Texas Residential Lease Agreement (2026): What It Must Contain and Which Form to Use

Quick answer: a compliant 2026 Texas residential lease agreement needs the ownership-and-management disclosure (§92.201), the tenant repair-remedy notice printed underlined or in bold (§92.056(g)), a written late-fee clause built on the §92.019 two-day rule and the 12%/10% safe harbor, security-deposit terms that respect the 30-day refund clock (§92.103), and the federal lead-paint disclosure for pre-1978 homes — plus the flood disclosure (§92.0135), which Texas requires in a separate document handed over at or before signing. Everything below is the statute-by-statute version, with the exact forms to attach.

The Short Answer, as a Table

Texas is a landlord-friendly state, but Chapter 92 of the Property Code makes specific demands of the lease document itself — and several protections landlords assume they have simply do not exist unless the lease creates them, in the required form. If your lease was drafted for “any state,” or last updated before 2022, at least one row below is probably missing.

Requirement	Statute	What it actually demands	Where it lives
Ownership & management disclosure	§92.201	Name and street or PO box address of the record title holder, plus the management company if managed off-site	In the lease, in written rules, posted conspicuously, or given within 7 days of a tenant request
Flood disclosure	§92.0135	Whether the landlord is aware the dwelling is in a 100-year floodplain, and whether it has flooded in the last 5 years	A separate written document, at or before lease execution
Repair-remedy notice	§92.056(g)	Language telling the tenant the remedies available under §92.056 and §92.0561	In the lease, underlined or in bold print
Lead-based paint	Federal (pre-1978 homes)	Known-hazard disclosure, EPA pamphlet, signed acknowledgment	Attached addendum
Late fee	§92.019	Must be in a written lease; rent unpaid 2 full days; 12% (1-4 units) or 10% (5+) safe harbor	A lease clause — unenforceable if oral
Deposit-deduction clause for rekeying	§92.156(e)	Only deductible on tenant breach, and only if authorized by an underlined or boldface lease clause	In the lease, formatted

Does a Texas Lease Have to Be in Writing?

A lease for a term of one year or less can be oral in Texas and still be enforceable. A lease for a term longer than one year must be in writing and signed by the party to be bound — that is the statute of frauds at Texas Business and Commerce Code §26.01(b)(5), which lists “a lease of real estate for a term longer than one year” among the agreements that are unenforceable without a signed writing.

That is the legal floor, and it is the wrong place to stand. Two of the most useful landlord protections in Chapter 92 exist only on paper. A late fee is collectible only if it is in a written lease. The tenant repair-remedy notice must be physically printed underlined or in bold. Neither survives a handshake. Every serious landlord in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington or Plano uses a written lease even for a month-to-month tenancy, and re-papers it rather than letting an old form roll forward.

The Disclosures Your Lease Cannot Skip

Three disclosures come from Chapter 92 and one comes from federal law. Miss any and you have not voided the lease — you have quietly created an argument for the other side.

Ownership and management (§92.201). The tenant is entitled to know the name and a street or post office box address for the holder of record title, and the name and address of the management company if an off-site company manages the property. The statute lets you satisfy this several ways: give it in writing within seven days of the tenant’s request, post it conspicuously in the dwelling or the on-site manager’s office, or simply include it in the lease or in written rules. The last option is the only one that never fails, because it does not depend on you responding to a request on time. If an assumed name certificate is recorded with the county clerk, an assumed name may be used.

Flood disclosure (§92.0135). Covered in its own section below, because the delivery mechanics are where landlords go wrong.

Repair remedies (§92.056(g)). Covered under the bold-print section below.

Lead-based paint (federal). For any home built before 1978: disclose known lead-based paint and hazards, provide the EPA pamphlet, and keep the signed acknowledgment. Texas REALTORS® publishes this as a dedicated addendum (TXR 2008), which its forms guide says “should be attached to any residential lease agreement if the property was built before 1978.” A great deal of pre-1978 housing stock sits in older Dallas and Fort Worth neighborhoods, so this is not an edge case in this market.

