What counts as landlord retaliation in Texas? The six-month rule

The Four Protected Acts

Retaliation in Texas is defined by what the tenant did first. The protected acts are: exercising or attempting in good faith to exercise a right or remedy granted by the lease, a municipal ordinance, or state or federal law; giving the landlord a notice to repair or exercising a remedy under Chapter 92; complaining to a government entity that enforces building or housing codes, to a public utility, or to a civic or nonprofit agency about a code violation or utility problem the tenant believes in good faith exists; and establishing, attempting to establish, or participating in a tenant organization (Sec. 92.331(a)). The most common one in a single-family rental is the second: a repair notice. The moment a tenant tells you the water heater is out, the six-month window opens.

The Six Things a Landlord May Not Do in Response

Within six months after the tenant's protected act, a landlord may not, because of it, file an eviction proceeding except on the grounds in Sec. 92.332; deprive the tenant of the use of the premises except as authorized by law; decrease services; increase rent or terminate the lease; or engage in bad faith in a course of conduct that materially interferes with the tenant's rights under the lease (Sec. 92.331(b)). The word that does the work is because: the statute reaches actions taken for purposes of retaliation, and the landlord who can prove the action was not retaliatory is not liable (Sec. 92.332(a)). A non-renewal at the end of the term with no other reason, sent five months after a code complaint, is the fact pattern that loses.

What Is Not Retaliation

The statute lists the grounds that are valid whatever the timing. An eviction or termination is not retaliation where the tenant is delinquent in rent when the notice to vacate is given or the eviction is filed; where the tenant, a household member, or a guest intentionally damages the property or threatens the safety of the landlord, staff, or another tenant; where the tenant has materially breached the lease other than by holding over, such as by violating written provisions against serious misconduct or criminal acts; where the tenant holds over after giving their own notice; where the tenant holds over after the landlord's end-of-term notice and only then raises a Sec. 92.331 act; or where the tenant holds over and the landlord's termination is motivated by a good-faith belief about quiet enjoyment, health and safety, or property damage (Sec. 92.332(b)). Rent increases under a written escalation clause for utilities, taxes, or insurance, or as part of a pattern across an entire multi-dwelling project, are also outside the statute (Sec. 92.332(a)). The common thread: the ground existed on its own and is written down.

What It Costs

A tenant who proves retaliation recovers a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500, actual damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees, in an action for property damages, moving costs, actual expenses, civil penalties, or declaratory or injunctive relief, less any rent the tenant owes (Sec. 92.333). Where the tenant's rent is subsidized, the penalty is measured on the fair market rent of the dwelling plus $500 (Sec. 92.333). And in the eviction itself, retaliation under Sec. 92.331 is a defense to possession (Sec. 92.335): the case a landlord filed to recover the house can end with the tenant still in it. The money comes in a separate suit; the statute bars joining the other Chapter 92 actions with an eviction or asserting them as a counterclaim in one (Sec. 92.335).

The Backstop Against Bad-Faith Complaints

The statute cuts the other way too, narrowly. If a tenant sues for retaliation based on a code or utility complaint and the inspector or utility representative visits and determines in writing that no violation or problem exists, there is a rebuttable presumption that the tenant acted in bad faith (Sec. 92.334(a)). A tenant who files or prosecutes a retaliation suit in bad faith is liable to the landlord for one month's rent plus $500, costs, and attorney fees, and the landlord may recover possession (Sec. 92.334(b)). The presumption reaches only complaints to a code, utility, or civic authority under Sec. 92.331(a)(3); a frivolous repair notice sent straight to the landlord gets no presumption, and the landlord carries the whole burden of proving bad faith. A repair notice given in good faith is protected; a complaint invented to block an eviction is not.

How We Run It

Every repair request and every code contact goes in the property file with its date, because the six-month clock runs from that date and the file is what proves a later decision stood on its own grounds. Non-renewals inside a window carry a documented reason in the file that would have been true without the request; the notice to the tenant itself states no reason, because Texas requires none and a volunteered one is what gets argued. Rent changes at renewal are priced to the comps the same way on every door and the comp set is kept, which is the evidence that an increase was not made for purposes of retaliation under Sec. 92.332(a). The statute's pattern safe harbor in Sec. 92.332(a)(2) is written for an entire multi-dwelling project, not for scattered single-family doors, so a single-family owner does not get to lean on it; the comps are the defense. And a repair request is answered inside the seven-day presumption in Sec. 92.056, which is the cheapest way there is to never need this page.