So can your Landlord lock you out for non payment of rent ? Yes you can be locked out but as a Property Manager I say why bother there are better ways to handle a dispute. In Texas if the Landlord locks you out they must provide 24 hr. phone number for you to call to have the key DELIVERED to you the tenant. Even if you don't have the rent money they must provide a key (although years ago they could lock you out until you paid). Failure to provide the 24hr number by your Landlord and failure to provide a key could result in court cost, attorney fees and a financial judgement against the Landlord. Most experienced Landlords know the steps to have you evicted and will follow the procedures to the letter. 

So if your a Landlord what are you to do to get your rent? How about take the door off or cut the utilities ? No afraid those aren't legal either. I always try and keep strong communications with my tenants as the best way to keep rent on time. Not to mention a solid background check. You would be surprised how much fraud is committed by people trying to get a rent house.

Things do happen in life that can cause a hiccup in making rent on time and based on the tenant rental history with my company we may work with them a bit.What ever the excuse I always require paper work to back it up, one of the most common excuses is my spouse is in the Hospital. I always reply I understand how that could hurt your ability to pay the rent and oh by the way I need your admission papers to the Hospital just to verify your story. 

However there comes a time when it times to cut the excuses and go for the eviction for my company nobody goes over 20 days before we file for eviction. Anytime you file for eviction it must be done preciously as required by the eviction laws or you could end up starting the whole process all over again. We will discuss eviction process in another Blog.