The Flood Disclosure Is a Separate Document, Not a Lease Clause

Texas treats the flood disclosure as a separate document, not a lease clause. This is the single most commonly botched item on the list, because landlords assume that putting flood language somewhere in the lease discharges the duty. It does not.

Texas Property Code §92.0135, added by H.B. 531 in 2021 and effective January 1, 2022, requires two notices. The first tells the tenant whether the landlord is or is not aware that the dwelling is located in a 100-year floodplain, and includes a warning that if neither box is checked the tenant should assume it is, that a dwelling outside the floodplain may still flood, that FEMA publishes a searchable flood map at no cost, and that most tenant insurance policies do not cover flood damage. The second, required only where applicable, tells the tenant the landlord is or is not aware that the dwelling has flooded at least once within the last five years.

The statute defines its own terms. A 100-year floodplain is an area FEMA has designated as having a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968. Flooding means a partial or complete inundation of the dwelling caused by inland or tidal water overflow, unusual and rapid accumulation of runoff from an established water source, or excessive rainfall. There is a narrow exception where the dwelling’s elevation exceeds the 100-year flood level under federal regulations.

The delivery rule is the part to internalize: the notices must be in a written document separate from the lease, delivered at or before the lease is executed. That is exactly why Texas REALTORS® publishes a standalone Addendum Regarding Rental Flood Disclosure (TXR 2015) rather than a paragraph inside TXR 2001. The association’s own forms guide is blunt about it: the addendum “MUST be provided to a Tenant at or before the execution of any residential lease.”

Get it wrong and the exposure is specific rather than catastrophic. If the dwelling floods, the tenant loses personal property worth 50 percent or more of its value, and you failed to give the required notice, the tenant may terminate the lease within 30 days of the loss, and you refund advance rent and fees covering the period after termination. Rent that accrued before termination is still owed. Given that the notice is a free, pre-printed form, the risk-to-effort ratio here is absurd.

The Clauses Texas Requires in Bold or Underlined Print

Texas has two places where the typography of a lease clause is part of the legal requirement. Most landlords know about one and almost nobody knows about the second.

§92.056(g) — the repair-remedy notice. The statute reads: “A lease must contain language in underlined or bold print that informs the tenant of the remedies available under this section and Section 92.0561.” That covers the tenant’s termination, repair-and-deduct and judicial remedies when a landlord fails to repair a condition materially affecting health or safety. The requirement is disjunctive — underlined or bold is enough — and it is the most common defect we see in self-drafted leases. Worth knowing: the Texas Supreme Court held in American Campus Communities, Inc. v. Berry (Tex. 2023) that omitting the §92.056(g) disclosure does not by itself hand the tenant a private right of action. It remains a drafting requirement you should meet, not a strict-liability trap. We break the whole clause down in the §92.056 bold-or-underlined lease trap.

§92.156(e) — the rekeying deduction. The one almost nobody has read. You may deduct the cost of rekeying from the security deposit only if the tenant breached the lease and the lease contains an underlined or boldface clause authorizing the deduction. A rekeying charge buried in ordinary type in your deposit section is not deductible.

There is a third, conditional one. Under §92.006(d)-(f), a landlord and tenant may agree that the tenant will perform certain repairs, but only in a written lease, in language “either underlined or printed in boldface,” clearly stated, and agreed to knowingly and voluntarily for consideration. If your lease shifts any repair duty to the tenant and that clause is in regular type, the shift does not hold.

What Is the Maximum Late Fee in Texas?

There is no flat maximum. Texas Property Code §92.019 gives you a safe harbor, and three conditions gate it.

1. The fee must be stated in a written lease. No written clause, no late fee.
2. Rent must remain unpaid two full days after the date it was originally due. This is the detail most older lease forms and most online templates get wrong — the 2019 amendment, effective September 1, 2019, is what set the two-day floor. A lease that charges a late fee the morning after the due date is charging it too early.
3. The amount is deemed reasonable up to 12 percent of the rent for a structure with four or fewer dwelling units, or 10 percent for a structure with more than four. Above the safe harbor, the fee is permitted only if it does not exceed uncertain damages to the landlord related to the late payment — and you would be the one proving that.

