Eviction Answer and Defense Guide

Select the eviction answer form below these instructions. The form is a fillable PDF.

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. Sometimes the cause number is labeled “case number” or “docket number” instead. If you live in a larger city, the court may also have a Place Number.

Enter your name and the last three digits of your license and social security number. If you do not have a license or social security number, check the appropriate box.

Appeals: If you are filing an appeal in County Court, use the County Court’s caption information if available. (If you file the Answer at the Justice Court along with your other appeal documents, it is ok to use the Justice Court’s caption information.)

Read each defense and see if it applies to your case. Check as many as apply. You don’t have to check any boxes if none apply.

The first set of defenses is only available for cases where the Plaintiff claims you have not paid rent. The second set of defenses is for all cases.

Here is an explanation of each defense:

• I attempted to pay rent on time. Check this box if you tried to pay rent on time and in full, but the landlord would not accept it, no staff was available to take your payment, or the online portal did not work for you.

• Plaintiff failed to mitigate damages. Check this box if you or a rent assistance program tried to pay the landlord (in full or in part), but the landlord refused to accept the money.

• Note: This may not be a strong defense against eviction if the payment attempt was late. However, it may help you owe less in missed rent if you lose your case.

• I paid rent. Check this box if you paid rent in full but the landlord is still trying to evict you for unpaid rent. Attach proof of payment if possible.

• I am not required to pay rent to live on this property. Check this box if you are not required to pay rent. For example, if you own the property or are married to the owner.

• Right to pay late rent. Every lease term, you are allowed to make up late rent if you have not been late before and you are only one month behind.
  
  Every time you renew your lease, the lease term restarts. If you are month-to-month, your lease renews each month.
  
  Check this box if you only missed one rent payment this lease term and the landlord refused late payment.
  
  Also check the second box if you only missed one rent payment and the landlord did not give you a Notice to Pay or Vacate.

• The Petition did not say if I missed more than one month’s rent. Check this box if the eviction is for nonpayment of rent and the landlord did not say if you missed more than one month’s rent or not.
  
  You can check this box whether or not you missed more than one month’s rent. The Petition must include this information.

• Plaintiff has accepted 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 Notice. Landlords of covered properties must give a 30-Day Notice to Vacate before seeking a writ of possession from the Court.
  
  Check this box if you live on a covered property and any of the following apply and the landlord did not give you a 30-Day Notice to Vacate.

  • Covered Properties: You can use the following tools to help find out if you live on a covered property:
    • HUD Multifamily Housing Properties (or call HUD at (800) 955-2232 during normal business hours, Eastern)
    • Fannie Mae Renters Counseling
    • Freddie Mac Property Search
    • County Clerk Website: Many County Clerk offices have real estate records online. This can sometimes help you learn if a property is owned by HUD or the local housing authority.
      
      Note that the lists are not complete. If you check the lists and are still unsure whether you live on a covered property, see How to Find Out if the CARES Act Applies to Your Home.
• Public Housing 30-Day Notice to Pay. Check this box if you live on a Public Housing Authority property and your landlord did not give you a 30-day notice to pay rent. This defense is only available for nonpayment of rent cases.
• Plaintiff agreed not to evict under the facts of this case. Check this box if the landlord said they would allow the thing that they are now trying to evict you for. For example, if a landlord agreed to give you more time to pay rent late but is now trying to evict you after you paid rent late, you may check this box.
• Retaliation. Check this box if the landlord is evicting you in retaliation to something you are legally allowed to do, such as ask for repairs or report code violations to the city. Also check the box next to one of the common situations describe your own situation.
  
  To use this defense, the retaliation must be for something you within six months before they filed the eviction. This is not a defense in nonpayment of rent cases.
• I do not live on the property. Check this box if you no longer live on the property. You cannot be evicted from a home you do not live in.
• Plaintiff does not have the authority to evict. Check this box if you do not have a relationship with the Plaintiff that would let them evict you from the home. For example:

  • A current spouse

  • A co-tenant who is not an owner and is not subleasing to you

  • A person who fraudulently obtained ownership of the property

• Texas Notice. Check this box if you did not get either a Notice to Vacate (or Notice to Pay Rent or Vacate). Texas law requires all landlords to give tenants notice at least three days before filing for eviction unless the lease states a shorter period. (Many leases require only one day, so check your lease.)

• Filed too soon. Check this box if the time between when you received a Notice to Vacate (or Notice to Pay Rent or Vacate) and the date on your citation is:

1. Less than the period stated in your lease, or
2. Less than three days if the lease does not state a time period, or
3. Less than 30 days if the landlord took over through foreclosure and chose not to continue your lease even though you have not missed rent.

• Further information. Check this box if you have any additional information you think the court should know about. Note that financial hardship is not a defense to eviction for nonpayment, and listing it as a reason for not paying rent may in some cases be an admission that you violated the lease.
  
  You may list any further defenses or information that you think the court should know about. You may attach additional pages or documents.

This section will not apply to most cases.

