Whether your landlord is keeping your deposit, served you a three-day notice, changed the locks while you were at work, or you're a small Austin landlord trying to remove a tenant who hasn't paid since January — Texas landlord-tenant law moves fast. A JP Court eviction can finish in 21 days. A security deposit demand letter sent under Texas Property Code Section 92.109 can turn $1,200 of withheld money into $3,700 plus your lawyer's fees. Below: five Austin attorneys and one legal aid program that handle landlord-tenant matters in Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties. Updated April 2026.
You don't need a lawyer to dispute a $40 cleaning fee. You probably do need one the moment any of these things is true:
Why move fast in Austin specifically? Because Texas Justice of the Peace courts run on tight statutory deadlines. A Notice to Vacate ripens after three days unless the lease modifies that number. Once the landlord files a forcible detainer suit in Travis County JP Court, you get six days to answer and then a hearing scheduled inside 10 to 21 days. Miss any of those windows and you get a default judgment and a writ of possession. An Austin landlord-tenant attorney can usually get a continuance, raise habitability or retaliation defenses, or negotiate a move-out date with rent forgiveness — but only if you call before the default hits.
Texas landlord-tenant law lives in two places: Texas Property Code Chapter 92 (residential leases — deposits, repairs, retaliation, lockouts, utility shutoffs) and Texas Property Code Chapter 24 (the eviction process itself). The City of Austin adds Source-of-Income protection under Austin Code Chapter 5-1 (landlords can't refuse Section 8 vouchers in Austin even though state law allows it elsewhere) and the standard nuisance/code rules under Austin Code Chapter 6-3. That's why an out-of-Texas form doesn't work in a Travis County JP Court — Austin has its own overlay.
The common Austin cases an attorney handles: deposit return demands (Texas Property Code Section 92.109 lets a tenant recover three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus $100 plus fees if the landlord acted in bad faith), repair-and-deduct or rent-reduction claims under Section 92.056, retaliation claims under Section 92.331, lockout and utility-cutoff cases under Sections 92.0081 and 92.008, and defending eviction suits filed under Chapter 24 in one of Travis County's five JP precincts. A smaller share of the work is plaintiff-side landlord representation: filing forcible detainer, collecting unpaid rent through small-claims JP Court (under $20,000) or Travis County District Court (over $20,000).
Austin landlord-tenant work is mostly billed three ways: flat fees for narrow matters, hourly for litigation, and contingency on certain deposit-recovery and statutory-fee-shifting cases.
Texas Property Code Chapter 92 includes fee-shifting provisions: in deposit cases, retaliation claims, lockouts, and utility cutoffs, the prevailing party recovers reasonable attorney's fees. That changes the economics — a tenant with a clean Section 92.109 deposit case is often worth a contingency or hybrid arrangement because the lawyer's fees come out of the landlord's pocket, not the tenant's. Always ask at the free consult whether fee-shifting applies to your facts.
Be skeptical of any Austin firm that promises a specific outcome before reading your lease and the Notice to Vacate. Reasonable Austin landlord-tenant lawyers will give you a range, not a guarantee.
All five attorneys below are independently verified Austin practitioners. Free legal aid for income-qualified tenants is listed last.
Jennifer MacGeorge runs one of Austin's dedicated tenant-side practices. The firm represents renters in eviction defense, deposit recovery under Texas Property Code Section 92.109, and habitability claims throughout Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties. Strong fit if you got served and your hearing is in the next two weeks.
North-Austin landlord-tenant practice handling both residential and commercial lease disputes, deposit return, lease drafting, and JP Court eviction work. Useful when your facts cross over — for example, you're a small Austin landlord with a residential property in Cedar Park and a tenant who's also disputing a commercial sublease.
Austin firm that handles residential tenancy issues for tenants and landlords — lease drafting, complaint handling, court proceedings including eviction defense. Good fit when your lease has unusual riders (Austin short-term rental complications, ADU sublets, university-area roommate disputes) that need legal eyes before a JP filing.
Austin firm focused on the landlord side — filing forcible detainer suits, collecting unpaid rent, drafting compliant Texas residential leases, and defending counterclaims. Good fit if you own one or two Austin rentals and want flat-fee routine work rather than hourly litigation.
Nonprofit legal aid program serving tenants below approximately 125% of the federal poverty line throughout Travis, Williamson, Hays, and 65 other Texas counties. Heavy eviction-defense and habitability docket. If you cannot afford a private attorney, apply through TRLA's intake line before paying anyone else.
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