The penalty for getting it wrong is real money: a landlord who violates §92.019 is liable for the sum of $100, three times the amount of the late fee collected in violation, and the tenant’s reasonable attorney’s fees. On a $2,400 Frisco single-family rental, a compliant 12 percent fee is $288, assessed no earlier than two full days past due. An open-ended “$25 per day until paid” clause with no cap is exactly the kind of provision that gets struck and then costs you the fee back three times over.

Security Deposit Terms the Lease Has to Live With

Your lease cannot rewrite the deposit rules, so it should be drafted to work with them. The refund clock is 30 days: §92.103 requires the landlord to refund the deposit on or before the 30th day after the date the tenant surrenders the premises. Where the tenant has paid all rent and there is no controversy over rent, §92.104(c) requires an itemized list of all deductions.

The enforcement stack is what makes this worth drafting around. §92.109(d) presumes bad faith if you neither return the deposit nor provide the written description and itemization by the 30th day. §92.109(c) places the burden of proving that any retention was reasonable on the landlord, not the tenant. And §92.109(a) makes a bad-faith retention worth “the sum of $100, three times the portion of the deposit wrongfully withheld, and the tenant’s reasonable attorney’s fees.” A separate provision, §92.109(b), addresses bad-faith failure to give the itemized list: the landlord forfeits the right to withhold any portion of the deposit or to sue for damages to the premises, and owes the tenant’s attorney’s fees.

One drafting point worth a sentence in every lease: under §92.107 the landlord is not obligated to return the deposit until the tenant gives a written statement of the tenant’s forwarding address. State that duty in the lease and remind the tenant of it at move-out. The mechanics of the clock are covered in detail in our §92.103 30-day deposit return guide and the broader rules in our Texas security deposit law guide.

Locks, Keyless Bolts, and the Seven-Day Rekey

Subchapter D of Chapter 92 requires specific security devices at the landlord’s expense, without the tenant having to ask. Under §92.153 that means a window latch on each exterior window; a doorknob lock or keyed dead bolt on each exterior door; a sliding door pin lock and either a sliding door handle latch or a security bar on each exterior sliding glass door; and a keyless bolting device and a door viewer on each exterior door. The statute carries narrow exceptions — for certain senior or disability housing with a welfare-check agreement, for a written request by a tenant over 55 or with a disability to deactivate a keyless bolting device, and an alternative configuration where one entry door carries both a keyed dead bolt and a keyless bolting device. All required devices must stay operable while the tenant occupies the dwelling.

Then the rekey rule, which is the one that catches out-of-state owners doing their own turnovers: §92.156(a) provides that a security device operated by a key, card or combination “shall be rekeyed by the landlord at the landlord’s expense not later than the seventh day after each tenant turnover date.” No tenant request is required. It is automatic, it is on you, and it is on the clock. A tenant may request further rekeying at their own expense as often as they like.

None of this has to be recited in the lease to apply. A good Texas lease documents it anyway, alongside a move-in condition record — Texas REALTORS® publishes TXR 2006 for exactly that purpose — so that nobody is reconstructing the state of the property from memory eleven months later.

Clauses That Are Void No Matter What You Write

§92.006 is the provision that decides which of your lease clauses actually survive. It makes most waivers of Chapter 92 duties void. A tenant cannot waive the security-deposit rules, the security-device requirements, the disclosure of ownership and management, the utility-cutoff protections, or the landlord’s duty to install smoke alarms and the remedies for failing to install them. The landlord’s smoke-alarm inspection and repair duty may be waived, but only by written agreement. Duties under Subchapter B — conditions materially affecting physical health or safety — cannot be waived except through the narrow tenant-repair agreements described above.

