The Writ of Possession in Texas: How a Tenant Is Lawfully Removed

A judgment for possession is not the same thing as actual possession. Once the Justice Court issues a judgment in the landlord’s favor, the landlord still does not have the right to enter the property, change the locks, or remove the tenant. That right comes from the writ of possession, a court order that directs the constable to physically deliver possession to the landlord. Below, we work through the writ procedure: the six-day waiting period, the 24-hour warning posting, the constable’s role, the handling of personal property left behind, and the federal-law overlays that can extend the timeline.

The six-day waiting period after judgment

A Justice Court cannot issue a writ of possession until at least the sixth day after the judgment for possession is signed. This rule comes from Texas Property Code § 24.0061(b) and serves two functions: it gives the tenant time to appeal, and it gives the parties a small window to reach a voluntary resolution before the constable arrives.

If the judgment was entered by default, meaning the tenant did not appear at trial, § 24.0061 also requires the JP to mail a copy of the default judgment to the property address by first-class mail within 48 hours of the judgment being signed. This default-mailing requirement is procedural. Under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 510.16(c), a failure to mail the default judgment does not affect the finality or validity of the judgment; it affects only when the tenant’s deadline to move to set the judgment aside begins to run.

The six-day waiting period counts calendar days, not business days. If no appeal is perfected within the five-day appeal window, the writ can issue on day six.

The 24-hour warning posting

Once the writ issues, the constable (or sheriff in some counties) must post a written warning on the exterior of the front door of the rental unit. The warning identifies the writ, states that the writ will be executed at a specific date and time, and gives the tenant at least 24 hours from the time of posting before execution.

The 24-hour minimum is mandatory. A constable who executes the writ less than 24 hours after the posting violates the rule. Section 24.0061(i), however, provides that a landlord is not liable for damages resulting from the constable’s or sheriff’s enforcement of the writ, so a premature-execution complaint runs against the officer and the process, not against the landlord.

In practice, constables in busy precincts post the warning a day or two before the scheduled execution, giving the tenant 24 to 48 hours of notice. The exact timing varies by county and precinct workload.

The federal floor: when the CARES Act adds 30 days

For properties subject to the CARES Act 30-day notice requirement (federally backed mortgages, LIHTC properties, HUD/Section 8 voucher properties, and similar covered properties), the underlying notice-to-vacate timeline runs at 30 days rather than 3. SB 38 expressly preserves this federal floor.

For the writ stage specifically, the CARES Act 30-day notice requirement interacts with the eviction timeline through § 24.005(c-1), added by SB 38. Under that provision the federal 30-day period is not a basis to delay filing the eviction: the landlord may file now, and the federal period instead runs against the time before the writ of possession can be served. A CARES Act covered property can move through the Justice Court case on the standard timeline, with service of the writ gated until the federal period has run. Landlords with federally covered properties should still confirm CARES Act status before filing, because an omitted or defective federal notice can be a basis for challenging the judgment or the writ. Because no Texas court has yet construed § 24.005(c-1), a landlord who prefers a more cautious posture can serve the full 30-day notice before filing, and the firm can brief either position.

What happens when the constable arrives

On the date and time stated in the warning, the constable arrives at the property to execute the writ. The constable’s role is to:

• Order the tenant and any other occupants to leave immediately.
• Physically remove them if they refuse.
• Direct that the tenant’s personal property be removed and placed outside at a nearby location.
• Deliver possession of the property to the landlord by allowing the landlord (and a locksmith, if needed) to take control of the unit.

The constable does not provide the labor to move the tenant’s belongings. The landlord must arrange the labor, typically a moving crew or general laborers, to clear the unit within the time window the constable allows.

We’ve coordinated writs across all five Dallas County constable precincts long enough to know each precinct’s preferences. Some constables expect the locksmith and moving crew to be staged before they arrive; others give a brief window after they arrive to bring crews in. Calling the constable’s office a day ahead and confirming logistics avoids most of the scheduling problems landlords run into. The constable supervises the move-out but does not move furniture.

A few mechanics that come up regularly:

• Weather. The writ cannot be executed during rain, sleet, or snow. If weather rolls in, the execution is rescheduled.
• Public sidewalks and streets. Personal property cannot be placed where it blocks a public sidewalk, alley, or street.
• Storage on site. The tenant’s belongings can be placed at a nearby location on the property, typically curbside or in a designated area, but the landlord cannot place them inside another unit or storage facility without complying with the personal-property procedure described below.

The landlord typically rekeys all entry locks immediately after the constable hands over possession.

The 24 hours nobody documents properly

The 24-hour window between the warning posting and the writ execution is the riskiest period in the entire eviction process, and nobody documents it.

