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 and stays a few weeks has no ownership claim. 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 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 eviction cases to as little as 10 days. 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 quickly.

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) · adverse-possession clock: 3/5/10/25 years, never weeks · 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 how you get someone out.

• Trespasser: someone with no right to be there who just entered. Police can sometimes remove a recent trespasser, but once a person claims they live there, it is often referred to the civil courts.
• Squatter: an unauthorized occupant who moves into a vacant or unsecured property without a lease or permission. Removed through eviction (a forcible entry and detainer suit).
• Holdover tenant: someone who did have permission (a lease) and stayed past the end of it. Also removed through eviction.
• 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?

Not the way headlines suggest. 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.

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.

Statute	Period	What it requires
§16.024	3 years	Possession under title or color of title (a defective ownership chain)
§16.025	5 years	Use the property, pay the property taxes, and claim under a recorded deed (not a forged one)
§16.026	10 years	Use the property with no deed; capped at 160 acres (or the actual fenced area). The most commonly cited basis.
§§16.027–16.028	25 years	Longer backstops that can run even against owners under a legal disability or regardless of a recorded instrument

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. For the broader rulebook on Texas landlord obligations, see our Texas Property Code Chapter 92 guide.

How to Remove a Squatter in 2026: Two Paths

Removal now runs one of two ways, and choosing correctly is the whole game:

• Path 1 — Sheriff removal (SB 1333): for pure unauthorized occupants who never had a lease or your permission. Sworn complaint, sheriff verification, notice, 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. A forcible entry and detainer suit in the Justice of the Peace (JP) court for the precinct where the property sits. The five steps:

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.

1. Serve a written notice to vacate. Texas requires at least 3 days unless the lease specifies a different period (Property Code §24.005).
2. File a sworn petition for eviction in the correct JP court (§24.00505), with proof you own or control the property.
3. Service of the petition. A constable must make a diligent effort to serve within 5 business days; if not, the owner may use other qualified law enforcement, including a trained off-duty officer.
4. The hearing or summary disposition (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 5 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 (§24B.002 — penalty of perjury applies). After verifying you own the property and the occupant has no legal claim, the officer serves a notice to immediately vacate — by hand delivery or affixed to the front door — and removes the occupant (§24B.003). The process is measured in days, not months. Expect a service fee equal to the county's writ-of-possession fee, 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.

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 an expedited hearing (§24B.005). If the occupant might count as a current or former tenant, use the eviction path instead.

The law also created new criminal offenses: presenting a fake lease or deed to claim rights to a property is now a Class A misdemeanor, and fraudulently selling or leasing property you do not own carries felony exposure. The forged-lease trick — the classic squatter delay tactic — is now itself a 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 can rule for you as early as the 10th day after filing — no trial — unless the occupant files a response within 4 days of being served that raises a real factual dispute.
• A firm trial window. If a trial is needed, it is set between day 10 and day 21 after filing (and no earlier than day 4 after service). Postponements longer than 7 days require written agreement.
• Faster service and writs. Constables must attempt service within 5 business days and execute the writ within 5 business days; otherwise the owner may bring in other qualified law enforcement.
• A higher bar to appeal-and-delay. A tenant appealing to county court must affirm, under penalty of perjury, a good-faith belief in a real defense, and must pay rent into the court registry during the appeal — or the court issues a writ of possession. The county court must hear the appeal within 21 days of getting 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.

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:

• Houston / Greater Houston — Harris County (plus Fort Bend, Montgomery, and more). See Houston property management.
• Dallas–Fort Worth — Dallas and Tarrant counties. See Dallas–Fort Worth property management.
• 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. 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.
• 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.
• 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.

The cheapest squatter defense is a home that is never vacant. Professional tenant placement in Houston 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 team that knows the process and moves fast.

If you own a rental in Texas and want it managed so problems like this never start, request a quote.

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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); Texas Property Code Chapter 24 (forcible entry and detainer), as amended by S.B. 38, 89th Texas Legislature (2025); Texas Property Code Chapter 24B (removal of unauthorized occupants), added by S.B. 1333, 89th Texas Legislature (2025); House Research Organization Bill Digest, S.B. 1333 (2025); Senate Research Center Bill Analysis, S.B. 38 (Enrolled, 2025); Texas State Law Library, Eviction Process guide.