Two more that belong on every drafting checklist. §92.006(g): the tenant’s right to vacate for family violence or for certain military-service reasons cannot be waived. §92.006(h): the right to a jury trial cannot be waived by lease or other written agreement. A template that includes a jury-trial waiver is telling you it was not written for Texas.

What you can lean on is the flexibility Texas genuinely grants — broad screening latitude, a well-defined eviction process, and no municipal rent control. The full statutory picture sits in our plain-English guide to Property Code Chapter 92.

Which Texas Lease Form Should You Use?

Most single-family landlords in Texas end up on one of three paths: the Texas REALTORS® forms library, a lease maintained by their property manager or attorney, or a template downloaded from a legal-forms site. The first two are defensible. The third needs an audit.

The Texas REALTORS® Residential Lease is TXR 2001. Its published description states it is “designed for leases of 1-4 single family dwellings including condominiums, townhomes or patio homes” and is “not to be used in complex transactions or to create a ‘lease purchase.’” It is a member form, which is the practical catch: you reach it through a licensed agent, broker or property manager, not as a public PDF download. If you are leasing a single unit inside an apartment complex, the corresponding form is TXR 2011 rather than TXR 2001.

Two habits matter more than which form you pick. Check the version date — the association’s own guidance on its lease-extension form notes that when extending a lease written on a prior version, it is recommended to enter into a new lease on the updated form “to ensure compliance with changes in Texas law.” And confirm the §92.056(g) disclosure is physically present in bold or underlined print in the copy you are about to sign, rather than assuming the form vendor handled it.

The Addenda Most Landlords Forget

A Texas lease is a base form plus the addenda the specific property needs. This is where compliance is usually lost — not in the lease body, but in an addendum nobody attached. These are the Texas REALTORS® residential lease forms and what each is for, per the association’s published forms guide.

Form	Name	When you need it
TXR 2001	Residential Lease	Leases of 1-4 single-family dwellings including condominiums, townhomes or patio homes
TXR 2011	Residential Lease for a Multi-Family Property Unit	A single unit within a multi-family property such as an apartment complex
TXR 2003	Residential Lease Application	Before signing — collects applicant information and authorizes verification and a credit report
TXR 2015	Addendum Regarding Rental Flood Disclosure	Every residential lease — must be provided at or before execution
TXR 2008	Addendum Regarding Lead-Based Paint	Any property built before 1978
TXR 2006	Residential Lease Inventory and Condition Form	Move-in and move-out condition record — your deposit-deduction evidence
TXR 2004	Animal Agreement	Tenant keeps an animal as a pet. Expressly not applicable to assistance animals
TXR 2010	Pool/Spa Maintenance Addendum	Single-family residence with a pool
TXR 2013	Bed Bug Addendum	Records both parties’ representations at signing and obligations if bed bugs appear
TXR 2007	Residential Lease Guaranty	A third party guarantees the lease, such as a parent for a student tenant
TXR 2017	Residential Lease Sight Unseen Addendum	Tenant signs without inspecting the property in person
TXR 2018	Addendum Regarding Fee in Lieu of a Security Deposit	Tenant pays a recurring fee with rent instead of a deposit
TXR 2016	Tenant and Occupant Information	Collects tenant, occupant and animal details not captured in the lease
TXR 2014	Residential Lease Amendment	Amend rent, deposit, occupants, parking rules or notices mid-term
TXR 2005	Extension of Residential Lease	Short-form extension — though a new lease on the current form is the safer path
TXR 2012	Early Termination of Residential Lease	Mutually agreed termination before the primary term ends

The two nobody attaches are TXR 2015 and TXR 2006 — the flood disclosure, which is legally required for every lease, and the inventory and condition form, which is the evidence that decides deposit disputes. Both are free to use and take minutes to complete.