Summary disposition is when the Plaintiff asks the court to evict you without holding a hearing. It is meant for squatters—people who entered to live on the property illegally. Very few residents are squatters. In fact, even if the person who let you live on the property was a squatter, you yourself would not be a squatter and summary disposition should not apply to your case.

If the landlord incorrectly accuses you of being a squatter, you must tell the court why you are not. Check the options that best describe how you came to live on the property. You may check as many as apply.

Also list any additional facts you and the landlord disagree about in your case. For example, if the landlord denies that you have a lease while you in fact do have a lease, you would write something like “I have a lease” and attach the lease to the Answer.

Important: Four days. If the landlord's Petition includes a Motion for Summary Disposition, you have four days to file your response. While you can still file after the four days, it may be too late by then.

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 use a Statement of Inability to Pay, you won’t have to pay the fee.

If you ask for a jury trial, note that every court has their own jury procedure. You should ask the court clerk for their jury trial rules. See also Jury Trials in Justice Court.

Check this box if you agree to get case information through email. If you check this box, enter an email address that you check often.

If you include any attachments, check the box and list them here.

If your explanations do not fit in the form, feel free to add them to a separate document. Give the document a title, write the title here, and attach the document to your Answer.

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.

This section asks the court to find in your favor.

Sign, date, and fill out your contact information.

Sign and date the "Certificate of Service" section. This is your promise to the court that you will give the landlord or their attorney a copy of the Answer.

Give a copy of the filed Answer to the Plaintiff the same day that you file. You can give it by:

• Hand
• Mail (certified mail is recommended)
• Fax
• Email (if the Petition says that the Plaintiff is willing to receive service through email)
• Electronically through efile (If the Plaintiff efiled or has an attorney, you can have the efiling system send a copy automatically.)

File the completed answer with the court. You can call the court named in your court papers to see how they want you to file your document—online, in person, by email, etc. If you cannot reach the court, filing with the clerk in person is always acceptable. You will also want to file any attachments that you plan to use.

Filing Deadlines:

• Justice Court: You may file the Answer at any time before the hearing, including the day of the hearing. If you do not file your Answer before your hearing date, be sure to bring copies for the court, the landlord, and yourself to the hearing.
  
  Important – summary disposition: If the Plaintiff is asking for a summary disposition, you must file you Answer within four days of when the court papers were delivered. (If you miss the four day deadline, you are still allowed to file your Answer. However, without an Answer, the court can evict you once four days have passed.)
• County Court: If you are appealing and you did not file an Answer in Justice Court, you must file in the County Court within eight days from the time the County Court receives your case.
  
  The Justice Court is supposed to send the case to County Court within 6 to 10 days after you file your appeal. If you are unsure of whether the Justice Court has sent your case, check with the clerk at the Justice Court. While County Court will send you a notice when it gets your case, mail is sometimes slow.
  

Where to File an Answer for an Appeal:

• You can file your answer at the justice court when you submit your other appeal documents.
• If the Justice Court has already sent your case to county court, file your answer with the county court.
• If you have already filed an answer in justice court, you do not need to file another.

You must serve the other side. This means you need to give a copy of the filed and stamped Answer to the Plaintiff or the Plaintiff’s attorney if they have one. (The clerk or efiling system will stamp the Answer when you file it.)

You can give them a copy by:

• Hand
• Mail (certified mail is recommended)
• Fax
• Email (if the Petition says that the Plaintiff is willing to receive service through email)
• Electronically through efile (If the Plaintiff efiled or has an attorney, you can have the efiling system send a copy automatically.)

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 several tools that let you look up covered properties. However, please be aware that not all covered properties are included in the results. This is especially true for smaller buildings or single-family homes, which are less likely to show up in the tool.

Tools to look up covered properties:

• HUD Multifamily Housing Properties (or call HUD at (800) 955-2232 during normal business hours, Eastern)
• Fannie Mae Renters Counseling
• Freddie Mac Property Search
• County Clerk Website: Many County Clerk offices have real estate records online. This can sometimes help you learn if a property is owned by HUD or the local housing authority.

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.

Be sure of the date, time and location of the court for the hearing. This information should appear on the court papers you received.

Don’t be late. You should arrive early because there may be cases ahead of yours that run over or end earlier. Turn off your cell phone when you get into the court.

You should bring all the documents that you received from the court or your landlord and any other documents that are important to your case. You should also bring any witnesses that
may be important to your case.

Dress in a way that shows respect for the court. Do not wear shorts, T-shirts, tank tops, worn out jeans, or similar clothing. Dress like you are going to a job interview or a special event.

When your case is called, be respectful in your responses to the people in court. Always address the Judge as “Your Honor” or “Judge.”

Listen carefully and do not interrupt the judge or witnesses. Direct all your responses to the judge unless you are questioning a witness.

Be prepared to give a short summary of your case and what has happened. Explain to the judge what you are asking for and why you should get it.

The judge will often rule on your case right after hearing the evidence. Sometimes, the judge will need time to review the case before deciding. Be prepared for both.

If the judge does not rule in your favor, you will still want to be respectful to the judge.

If you do not show up to court, your landlord will get a default judgment against you. A default judgment means your landlord won the case because you did not show up to defend your case.