Which clauses in a Texas lease have to be in bold or underlined?

Why the Typeface Is the Law

The Legislature's pattern in Chapter 92 is consistent: where a lease can shift a burden onto the tenant or preserve a remedy for the landlord, the statute makes the shift depend on the tenant having been able to see it. The mechanism is typography. Underlined or bold print is the test in every one of the seven places below, and the consequence of missing it is never a fine; it is that the clause is treated as absent. The standard Texas REALTORS residential lease carries these in the required form, which is a large part of why we use it. A lease downloaded from a general template site is where the seven go missing, one paragraph at a time.

1. The Repair Remedies Notice

A lease must contain language in underlined or bold print that informs the tenant of the remedies available under Sec. 92.056 and Sec. 92.0561: terminating the lease, repairing and deducting, and judicial remedies after a landlord fails to make a diligent effort on a health-or-safety condition (Sec. 92.056(g)). This one is a duty on the landlord rather than a right preserved, and it is the one most often missing from homemade leases because it reads as if it is against the landlord's interest. It is a required disclosure, and its absence is its own violation.

2. Advance Notice of Surrender as a Deposit Condition

A lease may require the tenant to give advance notice of surrender as a condition of refunding the security deposit, but only if the requirement is underlined or printed in conspicuous bold print in the lease (Sec. 92.103(b)). Buried in normal type, the condition does not exist and the 30-day refund clock runs from surrender regardless (Sec. 92.103(a)).

3. The Rekey Deduction After a Broken Lease

The seven-day turnover rekey is the landlord's cost (Sec. 92.156(a)). If a tenant vacates in breach of a written lease, the landlord may deduct the reasonable rekey cost from the deposit, but only if the lease includes a provision, underlined or printed in boldface type, authorizing the deduction (Sec. 92.156(e)). Without the bold clause, a rekey charged against the deposit of a tenant who broke the lease is an unlawful deduction, with the bad-faith exposure under Sec. 92.109 that follows.

4. The Security-Device Notice That Buys Four Days

If a required lock, latch, viewer, or rekey is missing, the tenant may serve a written request and, if the landlord does not comply within three days, terminate the lease or sue for a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500 (Sec. 92.164(a)(2), (4)). That window becomes seven days only if the lease includes language, underlined or in boldface print, that in substance tells the tenant the landlord must equip the dwelling with the Sec. 92.153 devices at the landlord's expense, describes the doorknob-lock and keyless-bolt exceptions, and explains the tenant's remedies (Sec. 92.164(b)). Four days is the difference between a vendor appointment and a penalty.

5. Written Requests for Security Devices

A tenant's request or notice under the security-device subchapter may be given orally unless the tenant has a written lease that requires it in writing and that requirement is underlined or in boldfaced print (Sec. 92.159). A landlord who wants the protection of a paper trail on lock and rekey requests has to put the requirement in bold, or the phone call counts.

6. The Key-Rights Line in a Lockout Notice

A landlord who changes locks for delinquent rent must first give a written notice stating the earliest lock-change date, the amount to pay to prevent it, where rent can be paid, and, in underlined or bold print, the tenant's right to receive a key to the new lock at any hour regardless of whether the tenant pays the delinquent rent (Sec. 92.0081(d)(3)). The lease itself must also grant the lock-change right (Sec. 92.0081(d)(1)). A notice with the key line in plain type is a defective notice, and a lock change on a defective notice is the lockout that costs one month's rent plus $1,000 (Sec. 92.0081(h)).

7. The Selection-Criteria Acknowledgment Inside the Application

A landlord must make printed tenant selection criteria available at application and obtain the applicant's signed acknowledgment (Sec. 92.3515(a), (b)). The acknowledgment may be part of the rental application itself only if the notice is underlined or in bold print (Sec. 92.3515(d)). Fold it into the application in ordinary type and the presumption in Sec. 92.3515(b) runs against the landlord: no signed acknowledgment, no criteria, and the application fee goes back on rejection (Sec. 92.3515(e)).

How We Run It

We use the current Texas REALTORS residential lease and application, which carry each of the seven in the required form, and we do not edit the conspicuous-print paragraphs when an owner asks for a custom addendum. When an owner brings us a house with a tenant already in place on a homemade lease, the first read is for these seven, because they decide which of the landlord's protections actually exist. The fix at renewal is a new lease, not a bolded amendment.