Texas Tenant Advisor

• Home
  • Rights
    • Application deposit
    • Discrimination
    • Eviction
    • House rules
    • Landlord took property
    • Late fees
    • Lease
    • Locked out
    • Locks and security
    • Mobile homes
    • Privacy
    • Rent
    • Repairs
    • Retaliation
    • Roommates
    • Security deposit
    • Smoke detectors
    • Subleasing
    • Termination
    • Utilities
      • - Paid directly
      • - Submeter/allocated
      • - Included in rent
      • - Landlord nonpayment
      • --Statutes
      • ---Forms
    • Who owns the property
  • Fight back
  • Prevention

The Texas Tenant Advisor is intended to provide general information regarding Texas residential tenancies only.

Unique facts can render some statements inapplicable to a given situation.

We attempt to provide current information; nonetheless, you are urged to consult an attorney for legal advice and assistance.

This web site is a public service of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service.

If the landlord pays for the electrical service, and if the tenant does not make separate electricity payments to the landlord based upon metered usage (as in an "all bills paid" lease), Texas law does not allow the landlord to shutoff the utilities unless the shutoff is for real repairs, construction or an emergency, or if the tenant falls behind on rent.

However, the landlord cannot shutoff the electrical service for any other reason such as nonpayment of late fees, or disturbing neighbors. In order for the landlord to lawfully disconnect the electrical service, the service with the electrical company must be in the landlord's name; the tenant must be at least seven days late in paying the rent; the interruption in electrical service must not begin before or after the landlord's normal business hours; the disconnection or interruption of electrical service must not begin on a day, or on a day immediately preceding a day, when the landlord is not available or the on-site management office is not open to accept rent and restore the electrical service; and the landlord must have mailed or hand-delivered to the tenant, at least five days before the date the service will be disconnected, a written notice of the landlord's intention to disconnect such service. The written notice must state the earliest date of the proposed interruption of electrical service; the amount of rent the tenant must pay to avert the interruption; and the name and location of the on-site management office where the late rent may be paid during the landlord's normal business hours.

If the tenant offers to pay all the delinquent rent after the utility has been shutoff, the landlord must reconnect the utility (whether or not the landlord actually accepts the rent). A landlord who disconnects the electrical service must restore the service not later than two hours after the time the tenant tenders the rent to the landlord. If the landlord does not provide the proper notice or fails to restore the electrical service within the time specified, the tenant may recover possession of the premises or terminate the lease. In either case, the tenant may also recover actual damages, the greater of $500 or one month's rent, reasonable attorney's fees, court costs, less any past due money owed to the landlord.

Any lease provision that takes away these rights and responsibilities is void. For example, a landlord cannot shutoff the electrical service for nonpayment of late fees. Some landlords shutoff for this reason and argue that the tenant was actually behind on the rent because the landlord accepted the rent funds from the tenant but applied these funds to the past due late fees first. The landlord may even have a lease provision to this effect. Once these fees are deducted then the tenant still owes rent claims the landlord, and therefore they can shutoff electrical service. This practice is illegal. The Texas Property Code voids any lease provision or practice that diminishes a tenant right related to electrical shutoffs. In effect, the law does not allow electrical shutoffs for reasons other than nonpayment of rent, and any provision that expands this is void.

[In certain extreme weather conditions or other circumstances, shutting off electrical service for nonpayment of rent, even after giving the correct notices, may still be improper because it violates the health ordinances. Contact your local health inspector, building inspector or tenant association, for more information.]