The constable posts the warning. The tenant has somewhere between 24 and 48 hours before the constable returns. Most tenants leave voluntarily during this window. A few don’t. A small number do something worse: they take the appliances. They take the fixtures. They take the copper out of the walls. They flood the unit. We’ve seen all of it.

What landlords almost never do during this window is document the condition of the unit at the moment the warning is posted. If you don’t have date-stamped photos and a written walk-through from the day of the warning, you have no way to prove what was there and what wasn’t when the tenant left. The damage deduction case, the deposit case, and any criminal property-damage case all depend on documentation you should have gathered before the tenant had the opportunity to take or destroy anything.

The fix is simple. Walk the unit with the constable when the warning gets posted. Photograph every room, every appliance, every fixture, every wall. Note any pre-existing damage. Get the constable’s name and badge number on a brief written note about the condition. Keep that in the file.

We’ve seen too many cases where the deduction case was strong on paper but the landlord had nothing from the day of the warning, only photos from after the writ executed. By then it’s too late.

Handling the tenant’s personal property left behind

Texas Property Code § 24.0061(d) and (d-1) govern what a landlord may do with personal property left behind after the writ executes.

The default rule is that the landlord places the property at a nearby location outside the dwelling. Once placed outside, the landlord has no further obligation to safeguard or store the property. The tenant is responsible for retrieving it. The property placed outside remains the tenant’s property; the tenant keeps ownership and a statutory right of redemption under § 24.0062. What § 24.0061(d) changes is the landlord’s duty, not the ownership: once the property is set outside at a nearby location, the landlord has no obligation to safeguard or store it, but it does not become ownerless and the landlord cannot treat it as the landlord’s own.

A landlord who chooses to store the property must comply with specific notice and accounting requirements. Lease provisions can authorize storage and charging for storage, but those provisions must be conspicuous (bold or underlined). Mishandling stored property (selling it without proper procedure, applying proceeds to rent without authorization, or refusing to release it on payment) exposes the landlord to claims for conversion, breach of warranty of peaceable possession, and statutory penalties.

For specific scenarios (abandonment without writ, deceased tenant, or storage under a contractual lien) see the Tenant Abandonment, Death of a Tenant, and Enforcing the Landlord’s Lien pages.

The squatter situation: SB 1333 vs. the writ

Senate Bill 1333, effective September 1, 2025, created a separate law-enforcement-driven removal procedure for true squatters, people who occupy a property without any lease, license, or other legal right. The SB 1333 procedure does not require a writ of possession because it does not involve a tenancy.

The two procedures should not be confused:

• A writ of possession comes after a forcible detainer judgment in Justice Court. It applies when there is a tenancy or a former tenancy.
• An SB 1333 squatter removal is a sworn-complaint procedure that allows a peace officer to remove a true squatter without going through Justice Court at all. It applies when there is no lease, no license, no former tenancy, and no genuine factual dispute about the occupant’s right to be there.

Using the wrong procedure for the wrong situation is a fast track to litigation. A landlord who tries to use SB 1333 against a former tenant or family member of the property owner exposes themselves to wrongful-removal claims. A landlord who files a forcible detainer action against a true stranger-squatter wastes weeks. The SB 1333 page covers when each is the right tool.

After possession is delivered: the cleanup

Once the constable hands over possession and the property is cleared, the landlord typically:

• Rekeys all entry locks (no notice to the former tenant required because the tenancy has ended and the constable has executed the writ).
• Photographs the unit’s condition for the security-deposit accounting (which still must follow the 30-day timeline under § 92.103 once the tenant provides a forwarding address).
• Inventories any personal property left behind, in case a dispute arises later.
• Notifies the security-deposit team or property manager so the deposit accounting can begin.
• Begins the make-ready process for the next tenant.

Common writ-stage problems and how to avoid them

• Premature execution. The constable executes the writ before 24 hours have passed since the posting. Landlords cannot rush the constable; if the timing is questioned, document the posting time and the execution time and let the JP sort it out.
• Insufficient labor at execution. The landlord shows up without enough movers and the constable runs out of patience. Constables do not extend the move-out window indefinitely. Hire enough labor.
• Weather delays. The execution is rescheduled because of rain or sleet. The landlord has to coordinate movers, locksmith, and constable for the rescheduled date.
• Tenant returns and reenters. After execution, the tenant breaks back in. This is criminal trespass under Penal Code § 30.05. The landlord calls law enforcement; the writ does not need to be reissued.
• Personal property dispute. The tenant claims the landlord destroyed or stole property during the move-out. Photographs and an inventory created at the time of execution are the strongest defense.
• Defective underlying judgment. The judgment had a procedural error and the tenant moves to vacate after the writ executes. Rare, but expensive when it happens. Best avoided by getting the underlying eviction right.