Walk It Through: The Late Rent
Clauses a lease cannot hold, five days to pay, and reinstatement before filing.
The lease the tenant signed says the tenant pays the landlord's attorney fees in any dispute, and now the rent is late.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One apartment and one late month. Breaches other than rent, a second breach in the same term, and the trial itself are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- HoldoverStaying after the term ends. A tenant who stays willfully and not in good faith may owe up to two months' periodic rent or twice the actual damages, whichever is greater.
- Material and irreparable breachA breach such as an illegal discharge of a weapon or an assault on the premises, which allows written notice of immediate termination, with trial no later than the third day after filing.
- ReinstatementPutting the rental agreement back in force by paying what is owed: before the landlord files, all past due rent and a reasonable late fee set out in a written agreement; after filing, attorney fees and court costs too.
- Special detainerThe action a landlord files to end a rental agreement after a five day notice of unpaid rent goes unpaid. The summons names a trial date not more than six nor less than three days away.
- Writ of restitutionThe court's order putting a party back in possession. For a material and irreparable breach, the court orders restitution not less than twelve nor more than twenty-four hours after finding it.
- Prohibited provisionA term a rental agreement may not contain, such as a waiver of the tenant's rights under the chapter, a promise to pay the landlord's attorney fees, or a penalty for summoning police or emergency help. It is unenforceable.