When a tenant leaves junk and personal belongings behind, it can feel like a quick cleanout. In Texas, moving too fast can trigger a wrongful lockout or property damage claim, so you want a process you can defend on paper.
The right steps also depend on how you got the unit back. A voluntary move out, an abandonment covered by your lease, a commercial space, and an eviction with a writ of possession do not all work the same way under Texas law.
In the DFW area, landlords often line up junk removal McKinney and nearby suburbs so the unit can be cleared quickly once they are legally allowed to do it. This is a conservative general framework, not legal advice, so consider talking with a Texas landlord tenant attorney before you act.
1. Confirm Abandonment
Before you move, donate, or throw away anything, you need a defensible reason to treat the unit as abandoned. Texas generally does not let a landlord keep a tenant out except through the court process, with limited exceptions, so you do not want to guess…