Why Free Template Downloads Fail in Texas

Search for a Texas lease agreement template or PDF and you will find dozens. The problem is not that they are free — it is that almost none of them are Texas-specific in the places Texas is specific. Audit any template against these five before a tenant signs:

1. Is the §92.056(g) repair-remedy disclosure present, and physically underlined or bold? Not just accurate language — the formatting is the requirement.
2. Does the late-fee clause require rent to be unpaid two full days, and stay inside 12% or 10%? Anything charging on day one is pre-2019 drafting.
3. Is the flood disclosure a separate document? If the template folds it into a lease paragraph, it does not satisfy §92.0135.
4. Is the §92.201 ownership and management disclosure in the lease? Naming the record title holder and the manager, with an address.
5. Is any rekeying deduction clause underlined or in boldface? §92.156(e) makes formatting a condition of deductibility.

Add a sixth if the template came from outside Texas: search it for a jury-trial waiver and delete it, because §92.006(h) makes it unenforceable and its presence signals the rest of the document was drafted for somewhere else.

What This Looks Like in Dallas-Fort Worth

Chapter 92 is statewide, so the lease you sign in Irving is the lease you sign in McKinney. What varies across Dallas-Fort Worth is operational, and it is worth knowing before you paper a tenancy.

The metro spans four large counties — Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton — and if a tenancy ever goes to a filing, it goes to the justice-of-the-peace precinct where the property sits, not where you live. Cities straddle county lines here more than owners expect, so confirm the county for the specific address rather than the city name. Frisco and Grapevine are the classic examples.

Flood exposure is genuinely address-by-address in North Texas, which is why the §92.0135 form asks what you are aware of rather than assuming. FEMA’s searchable map, which the statutory notice itself points the tenant to, is the place to check before you complete the addendum. Older housing stock in central Dallas and Fort Worth also means the pre-1978 lead-paint addendum comes up far more often than it does in newer Collin and Denton County subdivisions.

And a great many Dallas-Fort Worth rentals are owned from out of state, where the seven-day rekey and the 30-day deposit clock are the two deadlines most likely to be missed simply because nobody local is holding the keys. If that is you, our out-of-state owner’s guide to DFW covers the operational side, and our DFW rent guide covers pricing by submarket.

A lease is not where you should be economizing, and neither is the person administering it. Flat Fee Landlord manages Dallas-Fort Worth rentals on a flat monthly fee — your management cost should not rise just because your rent did — with a Texas lease kept current against the statute, the required addenda attached, and the deadlines above tracked rather than remembered. If you want to know what your property should rent for and what managing it would actually cost, get your free rental analysis.

Sources

Every statutory claim above was read against primary sources on September 5, 2026. Texas statute text was read on the Texas Legislature’s published code via the public.law mirror, which cites back to the official source, because statutes.capitol.texas.gov is client-rendered.

• Texas Property Code §92.006 — Waiver or Expansion of Duties and Remedies: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.006
• Texas Property Code §92.0135 — Disclosure of Flooding: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.0135
• Texas Property Code §92.019 — Late Payment of Rent; Fees: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.019
• Texas Property Code §92.056 — Landlord Liability and Tenant Remedies: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.056
• Texas Property Code §92.109 — Liability of Landlord (security deposits): texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.109
• Texas Property Code §92.153 — Security Devices Required Without Necessity of Tenant’s Request: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.153
• Texas Property Code §92.156 — Rekeying or Change of Security Devices: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.156
• Texas Property Code §92.201 — Disclosure of Ownership and Management: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_92.201
• Texas Business and Commerce Code §26.01 — Statute of Frauds: texas.public.law/statutes/tex._bus._and_com._code_section_26.01
• Texas State Law Library, Landlord/Tenant Law — Security Deposits (§§92.103, 92.104, 92.107): guides.sll.texas.gov/landlord-tenant-law/security-deposits
• Texas REALTORS®, TR Forms Description and Reference Guide (published PDF) — form names and descriptions for TXR 2001 through TXR 2018: texasrealestate.com

This guide is general information for Texas landlords, not legal advice. Statutes change and individual situations vary — confirm the current text of any section before relying on it, and consult a Texas attorney for advice on your specific lease.