Texas Eviction Record Sealing — How to Clear It (2026)

✓ Law Verified August 2026

A Texas eviction record can block apartment applications for years — often regardless of how the case actually ended. This guide answers the question directly for Texas: whether a sealing law exists here, exactly how to use it if it does, and the real alternatives if it does not. Verified against official Texas sources as of August 2026.

No Texas Eviction Record Sealing Law Yet — What You Can Still Do

Texas has NO eviction sealing or expunction statute and no general court rule that lets a tenant seal an eviction case, so assume the case file stays public. Texas court records are presumed open to the public under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 76a, and an eviction (forcible detainer) filing becomes a public justice court record on the day the landlord files it, even if you later win.

The Texas State Law Library states plainly that Texas does not have a process to remove or seal an eviction from your record. Here is what you may still be able to do. 1) Move to set aside a default judgment. If you lost because you missed the hearing, you may file a Motion to Set Aside Default Judgment in the same justice court (JP court) that entered it.

In justice court the motion must be filed within 14 days after the judgment was signed, and the judge must rule by 5:00 p.m. on the 21st day after the judgment or the motion is automatically denied. You must show good cause for missing the hearing. TexasLawHelp publishes a free fill-in form.

If the judgment is set aside, the case is reopened and you may still be able to win or get it dismissed. 2) Appeal fast.

In an eviction you have only 5 days after the judgment is signed to appeal to county court, by filing an appeal bond, a cash deposit, or a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs (Sworn Statement of Inability to Pay).

An appeal wipes out the justice court judgment and gives you a brand-new trial in county court, so a win there means there is no judgment against you to report. 3) Negotiate the outcome before judgment.

Ask the landlord’s attorney for an agreed dismissal, a non-suit, or a Rule 11 agreement where you move out by a set date and the landlord dismisses the case, and try to include a written promise not to report the case and to correct any report already made.

A dismissal is far better on a screening report than a judgment, and some landlords will agree in writing to seal or to jointly ask the court to restrict access.

There is no guarantee a Texas judge will sign a sealing order, but a joint request under Rule 76a is the only realistic path. 4) Fix the record where it actually hurts. Most landlords never read the courthouse file; they read a screening report.

Use the FCRA dispute steps above, and get a certified copy of the dismissal or the judgment in your favor from the JP court clerk so you can hand it to future landlords. 5) Time helps.

Under the FCRA a reported eviction suit or civil judgment generally drops off after 7 years. 6) Get help. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Lone Star Legal Aid, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, and Texas Tenants’ Union take eviction record questions, and TexasLawHelp.org has free forms.

Check with your justice court, because practice varies by county and a few clerks will restrict online display of a dismissed case on request even though no statute requires it.

Why A Texas Eviction Record Follows You — and For How Long

An eviction case becomes a public court record the day it is filed — even if you won, even if it was dismissed, even if you moved out voluntarily before the hearing. Tenant screening companies copy these records in bulk and resell them to landlords, which is how a Texas eviction record from years ago can quietly sink a rental application today.

Under federal reporting rules these records generally stop appearing on screening reports after seven years, but the public court file itself can remain searchable far longer unless it is sealed.

That is why the filing itself, not just the outcome, is what matters — and why sealing laws are spreading state by state. Most landlords never read the court file; they read the one-line summary a screening company sells them. Getting the Texas eviction record sealed, corrected, or accurately described is what changes that one line.

Check Your Texas Eviction Record First

Before filing anything, find out what your Texas eviction record really looks like to a landlord. Search the online case index for the court where the eviction was filed, and request your file from the major tenant screening companies — you are entitled to it.

Tenants are often surprised in both directions: some discover the case they worry about was never reported, others find a case they had forgotten, or one that is not even theirs.

Knowing exactly what appears, and how it is described, tells you whether to pursue sealing, a dispute, or both.

Screening reports are also where errors live. A dismissed case reported as an eviction, an old address matched to the wrong person, or a paid judgment still shown as owing are all fixable — and fixing the report is sometimes faster than any court process in Texas.

Your Federal Rights Against Tenant Screening Companies

Texas has no state sealing law, but every Texas renter is covered by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and that is your strongest tool against a wrong or outdated eviction record. Tenant screening companies (CoreLogic, TransUnion SmartMove, RealPage, AppFolio, Experian RentBureau and similar) are consumer reporting agencies under 15 U.S.C. 1681a(f), so the FCRA dispute rules apply to them.

