Real Estate Agent · Mineral Wells, TX · Member since 2011 · 58 posts · 5 votes
A few years ago if a tenant owed you rent or damaged your property you could enter the premises and “hold” certain items. It’s an old law I believe but was still could be used. It’s so old you couldn’t take their goat. You CAN take their big screen TV! Score!
Any one out there in Texas know if this is still on the books for us?
I am so over getting hammered by tenants and the laws that protect them….with us taking all the hits.
@Joe S. In Texas we don't need the tenant's permission to go in a property. As owners we have the reasonable right to entry. No notice required.
X-Box is the best small asset to confiscate, then iPads. Amazing how fast people call you back on "where is my X-box".
The new system in apartments is to be the internet provider, or have all tenants buy cable/internet thru the owner....as well as electric and water. Can't turn those off, but you can shut off cable/internet. That gets tenants attention very quickly.
@Jerel Ehlert it was me who stated internet is not a utility, it is not. Might be diminished services could definitely fall under self help eviction but not a utility. Where is it specified legally as a utility? A few medical devices have a need for uninterrupted internet access but jumping to wrongful death lawsuits, you are definitely a lawyer.....
That said I don't necessarily agree with the OP but your last post is the only barely civil one in the bunch. Agree or not, don't act like a jerk when you post.
This entire thread is utterly ridiculous and I have treated it with just the proper amount of contempt. So I thank you for attempts to be the tone police but decline your gracious invitation.
Whether you or I consider internet a utility is entirely irrelevant. In Texas, the deciding factor is whether a JP or CCL judge will consider it a constructive eviction. And wrongful death is a foreseeable result from cutting internet. Even more so for power and water when there's a medical need.
But like I posted before, and scumbag landlord who starts pulling this level bullsh--t should never be a landlord in the first place. Just do a freaking eviction like the law allows. All this ^^^ is just a power trip.