A new state law, Senate Bill 38, is set to take effect, making it easier to remove squatters from homes and apartments. This law is expected to reduce the time frame for removing squatters from months to days. According to State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the author of SB 38, the new law will set up a quicker procedure to get people who are clearly squatting out of homes by changing time frames and setting up a "rocket docket."<\/p>\n
The purpose of SB 38 is to make it easier to remove individuals who are occupying a property without the owner’s permission. Bettencourt recounted several horror stories from public testimony on the issue of squatting, which led to the creation of this law. He believes that this law is necessary to prevent people from taking advantage of the system and occupying properties they do not own.<\/p>\n
SB 38 works through civil courts, and it is designed to speed up the process of removing squatters from properties. Another law, SB 1333, which speeds up the criminal prosecution of squatters, took effect in September. According to Bettencourt, these laws are commonsense reforms that will help keep people out of properties they do not own and prevent them from taking advantage of the system.<\/p>\n
However, housing advocates argue that SB 38 has less to do with combating squatting and more to do with undermining tenants’ rights. Ben Martin, deputy director of Texas Housers, believes that the law makes the eviction process less friendly to renters and more confusing. He argues that the law weakened the requirements for landlords to provide tenants with a notice to vacate and allows off-duty police officers to execute evictions.<\/p>\n
The new law could have a significant impact on renters in Texas. Martin believes that the law will make it easier for landlords to evict tenants without providing them with adequate notice or a fair trial. He also argues that the law will create more confusion and uncertainty for renters, making it harder for them to navigate the eviction process.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, the new state law, SB 38, is designed to make it easier to remove squatters from homes and apartments. While the law is intended to prevent people from taking advantage of the system, it has been criticized for undermining tenants’ rights and making the eviction process less friendly to renters. As the law takes effect, it will be important to monitor its impact and ensure that it is being used fairly and justly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New State Laws Take Effect A new state law, Senate Bill 38, is set to take effect, making it easier to remove squatters from homes and apartments. This law is expected to reduce the time frame for removing squatters from months to days. According to State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the author of SB 38, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.houstonpublicmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/25093739\/Screenshot-1537.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12316,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12313\/revisions\/12316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}