New Texas laws aimed at stopping squatters, speeding up eviction process

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas homeowners now have more power to protect their properties. 

Two laws now in effect are aimed at stopping squatters and speeding up the eviction process.

Local perspective:

"It can be a bit of a wild, wild west here occasionally," Light Tower Property Management CEO Tim Roadnight said.

For months, the property manager at Mueller Square near Manor Road and 51st Street said he has been fighting an endless battle: trying to keep unwanted tenants out.

"It's like Groundhog Day. Every morning, different times I turn up, I'll find three or four different units broken into. They’re either squatters or homeless people camped out inside them," Roadnight said.

Roadnight said police couldn’t do much.

"Even if the door's broken into, and they're inside the unit, it's not burglary, it is not breaking in, it’s simply defined as trespass," Roadnight said.

He said they are usually given a criminal trespass notice and told they can’t come back to the property for a year. But he said they do come back.

"They come straight back. Literally we had four arrested on Monday morning, and they were back in the afternoon," Roadnight said.

Roadnight said one day when he went to confront a man who didn’t belong there, the man pulled a gun on him. He said others carry knives.

"We shouldn't have to defend our property and ourselves and police it. I understand that we've got to maintain it, but I don't feel that we should be policing our own properties to the point where we have to pull out handguns and carry weapons on a daily basis," Roadnight said.

New Texas laws passed

Dig deeper:

New laws were passed this legislative session to address these issues:

• SB38 streamlines eviction cases, requiring a court hearing within 21 days.
• SB1333 gives sheriffs and constables authority to remove squatters faster and raises criminal penalties for trespassing and fake real estate transactions.

"We are putting squatters in Texas out of business," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.

Property owner Ari Rastegar said this legislation helps landlords and residents who were previously left unprotected.

"Being able to utilize these and protect families and protect property is just the beginning of allowing our state to continue to thrive," Rastegar said. "But there's a lot of damage that's been done over these past years that's eroded values, that's created criminal environments for individuals that needs to be remediated, and that's the next step."

Both laws are now in effect statewide.