Austin is a city of majority renters, and Texas will be making some changes to the way it handles evictions starting in the new year. Senate Bill 38 will take effect for all eviction filings starting Jan. 1, empowering landlords and property owners to more easily evict “squatters” – individuals illegally occupying someone else’s property – from their apartment or other rental unit.
Last legislative session, an early version of SB 38 would’ve allowed landlords to evict tenants in as little as five days through what’s called “summary disposition,” allowing landlords to obtain an eviction judgment without giving the tenant a hearing in court, if the tenant does not respond to the court within four days. After heavy pushback by attorneys and tenants’ rights advocates, arguing that the bill eliminated due process for tenants, lawmakers limited those abilities, giving landlords summary disposition rights solely to evict squatters.
“I think most people would agree that I think we don’t want to encourage squatting; we want to make sure property rights are preserved. But I think what the bill really did, and it became very clear early on, was it really conflated what a squatter and a renter is,” said Awais Azhar, executive director of the nonprofit HousingWorks Austin. “The bill is so much less harmful than it was.”…