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Select the Eviction Answer Form below these instructions. The form is a fillable PDF.

Or you can use Lone Star Legal Aid Eviction Answer Guided Interview (also below). It will ask you questions and fill out the form for you. If you choose this option, follow the directions that come with Lone Star Legal Aid's form. 
 

The caption is the heading at the top with all of the case information.

Enter the Cause No., Plaintiff, Defendant, County, and Precinct No. or Court Number exactly as they appear in the documents the court sent you.

Read each box and see if the box applies to your case. You may select each one that applies to your case. You don’t have to check any boxes. Here is an explanation of each defense.

Pending Rental Assistance Application: 

Check this box if you know that the landlord has applied for assistance to cover rent they say you owe. This includes when the landlord joins your application, starts their own application, or sends any information to any rent assistance program to apply for or receive payment. 

Note that you can apply for help with rent through local programs. 

• Check the box by “the rental assistance application has been approved” if applicable.

Interest in Rental Assistance – Check this box if you and the landlord are both interested in getting help paying your rent. If your landlord is willing, this will let you abate and seal your case. See the TexasLawHelp article on Tenant Protections under the 48th Emergency Order.  

Plaintiff has received rental assistance funds: Check this box if rent assistance paid for at least one period of rent that the landlord is accusing you of not paying in this eviction suit. 

For example, if you used rent assistance to pay last month’s rent, but the petition says that you should be evicted for owing last month’s rent, then check this box.

CARES Act: After July 25, landlords of covered properties must give a 30-Day Notice to vacate before filing for eviction.

Check this box if you live on a covered property and any of the following apply:

• The landlord did not give you a 30-Day Notice to Vacate, or
• The landlord gave you a 30-Day Notice to Vacate but filed for eviction before the 30 days ended.

Covered Properties: Go to the National Low Income Housing Coalition for a list of properties that fall under Section 4024 the CARES Act. There is also a map from BASTA, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, and Texas Housers here. Note that the list and map are not complete. If you check the list and the map and are still unsure whether you live on a covered property, see How to Find Out if the CARES Act Applies to Your Home. 

Federal Mortgage in Forbearance: Check this box if:

• You live on a property with five or more units; and
• Your landlord is in forbearance on a mortgage from the Fair Housing Administration or the Fair Housing Finance Agency (including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)

You can go to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s website to find this information. Owners in this type of forbearance cannot evict tenants for nonpayment.

If this defense applies, also check the box next to the entity that holds your landlord’s mortgage.

Texas Notice to Vacate: Check this box if you did not get a Notice to Vacate. Texas law requires all landlords to give tenants a Notice to Vacate at least three days before filing for eviction unless the lease states a shorter time period.

You can also check this box if the time between when you received a Notice to Vacate and the date on your citation is

• Less than the time period stated in your lease, or
• Less than three days if the lease does not state a time period.

Note: This Notice to Vacate is separate from the CARES Act Notice above and the Notice of Possible Eviction below.

Notice of Possible Eviction: Some local governments, including Dallas, temporarily require landlords to give you an extra written notice and a chance to pay missed rent before giving you a Notice to Vacate for unpaid rent. (The Notice to Vacate is what they are supposed to give you right before they file for eviction.) Be aware of your local rules before checking this box. You can find these rules on your city or county website, or they may be listed on Special Tenant Rights to Notice on TexasLawHelp. If possible, enter the name of the city or county that made the rule.

You may list any further defenses or information that you think the court should know about. If there is not enough room, you can attach the information to the Answer form.

Check this box if you want a jury to decide your case instead of a judge. Be aware that there is a fee for this. (If you appeal using a Statement of Inability to Pay, you won’t have to pay for this.)

If you ask for a jury trial, note that every court has their own jury procedure. You should ask the court for their rules for jury trials.

Check this box if you want to get case information through email.

If your explanations do not fit in the form, feel free to add it to a separate document. You will add that document as an attachment.

You can also attach other evidence, such as a copy of the lease, evidence that the CARES Act applies, etc. List the title of each attachment. For example: “Lease Agreement."

If you have a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs (for an appeal or a jury trial), you must attach a copy to your Answer. If you are appealing by bond or by cash deposit, be sure to attach a copy of your appeal form to your Answer.

Sign and fill out your contact information. You will also want to sign this document when you get to the court.

You must serve the other side. This means you need to give a copy of the Answer to the Plaintiff or the Plaintiff’s attorney, if they have one. You can give them a copy by hand, mail, or fax. If you and the Plaintiff agree, you can email them a copy.

