The court filing is the cheap part. Tarrant County's Justice of the Peace courts publish the following, effective January 1, 2026:

Item	Court fee	Constable fee	Total
Eviction (1 defendant)	$54.00	$90.00	$144.00
Each additional defendant	—	$90.00	$90.00
Writ of possession	$5.00	$180.00	$185.00
Appeal bond with transcript	$350.00 (plus $64.00 county clerk fee)	—	$414.00
Jury fee	$22.00	—	$22.00

Source: Tarrant County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 5 filing fee schedule, effective January 1, 2026. Dallas, Collin and Denton counties publish their own schedules and the amounts differ — check the precinct before you budget.

Two things the table does not show. The SB 1333 sheriff-removal fee is set by statute at the county's cost to execute a writ of possession, so in Tarrant County that puts it in the neighborhood of the $180 constable line — a fraction of what a contested eviction costs. And none of these numbers is the real expense. The real expense is lost rent and repairs: at a Dallas–Fort Worth median around $1,783/month, every 30 days an unauthorized occupant stays costs roughly a month's rent plus whatever they do to the house, which dwarfs a $144 filing fee. Our DFW rent guide has current submarket numbers.

Where to File in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin & Denton Counties

Both paths are county-specific, and DFW spans four of them. An eviction is filed in the Justice of the Peace court for the precinct where the property physically sits; a Chapter 24B sheriff-removal complaint goes to that county's sheriff or constable. Filing in the wrong precinct costs you the case schedule, not just the fee.

• Dallas County — Dallas, Irving, Garland, Mesquite, Richardson, Grand Prairie, DeSoto. Multiple JP precincts, each with its own eviction docket and 2026 fee schedule.
• Tarrant County — Fort Worth, Arlington, Bedford, Euless, Hurst, Mansfield, Keller. Published 2026 eviction cost of $144 and writ cost of $185, as above.
• Collin County — Plano, Frisco (south of the county line), McKinney, Allen, Wylie, Prosper. Heavy build-to-rent and new-construction inventory, which is exactly the vacant-home profile Chapter 24B was written for.
• Denton County — Denton, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Little Elm, and the Frisco addresses north of the line. Frisco straddles Collin and Denton, so verify the county on the appraisal district record before filing, not from the mailing address.

That last point is the one that trips up out-of-area owners most often. If you own a DFW rental from another state, our out-of-state DFW landlord guide covers the rest of the remote-ownership stack, and Dallas–Fort Worth property management is what it looks like to have someone local handle it.

A Note for Each Texas Metro

Eviction is filed in the JP court for the precinct where the property is located, and SB 1333 sheriff-removal complaints go to the county sheriff or constable — so the exact office, filing fee, and timing differ by county:

• Dallas–Fort Worth — Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties. See Dallas–Fort Worth property management.
• Houston / Greater Houston — Harris County (plus Fort Bend, Montgomery, and more). See Houston property management, and our step-by-step 2026 Texas eviction walkthrough.
• Austin — Travis County. See Austin property management.
• San Antonio — Bexar County. See San Antonio property management.

How to Keep Squatters Out

Prevention is far cheaper than removal, and it is mostly about looking occupied. The properties that get squatters are the ones that look unwatched.

• Never let a rental sit visibly vacant. Keep the lawn maintained, lights on timers, and mail collected.
• Secure every entry point between tenants and inspect the property on a schedule — a documented inspection also interrupts any claim of continuous, exclusive possession.
• Pay your property taxes on time — this alone defeats the 5-year adverse-possession path.
• Screen tenants properly so you do not end up with a holdover who will not leave, and so a resident does not quietly sublet to someone you never approved. Our lease-clause guide covers the occupancy and subletting language that keeps this from becoming a Chapter 24 problem.
• Act at the first sign of an unauthorized occupant. The faster you start, the faster the SB 1333 and SB 38 timelines work for you.

All of it reduces to one idea: an unwatched empty house is the only kind a squatter can actually use. The cheapest defense is a home that is never vacant for long. Professional tenant placement in Dallas–Fort Worth and across our Texas markets keeps the gap between leases to days, not months.

Where Flat Fee Landlord Fits

Most owners never have to think about any of this — because the property is occupied by a qualified tenant, watched, and managed. That is the point. Our job is to keep your home filled with the right tenant, inspected, and protected, so an empty, unwatched house never becomes someone else's opportunity. When something does go wrong, you have a licensed Texas team that knows which of the two paths applies and moves on it in the first week, not the second month.

And because we charge a flat monthly fee rather than a percentage, your management cost does not rise just because your rent did — the number you pay to have someone watching the property is the same whether the house rents for $1,600 in Arlington or $3,200 in Frisco.

If you own a rental in Dallas–Fort Worth or anywhere in Texas and want it managed so problems like this never start, request a free rental analysis.

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Last reviewed: August 2026. Reviewed by Mo Hashem, Designated Broker, Texas Real Estate License #686637.

Sources: Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §§16.024–16.028 (adverse possession), including §16.027 and §16.028 (25-year periods); Texas Property Code §24.005 (notice to vacate) and Chapter 24 (forcible entry and detainer), as amended by S.B. 38, 89th Texas Legislature (2025); Texas Property Code Chapter 24B (removal of certain unauthorized occupants), added by S.B. 1333, 89th Texas Legislature (2025); Texas Penal Code §§32.56, 32.57 and 28.03(b)(6)(B), as added or amended by S.B. 1333; Senate Research Center Bill Analysis, S.B. 1333 (2025), capitol.texas.gov; Bill Analysis, S.B. 38 (Enrolled, 2025), capitol.texas.gov; Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Precinct 5 filing fee schedule, effective January 1, 2026, tarrantcountytx.gov; Dallas County Justice Courts 2026 eviction fee schedule, dallascounty.org.