An eviction refers to a lawsuit filed by a landlord to remove persons and belongings from the landlord's property. In Texas law, these are also referred to as "forcible entry and detainer" or "forcible detainer" suits. There are hundreds filed every day with Texas justice courts (also called justice of the peace or J.P. courts).

A landlord should start this process by terminating a tenant's right to possession by giving a notice to the tenant. A landlord might do this for a number of reasons -- the number one reason is for nonpayment of rent. Sometimes a landlord may claim the tenant is staying past the agreed lease term ("holding over"). So long as a landlord is not discriminating in violation of the Fair Housing laws, or retaliating in violation of the Texas Property Code, a landlord can refuse to renew a lease for any reason.

(If you are faced with an eviction you should seriously consider getting advice and assistance from an attorney. If you have a very low income you may qualify for free or low cost legal aid from a nonprofit legal aid organization in your area.)

Court approval requried

If a tenant refuses to move after a landlord asks the tenant to leave, the landlord must file an eviction case with the J.P. court to get approval to remove the tenant. The landlord must prove that the tenant has either violated the lease or has not moved after the landlord lawfully did not renew the lease. While it may be the landlord's property, before a tenant can actually be forced from their home a court rule for the landlord and a constable must supervise the actual eviction. Some landlords do not understand why a court must approve an eviction -- they always explain that they would never want to get rid of a truly good tenant. Court approval is required because landlords make mistakes and because they sometimes have improper motives. And, if a landlord did not have to get court approval prior to evicting someone from their home these problems would be even worse.

If you want to see the activity of one particular justice court, you can look at its statistics. Of particular importance is the "forcible entry and detainer" cases. These are eviction cases. The statistics will show the number of cases handled by that particular justice court for the period you selected. The site will also show the number of wins for the tenant (dismissals) and the number of appeals (these could be by both the landlord and the tenant). Before drawing too many conclusions from the statistics, you might compare your justice court to another. A high win rate for the landlords is not all that unusual, but some rates will be higher than others. Also, a high number of evictions could mean that a judge is more likely to be biased against tenants just because of the number of times a judge hears about a tenant allegedly doing something wrong.

Blacklisting

Of course, if you do not get out when a landlord asks you to, and the landlord files an eviction, win or lose, other landlords may not want to rent to you in the future. Court records are public information, and a landlord might refuse to rent to you just because you have had an eviction filed against you. So sticking up for yourself may come at a price.

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