Texas changed this law in 2025, and most of the advice still online is written against the old rules.
If someone is living in a house you own and they never had a lease, you are no longer stuck filing an eviction and waiting on a docket. Since September 1, 2025 there is a separate, faster track that runs through the sheriff instead of the courthouse. It is narrow, it has teeth pointed in both directions, and it is worth understanding before you do anything you cannot undo.
The new track: a sworn complaint to the sheriff
Senate Bill 1333 created Chapter 24B of the Texas Property Code, effective September 1, 2025. It covers the removal of certain unauthorized occupants of a dwelling, and it does not go through an eviction suit at all.
Under Tex. Prop. Code § 24B.002(a), “a property owner or the owner’s agent may request the removal” by filing a sworn complaint. The complaint has to state that you are the owner or the owner’s agent, that the person is unlawfully occupying the dwelling without your consent, that the property was not open to the public when they entered, that there is no pending litigation over the property, that you directed the person to leave and they refused, that the person is not a tenant under a lease, that they are not an owner or co-owner, and that they are not an immediate family member.
If the sheriff or constable verifies the complaint, § 24B.003(b) says they “shall without delay” serve notice to immediately vacate and put the owner back in possession. There is no 21-day wait, because there is no trial.
Who this does not cover
The exclusions are the whole design of the statute, and they are where owners get this wrong.
Section 24B.001(3) carves out “a current or former tenant” under an oral or written lease, and “an immediate family member of the owner.” A former tenant who stopped paying is not an unauthorized occupant for this purpose. Neither is the brother you let stay there in 2019. Both of those are evictions, and trying to route them through the sheriff instead is how an owner turns a slow problem into an expensive one.
Note that an oral lease counts. If there was ever a conversation about rent, even without paper, you are probably outside Chapter 24B.
The penalty for getting it wrong
This is the part to read twice before you sign anything.
Under § 24B.005(a)(2), a person wrongfully removed under this procedure can recover actual damages, exemplary damages equal to three times the fair market rent of the dwelling, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees.
The statute gives you a fast remedy and prices the mistake accordingly. A sworn complaint is sworn. If you are not certain the person has never been a tenant and is not family, the fast track is the wrong tool.
The ordinary eviction also got faster
Senate Bill 38 passed the same session and tightened eviction timelines generally. The Governor’s office, announcing the signing, said the bill requires courts to “hold a trial in eviction suits within 21 days of a petition being filed.”
That matters because most of these situations turn out to be evictions rather than Chapter 24B removals once you look at the history honestly. The ordinary path is still the path for a holdover tenant, and it is shorter than it was.
What about adverse possession
Owners hear “squatters rights” and picture losing the house. That fear is mostly misplaced, and understanding why lets you stop panicking and start planning.
Adverse possession in Texas is defined in Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.021 as “an actual and visible appropriation of real property, commenced and continued under a claim of right that is inconsistent with and is hostile to the claim of another person.” Peaceable possession means possession “that is continuous and is not interrupted by an adverse suit to recover the property.”
The clock depends on what the occupant has. Section 16.024 sets a three year period where they hold under title or color of title. Section 16.025 sets five years, but only where the occupant cultivates or uses the property, pays the taxes on it, and claims under a registered deed, and it does not apply to a quitclaim, a forged deed, or a deed from a forged power of attorney. Section 16.026 sets ten years for peaceable and adverse possession where the holder cultivates, uses or enjoys the property, capped without a title instrument at 160 acres including improvements.
Read those requirements against the person on your mattress. Someone who moved in six months ago, has paid no taxes and holds no deed is not on any of these clocks. The word “peaceable” is also doing work: filing suit interrupts it.
What the house is worth after all this
Here is the part nobody writes about, and it is usually the actual problem.
Getting the person out is a legal question with a clear answer. What you are left with afterward is a different question. Occupied-without-permission houses come back with the copper gone, the HVAC gone, water damage from a line that froze while the power was off, and a smell that does not come out of the carpet or the drywall. The house that sits vacant long enough to attract an occupant is usually a house that was already deferred.
A retail sale asks you to fix all of it first, then wait on an appraisal and a lender who cares about the condition of the roof and the panel. A cash sale prices the condition and closes without any of that. If the property is in Central Texas, this is how an Austin sale works on a house that has been standing empty.
What to do first
Do not change the locks, cut the power or move anyone’s belongings. Self help is how an owner with a winning position acquires a lawsuit.
Instead: document the occupancy with dated photos, pull your deed and confirm the vesting, and write down the honest history of who has ever had permission to be in that house and on what terms. That last one decides which track you are on, and it is the question a lawyer will ask first. Then take it to a real estate or eviction attorney in the county where the property sits, because the sheriff’s office practice under a statute this new varies and a local attorney will know how yours is handling it.
If the answer at the end of it is that you want the property gone rather than restored, we buy houses in this condition across Texas and close on the owner’s timeline. Here is more on selling a Texas house fast without repairs.
The short version
Since September 1, 2025, Chapter 24B lets a Texas owner remove a true unauthorized occupant by sworn complaint to the sheriff rather than by eviction suit, and the sheriff must act without delay once the complaint is verified. It does not reach current or former tenants, including under an oral lease, or immediate family, and a wrongful removal costs you three times fair market rent plus fees. Adverse possession needs years plus taxes plus a deed, so a recent occupant is not taking your house. The real loss is usually condition, not title.
This is general information about Texas law, not legal advice for your situation. Statutes change and county practice varies. Talk to a Texas attorney before you file anything.