Sell a House With Tenants In It — Leases, Security Deposits and Notice Rules

Does Selling the House End the Tenant's Lease?

No. A lease is a property right the tenant holds against the premises, not a promise tied to whoever owned the house when it was signed. Selling transfers the landlord's ownership interest; it does not erase a right the tenant already has. The buyer steps into the seller's position as landlord and takes the property subject to the existing lease.

The Texas Property Code assumes that continuity. §92.105 governs what happens to a security deposit when "the owner's interest in the premises is terminated by sale, assignment, death, appointment of a receiver, bankruptcy, or otherwise" — a provision that only makes sense if the tenancy survives the sale. A fixed-term lease runs to its end date under the new owner; a month-to-month tenancy continues until someone gives proper notice under §91.001.

Who Gets the Security Deposit When the House Sells?

Tex. Prop. Code §92.105 answers this directly. Under §92.105(a), when the owner's interest ends by sale, "the new owner is liable for the return of security deposits according to this subchapter from the date title to the premises is acquired," and under §92.105(b) the new owner "shall deliver to the tenant a signed statement acknowledging that the new owner has acquired the property and is responsible for the tenant's security deposit and specifying the exact dollar amount of the deposit."

The seller is not off the hook the moment the deed records: §92.105(b-1) keeps the outgoing owner liable until the new owner has received the deposit or assumed liability, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. In practice that is a line item on the closing statement. §92.105(c) carves out one exception — a mortgage lienholder taking title by foreclosure does not inherit deposit liability.

What the New Owner Has to Tell the Tenant

Beyond the deposit letter, §92.201 sets an ongoing disclosure duty for whoever owns and manages the rental. Under §92.201(a) a landlord must disclose to a tenant, or to a government official acting officially, the name and a street or PO box address of the holder of record title from the county deed records, plus the name and address of any off-site management company. §92.201(b) gives three ways that disclosure can land: written delivery within seven days of a request, conspicuous posting within seven days, or inclusion in the lease or house rules the tenant already has. A closing that includes a tenant should build the acknowledgment letter and the ownership disclosure into the same packet.

Ending a Month-to-Month Tenancy

If the plan after closing is to end a month-to-month tenancy rather than keep collecting rent under it, Tex. Prop. Code §91.001 sets the notice period — and it is not a round 30 days. Under §91.001(b), for a rent-paying period of at least one month, the tenancy terminates on whichever is later: the date stated in the notice, or one month after the day notice is given. Give notice on the 10th and the earliest the tenancy can end is the 10th of the following month — not the last day of that month, and not a flat 30-day count.

§91.001(c) applies the same later-of rule to a shorter rent-paying period, keyed to that period's own length. §91.001(d) limits the tenant's rent to the actual termination date if it lands mid-cycle, and §91.001(e) lets a written agreement signed by both parties set a different notice period or waive notice entirely — so read the lease before assuming the statutory default applies.

If the Tenant Won't Leave: Notice to Vacate and the JP Court

If proper notice has run and the tenant still has not moved, or the tenant is in default under a written lease, Texas law does not let the landlord force the issue directly. Tex. Prop. Code §24.005 requires "at least three days' written notice to vacate the premises" before filing a forcible-detainer suit, unless the lease sets a different period; a foreclosure-sale purchaser owes a paying residential tenant a longer 30-day notice. Notice must reach the tenant by a method §24.005 allows — in person to the tenant or anyone in the household 16 or older, affixed to the inside of the main entry door, or by mail — not a phone call or a text.

After that, eviction is a Chapter 24 forcible-detainer filing in the Dallas County Justice of the Peace court for the precinct where the property sits; precinct assignment is address-based (lookup at dallascounty.org). What the owner cannot do is act alone: §92.0081 bars changing locks or otherwise excluding a tenant outside narrow exceptions, and a lockout without the court exposes the owner to statutory and actual damages plus attorney's fees.

Showings With a Tenant Still Living There

Texas has no statute granting a landlord — or a buyer's agent, or a cash-buying company — a right to enter and show an occupied rental on a set notice period, the way some other states do. Whatever access exists comes from the lease: a clause the tenant already agreed to, or a fresh written agreement negotiated for the sale. Without one, access is scheduled around the tenant's cooperation, not demanded — which is why a sale that takes the house with the tenant and lease intact moves with less friction than one needing the unit vacant to close.

Seller's Disclosure Still Applies — Even If You Never Lived There

Tex. Prop. Code §5.008 requires the seller of residential real property with "not more than one dwelling unit" to give the buyer a written Seller's Disclosure Notice on the form the statute lays out and the Texas Real Estate Commission publishes. The obligation turns on the property type, not on whether the seller ever lived there. §5.008(e) exempts specific transactions — fiduciary and estate transfers, foreclosure and trustee sales, transfers between co-owners or close relatives, and a few others — but a routine landlord-to-buyer sale of an occupied rental is not on that list, and selling to a cash buyer does not remove the requirement.

Prorated Rent and the Deposit Credit at Closing

An occupied rental adds two line items a vacant house doesn't need. Rent splits by the day — the seller keeps what was earned through closing, the buyer is credited the rest. The deposit, consistent with §92.105, is credited from seller to buyer rather than returned and re-collected: it follows the property, not whoever was holding it. Getting both right on the settlement statement, alongside the §92.105(b) acknowledgment letter, is routine title-company work — it just has to be flagged as occupied before the closing package is built.

City Rental Registration and Minimum Property Standards

A Dallas single-family rental carries one more piece of paperwork beyond the lease: the City of Dallas Code Compliance Single Family Rental Registration and Inspection Program under Chapter 27. A non-owner-occupied single-family house, and each leased duplex or condominium unit, registers with the city every year — a non-refundable $74.00 fee since October 1, 2025 — on an annual Owner's Self Inspection Checklist and affidavit, and is kept to Chapter 27's minimum property standards. The program also requires the city to conduct "a comprehensive inspection at least once every five years." Registration transfers with the property the same way the lease does, so it is worth confirming current before closing rather than after a citation.

Selling a Rental Without Waiting on a Vacancy

None of this requires ending the tenancy first. We buy occupied rentals with the lease and the tenant in place and price the deposit transfer, prorated rent and closing paperwork into the offer instead of asking you to clear the unit. Owners who go looking for cash home buyers dallas get the same offer on a rented house as on an empty one, and we buy houses mesquite covers the suburbs on identical terms.

If the goal is a clean exit from a landlord role that has stopped paying off — not a turn, not a re-lease, not a courtroom — see we buy houses as is for what a no-repair sale actually involves; on an occupied rental it closes in as little as 7 days with the tenant and lease included. Rentals a suburb over work the same way, and we buy houses garland tx with tenants still in them.