House Bill 32: Anti-Squatting Bill or Rollback of Tenant Rights?

If enacted, House Bill 32 would remove the existing requirement for landlords to issue a notice to vacate before initiating eviction proceedings, except in cases involving nonpayment of rent; enable landlords to obtain a summary judgment for eviction without a hearing; and allow landlords to file for eviction in neighboring precincts where they may get more favorable treatment.

Landlord and tenant rights took center stage in the Texas House last week as state lawmakers considered a bill that would make it easier for evictions to be carried out.

The bill was pitched as a way to help landlords deal with squatters, but housing advocates claim it would shred what few protections renters have in Texas.

In a statement to CandysDirt.com, Stephanie Champion, chief of community development and policy for Builders of Hope, said her organization sees House Bill 32 as an “anti-tenant bill and an attack on housing stability in Texas.”

“We are extremely concerned about the impacts that HB 32 will have on vulnerable tenants here in Dallas, especially in neighborhoods experiencing gentrification-related housing pressures,” she said.

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Members of the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee convened on March 12 to hear testimony on the bill, which was filed by Rep. Angie Chen Button (R-Garland).

Chris Newton, the executive vice president of the Texas Apartment Association, told lawmakers that the existing rules governing eviction in the Lone Star State are “slow and inefficient” and that they lead to “delays that embolden those who unlawfully occupy properties and leave property owners struggling to regain control of their property.”

“These delays reduce housing availability and affordability while jeopardizing the safety of residents and staff,” Newton said, per Texas Tribune.

Instances of squatting in North Texas made headlines last year, but the bill’s detractors claim actual squatting incidents are few and far between. Evictions, on the other hand, spiked considerably in Dallas County in recent years, totaling nearly 40,000 in 2023.

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Local power lawyer and founder of the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center Mark Melton told CandysDirt.com that House Bill 32 does not even target squatters but rather undermines due process for renters.

He pointed out that the current property code already outlines an eviction process for an individual who enters a property without permission and then refuses to leave.

“A person who signs a lease and then loses their job and doesn’t pay the rent the next month is not a squatter, they’re just a defaulting tenant,” Melton said. “And so there should be different rules for those two categories, and in fact there already are.”

Melton testified before the committee last week, arguing that the bill would unjustly — and maybe even unconstitutionally — deprive vulnerable renters from challenging their evictions.

“The bill does not address squatters at all. It addresses every single tenant in the state of Texas. I keep trying to make that clear to people because a lot of the reporting on it has had headlines that say ‘squatters bill opposed by local housing people,’ and it’s not a squatters bill,” Melton said.

Texas Tribune reported that some lawmakers expressed their desire for stakeholders on both sides of the issue to try to meet in the middle.

Melton said he and the Texas Apartment Association were engaging with each other on a possible alternative to House Bill 32.

“I hope we can negotiate some kind of compromise bill that probably neither one of us will like but we can both live with. We’ll see,” Melton said.

Button, the committee’s chair, gave them until Wednesday night (March 19) to submit a compromise proposal.