My Commercial Tenant Stopped Paying Rent. What Are My Options in Texas?

Start with the lease, not the statute

Every option below is shaped by the lease. Before doing anything, find and read these clauses: the rent due date and any grace period; the definition of default and whether a written notice and a cure period are required before the default is complete; the remedies section, including lockout, re-entry, termination, acceleration and reletting; the notice clause, which says where and how notices must be sent; the attorney's fee clause; and the guaranty, if one was signed. A landlord who skips a required notice or sends it the wrong way can lose an otherwise clear case.

Also check the ledger. Confirm exactly what is unpaid, whether any late fees are charged the way the lease allows, and whether earlier late payments were accepted without objection. A pattern of accepting late rent can be argued as a waiver of strict compliance unless the lease has a non-waiver clause, and most do.

Option one: a written default notice and demand

The first step in nearly every case is a written notice of default that tracks the lease: it names the missed payments, cites the lease section, states the cure period if there is one, and says what happens next. Send it exactly as the notice clause requires, usually certified mail or overnight courier to the notice address, and keep the proof.

This notice does three jobs. It completes the default under the lease, it starts any cure clock, and it is the first exhibit in any later suit. Where the lease requires it, it is also the trigger for a guarantor's liability. A demand letter from counsel can be combined with it.

Option two: change the locks

Texas allows a commercial landlord to change the door locks of a tenant who is delinquent in paying at least part of the rent, without going to court first. Property Code § 93.002(c)(3) permits it, and § 93.002(f) requires the landlord to post a written notice on the front door giving the name and an address or phone number where a new key can be obtained. The landlord must provide the key only during the tenant's regular business hours and only if the tenant pays the delinquent rent. The lease can modify these rules.

A lockout is fast and inexpensive, and it often produces payment within days. It also carries risk. A lockout that is done when the tenant is not actually delinquent, or without the required notice, or that goes further than changing locks (cutting utilities the tenant pays for, removing doors or fixtures, seizing equipment) exposes the landlord to the tenant's actual damages or one month's rent or $500, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees, and the tenant can regain possession through a writ of reentry from the justice court. The full set of rules is in whether a commercial landlord can lock out a tenant in Texas.

A lockout does not end the lease or collect the debt by itself. It changes the tenant's incentives. A landlord who wants the space back for good still needs a termination under the lease or an eviction judgment.

Option three: evict

An eviction suit, called forcible detainer, asks the justice court for a judgment of possession. The landlord must first give written notice to vacate. Property Code § 24.005 sets the default at three days, and for a tenant whose only default is nonpayment and who was not late before that month, the notice must be a notice to pay rent or vacate. The lease may set a shorter or longer period. The suit is filed in the justice court for the precinct where the property sits, and the court decides possession only: it cannot rule on title and does not hear counterclaims.

Since January 1, 2026, Chapter 24 and Rule 510 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure provide for a sworn petition, a possible summary disposition without trial when the facts are not genuinely disputed, a trial within 10 to 21 days when they are, and a five-day window for either side to appeal to county court, where the case is tried again from the start. The steps and timing are in how commercial eviction works in Texas.

Eviction gets the landlord possession with a court order behind it, which matters when the tenant is still operating, has valuable equipment on site, or is likely to claim a wrongful lockout. The justice court can award rent only up to the limit Rule 510 allows for a joined rent claim; larger money claims go to a separate suit.

Option four: sue for the rent and damages

The money claim is a breach of contract suit in county court at law or district court, depending on the amount. What the landlord can recover depends on the lease and on one statute that overrides it.

• Past-due rent, late charges and interest as the lease provides.
• Future rent. If the lease allows acceleration, the landlord may claim the rent for the rest of the term, reduced to present value in most leases. If the lease instead has the landlord terminate and relet, the measure is the difference between the contract rent and what reletting brings in, plus reletting costs.
• Mitigation. Under Property Code § 91.006 a landlord must mitigate damages when a tenant abandons the premises in violation of the lease, and a lease clause waiving that duty is void. In practice the landlord must show reasonable efforts to relet, and the tenant may try to prove the landlord could have done more. How that plays out is covered in must a commercial landlord mitigate damages after a tenant leaves.
• Attorney's fees under the lease, or under Chapter 38 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code for a breach of contract claim that meets its requirements.

The suit must be filed within four years of the breach under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.004. Each unpaid installment is usually treated as its own breach for that purpose, but the practical advice is to decide quickly, because evidence and collectability both fade.

Option five: the guarantor

If an owner or parent company signed a personal guaranty, the landlord can usually sue the guarantor together with the tenant or separately. A guaranty must be in writing and signed under the statute of frauds, and Texas courts read it strictly in the guarantor's favor, so its exact scope matters: whether it covers the whole term or a fixed amount, whether it survives amendments and renewals, and whether it ends when the tenant surrenders in good standing. The details are in personal guaranties on commercial leases.

Choosing among the options

Example

Suppose a Fort Worth landlord leases 6,000 square feet of flex space to a logistics company for five years. In month 20 the tenant pays half the rent, in month 21 nothing. The lease has a five-day grace period, a 10-day written cure period, acceleration and a personal guaranty from the owner capped at 12 months of rent. The landlord sends the cure notice by certified mail on day six. The tenant does not cure. The landlord now has a completed default. Because the market for flex space is strong, possession is worth more than a long collection fight. The landlord posts the § 93.002 notice and changes the locks, which brings the owner to the table within two days. The parties sign a termination agreement: the tenant surrenders in 30 days, the landlord keeps the deposit, the owner pays six months of rent under the guaranty over a year, and the landlord releases the rest once the space is relet. No lawsuit is filed. That outcome was available because every step followed the lease.

Mistakes that cost landlords

• Locking out a tenant whose default is something other than rent. Section 93.002 permits a lockout only for delinquent rent.
• Sending the default notice to the premises when the lease names a different notice address.
• Accepting partial rent after the notice to vacate without a written reservation of rights.
• Removing or selling the tenant's property without following the lease and the abandoned-property rules in § 93.002(e).
• Leaving the space dark for months with no marketing, then claiming the full remaining rent.
• Telling the tenant the lease is terminated and then suing for future rent as if it were not.

When to bring in a litigator

Before the lockout and before the notice to vacate. Those two steps are where the lease, § 93.002 and Chapter 24 have to line up, and a mistake at that stage either hands the tenant a claim or sends the landlord back to the start. A litigator can also tell the landlord whether the tenant and guarantor are worth suing, and can structure a payment plan or termination agreement so that a later default is easy to enforce. Tina Wysk represents commercial landlords and tenants in lease disputes in Dallas-Fort Worth; the firm's real estate litigation practice handles lease defaults from the first notice through judgment and collection.