A Texas 7 Day Notice To Vacate is a letter which complies with state legal requirements to terminate a week-to-week lease or a situation with no written lease where the tenant pays rent weekly. The non-terminating party must receive notice at least seven (7) calendar days before the date of termination.
When To Use a Texas 7 Day Notice To Vacate
A Texas 7-Day Notice To Vacate terminates a week-to-week lease, as well as a rental situation with no written lease where the tenant pays rent weekly. Either the landlord or the tenant may deliver this notice, as appropriate.
Some other types of Texas lease termination notice may allow different reasons for termination, or different notice periods. This may also apply to an eviction notice issued because of a lease or legal violation.
How To Write a Texas 7 Day Notice To Vacate
To help ensure the legal compliance of a Notice To Vacate:
- Use the full name of the receiving party, and address of record, if known
- Specify the termination date of the lease or tenancy
- Fill in the full address of the rental premises
- Provide updated/current address and phone number information
- Print name and sign the notice
- Complete the certificate of service by indicating the date and method of notice delivery, along with printed name and signature
It is easy to lose an otherwise justified legal action because of improper notice. Check carefully to ensure enough time after notice is delivered, not when it’s sent.
How To Serve a Texas 7 Day Notice To Vacate
Texas tenants do not have strict requirements on how they must deliver a lease termination notice, except that they must in some cases do so in writing. It is always legally most safe for a tenant to follow the same standards as apply to landlords. A Texas landlord may deliver a lease termination notice using any of these methods:
- Hand delivery to the tenant
- Hand delivery to a person at least 16 on the property who can accept the notice on behalf of the other party
- Hand-affixing the notice to the inside of the property’s main entry door
- Delivery by any form of mail, return receipt requested
- Posting the notice on the exterior of the property’s main entry door, PLUS mailing a copy of the notice by 5:00PM local time (only if the landlord perceives a risk of harm by posting inside, or if the premises have an alarm and no onsite mailbox)
When posting notices on the exterior of the premises, the notice must be placed in a sealed envelope with the receiving party’s name and address written on it. In addition, the party posting the notice shall write “Important Document” in all capital letters on the envelope affixed to the premises. All notices must be mailed from a post office in the same county as the rental unit.
Sources
- 1 TX Prop § 91.001
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If a notice of termination is given under Subsection (a) and if the rent-paying period is less than a month, the tenancy terminates on whichever of the following days is the later:
(1) the day given in the notice for termination; or
Source Link(2) the day following the expiration of the period beginning on the day on which notice is given and extending for a number of days equal to the number of days in the rent-paying period.
- 2 Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(f)
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Except as provided by Subsection (f-1), the notice to vacate shall be given in person or by mail at the premises in question. Notice in person may be by personal delivery to the tenant or any person residing at the premises who is 16 years of age or older or personal delivery to the premises and affixing the notice to the inside of the main entry door. Notice by mail may be by regular mail, by registered mail, or by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the premises in question.
Source Link - 3 Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(f-1) & (f-2)
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(f-1) As an alternative to the procedures of Subsection (f), a landlord may deliver the notice to vacate by securely affixing to the outside of the main entry door a sealed envelope that contains the notice and on which is written the tenant’s name, address, and in all capital letters, the words “IMPORTANT DOCUMENT” or substantially similar language and, not later than 5 p.m. of the same day, depositing in the mail in the same county in which the premises in question is located a copy of the notice to the tenant if: (1) the premises has no mailbox and has a keyless bolting device, alarm system, or dangerous animal that prevents the landlord from entering the premises to affix the notice to vacate to the inside of the main entry door; or (2) the landlord reasonably believes that harm to any person would result from personal delivery to the tenant or a person residing at the premises or from personal delivery to the premises by affixing the notice to the inside of the main entry door. (f-2) Notice to vacate under Subsection (f-1) is considered delivered on the date the envelope is affixed to the outside of the door and is deposited in the mail, regardless of the date the notice is received. Source Link
