A Texas lease agreement is the ordinary residential document plus the specific duties Chapter 92 of the Texas Property Code places on a residential landlord. Those duties are not optional and several of them cannot be waived by agreement, which makes them the part of the document worth getting right rather than the part worth negotiating. This page is what Chapter 92 adds, for a landlord letting in Texas.
Security devices are a statutory duty
Chapter 92 requires certain locks and security devices at a dwelling and sets out who installs, repairs and rekeys them, including rekeying between tenancies. This is a duty of the landlord rather than a term to be traded, and a lease clause purporting to shift it is the kind of clause that is void where the property is. Treat it as a checklist item at every turnover rather than as drafting.
The repair process has a shape
The statute sets out how a tenant requests a repair, what the landlord must do and in what period, and what remedies follow if nothing happens. The practical consequence for the document is that your lease should describe how requests are made and to where, because a request that never reaches you does not start any clock usefully and both sides end up arguing about notice rather than about the repair.
The deposit has a deadline
Texas sets a period after the tenant surrenders the property within which the deposit, or an itemised written statement of deductions, must be provided, and a forwarding address is part of the mechanism. Write the process into the lease, ask for the forwarding address at move-out rather than after it, and itemise rather than summarise. The deadline is short enough that a landlord discovering it after the tenancy has already lost time.
What the worksheet does and does not do
The lease agreement worksheet on this site builds the document from the facts of your tenancy: property, parties, term, rent, deposit, utilities, pets. It does not know Texas law and does not claim to. Use it for the facts and have the reusable template read once by someone qualified in Texas, which is a single reading amortised across every tenancy you set up there.
Questions people ask about texas lease agreement
Can a Texas lease waive the repair duty?
Several of Chapter 92's duties are limited in how far they can be waived, and some not at all. That is a question for a Texas attorney about your specific clause rather than something to decide from a template.
How long is the deposit deadline in Texas?
The statute sets a period running from surrender of the premises, with the forwarding address part of the mechanism. Read the current text of Chapter 92 rather than a summary, because the detail is what the deadline turns on.
Does Texas require any specific disclosure in the lease?
Chapter 92 contains several notice and information requirements, and federal lead-paint disclosure applies on top for pre-1978 housing. Both belong in or attached to the document.