You must send a copy of your Answer to the Plaintiff. You also must tell the court what method you used to send the Answer to the other side. On the Answer document, check the box next to the method you will use to send the Answer to the other side. Fill out and sign this section before you send it to the other side.

File the completed Answer with the court. You can call the court on your court papers to see how the court wants you to file your document. You will also want to file any attachments that you create. Once you file your documents, you will receive a case number and a date to appear in court.

If you are appealing your case after losing in Justice Court, file the Answer with the County Court that is hearing your appeal. Otherwise file with the Justice Court. If you have already filed an Answer in Justice Court, you do not have to file another one for your appeal.

Go to the court hearing. If you absolutely cannot show up to the hearing, file a Motion for Continuance to ask for another date. You must have a very good reason to move the court date. The court does not have to give you a new court date just because you ask. Note that conflict with your work schedule is not usually an acceptable reason.

The CARES Act only protects people who are late on rent. If you are being evicted or fined for reasons other than late rent, the CARES Act does not apply.

Your Notice to Vacate or the Petition for Eviction should list the reason for eviction. 

The CARES Act only applies to properties where the landlord participates in certain federal programs. There are a number of tools you can use to look this up. However, please be aware that not all covered properties are included in the results. If the property is listed, then the CARES Act probably applies. However, the CARES Act may still apply even if the property is not listed. This is especially true for smaller buildings or single-family homes, which are less likely to show up in the tool.

To look up your property: 

• List of properties near you (National Low Income Housing Coalition)
• Interactive map of Texas properties (Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Basta, and Texas Housers)

Below is a list of federal programs that trigger CARES Act tenant protections.

It may or may not be obvious if your property participates in a program. If you are a Section 8 tenant, for example, you know that your property participates in a Section 8 program. But other programs are more obscure or hard for a tenant to determine.

Programs that trigger CARES Act tenant protections are:

• Public housing 
• Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program 
• Section 8 project-based housing 
• Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program
• Section 202 housing for the elderly 
• Section 811 housing for people with disabilities 
• Section 236 multifamily rental housing 
• Section 221(d)(3) Below Market Interest Rate (BMIR) housing 
• HOME 
• Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) 
• McKinney-Vento Act homelessness programs 
• Section 515 Rural Rental Housing 
• Sections 514 and 516 Farm Labor Housing
• Section 533 Housing Preservation Grants 
• Section 538 multifamily rental housing
• USDA Rural Housing Choice Voucher program
• The CARES Act also protects tenants if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac have a financial interest in the property.

If the first three steps did not help you find out if the CARES Act applies, you can try to get the information through discovery. Discovery is where the other side has to give you information as part of a court case. 

To get the information through discovery, the tenant may ask the court to require the landlord to answer questions by following these four steps:

1. Write a list of questions, called “interrogatories,” that ask the landlord for the following information:

• Is the property backed by a federal mortgage loan or a federal multifamily mortgage loan?
• What is the name of the mortgage lender and loan servicer for the property, if any?
• Does the property participate in any of the following federal housing programs?
  • Public housing 
  • Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program 
  • Section 8 project-based housing 
  • Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program
  • Section 202 housing for the elderly 
  • Section 811 housing for people with disabilities 
  • Section 236 multifamily rental housing 
  • Section 221(d)(3) Below Market Interest Rate (BMIR) housing 
  • HOME 
  • Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) 
  • McKinney-Vento Act homelessness programs 
  • Section 515 Rural Rental Housing 
  • Sections 514 and 516 Farm Labor Housing
  • Section 533 Housing Preservation Grants 
  • Section 538 multifamily rental housing
  • USDA Rural Housing Choice Voucher program.

2. File a Motion for Expedited Discovery that asks the justice court to make the landlord answer your interrogatories under oath. Attach the list of interrogatories to the motion when filing. Note: TexasLawHelp does not currently have Motion for Expedited Discovery forms. We will post forms when or if they become available.

 3. After filing the Motion for Expedited Discovery, serve the landlord a copy of the motion and the proposed interrogatories. One can serve by mail, fax, hand delivery, or email if the landlord has consented to email service.

4. If the court grants the Motion for Expedited Discovery, serve the interrogatories on the landlord by mail, fax, hand delivery, or email if the landlord has consented to email service.

The court will use the landlord’s answers to these interrogatory questions to decide whether the CARES Act applies.

The CARES Act may provide some indirect protection as well. For eviction cases filed prior to April 1, 2021, Texas requires landlords to swear that the CARES Act does not apply to the property. This sworn statement should appear in the Petition for Eviction (also called a Complaint for Eviction). 

If the Petition for Eviction does not say that the CARES Act does not apply to the property, you should include this information in your Answer and tell the judge during your hearing.