Anti-squatter bill headed to Gov. Abbott's desk could make it easier for landlords to evict tenants

A new bill heading to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's desk could potentially make it easier for landlords to evict tenants.

Not surprisingly, the bill has the support of landlord groups, but is facing opposition from tenant rights groups.

Senate Bill 38 has been amended multiple times, and its current form leaves out most of the big changes the bill started out with.

The current version would relax rules, like how landlords must serve notice when evicting tenants, and also allows landlords more options for courts to file eviction cases in.

SEE 2024 REPORT: ABC13's years of Houston-area squatter stories leads to first steps in Austin to bolster laws

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt is presiding over hearings in Austin on Wednesday aimed at strengthen anti-squatting laws that were mainly civil matters.

Opponents of this bill, including the Houston Tenants Union, say the bill takes away some protections from tenants, who already have fewer protections in Texas than in multiple other states.

But groups like the Texas Apartment Association say the bill simply makes the eviction process more efficient by clarifying timelines and procedures.

"It stands to have the most profound impact on small landlords or incidental landlords. And what I mean by that -- you think of people who inherit property -- that they now end up having to rent out while they figure out ultimately what they're going to do," said Laolu Davies Yemitan, a landlord and housing advocate. "You also think of the incidental landlords where they bought their first homes and took on a job out of town. They kept the home with the plan of returning to Houston, but when they came back, they now have a family."

ABC13 has found that there is very little public data available on squatters because cases are usually filed simply as evictions.

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