If a landlord denies you, raises your deposit, or requires a co-signer because of a screening report, that is an “adverse action” and the landlord must give you an adverse action notice naming the screening company (15 U.S.C. 1681m). You then have 60 days from that notice to demand a free copy of the report from the screening company (15 U.S.C. 1681j(b)).

You are also entitled to 1 free report every 12 months from each nationwide specialty agency, including tenant screening agencies.

Read the report and look for the common errors: an eviction that was actually dismissed or non-suited but is reported as a judgment against you; a case where the judgment was for you, the tenant; a case that belongs to a different person with a similar name or the same last 4 digits; a case listed twice; a case older than 7 years.

Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c a civil judgment or eviction suit generally cannot be reported after 7 years.

To dispute, write to the screening company in writing (not just by phone) and send it certified mail with return receipt, or use their online dispute portal and save a PDF copy.

Identify each wrong item, state exactly what is wrong, and attach proof: the justice court’s dismissal order, the docket sheet showing “dismissed” or “non-suited,” the judgment showing you won, a satisfaction of judgment or paid receipt, or your ID showing you are not the person named.

Once the agency gets your dispute it must complete a reinvestigation within 30 days (15 U.S.C. 1681i(a)(1)); that stretches to 45 days if you send extra documents during the first 30 days. The agency must forward your dispute and your documents to whoever furnished the information within 5 business days, and the furnisher must investigate too (15 U.S.C. 1681s-2(b)). Information that cannot be verified must be deleted or corrected.

The agency must send you written results within 5 business days of finishing, plus a free copy of the corrected report. If they do not fix it, you may add a 100-word consumer statement to your file, and you may ask that corrected reports be sent to anyone who pulled your report in the last 2 years for employment or 6 months for any other purpose.

Dispute with every screening company separately, because they do not share files.

If a company keeps reporting something you disproved, you can complain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint and to the Texas Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, and you may be able to sue under 15 U.S.C. 1681n and 1681o, where a court can award actual damages and attorney’s fees. Many tenants get a bad line removed this way even though Texas offers no sealing.

Timing matters more than tenants expect. If you are apartment-hunting right now, start the screening-report disputes today — they run on federal deadlines and cost nothing — while any Texas court process moves in parallel. If the move is months away, that is enough time for most sealing petitions, vacated judgments, or corrected reports to finish before a landlord ever pulls your Texas eviction record.

Worth watching in Texas: Pending and failed bills: In the 89th Legislature (2025), Rep.

Lauren Ashley Simmons filed HB 2909, “relating to the expunction of records in residential eviction suits.” It would have let a court expunge an eviction record where the suit had no sufficient basis in fact or law and expunction served the interest of justice, or where the tenant kept gainful employment for at least 2 years after a final judgment;

it would have required parties to destroy expunged records, barred landlords from considering expunged records, and ordered the Supreme Court of Texas to adopt implementing rules by January 1, 2026. HB 2909 was introduced March 19, 2025 and referred to the House Trade, Workforce & Economic Development Committee, but it did not pass before the session adjourned sine die on June 2, 2025, so it is NOT law.

HB 1369, “relating to the confidentiality of residential eviction case information,” was also referred to the same committee and did not pass. SB 340 on landlord screening of rental applicants also died. Expect similar bills to be refiled when the 90th Legislature convenes January 12, 2027 — Texas has no regular 2026 session.

What DID pass: SB 38, signed in 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, is a landlord-backed bill that speeds up eviction filings and bars the Governor and the Supreme Court of Texas from suspending or modifying eviction procedures during emergencies except under narrow disaster rules; it contains no sealing relief for tenants.

Expired program: the Texas Eviction Diversion Program (TEDP), created by Supreme Court of Texas emergency order during COVID-19, was the one Texas mechanism that actually sealed eviction records — a case dismissed through TEDP was sealed from the public. TEDP has ended and is closed to new cases, but cases sealed under it remain sealed.

If your eviction was dismissed through TEDP in 2020–2023, ask the JP court clerk to confirm the file is still sealed and dispute any screening report still showing it.

County pilot programs: no verified county-level eviction sealing pilot exists in Texas; some counties limit what eviction data appears on public online dockets, so ask your county’s JP court clerk directly. UNVERIFIED whether any specific county has adopted a formal restricted-access policy.

Official Texas Sources & Resources

• Texas Courts Self-Help: txcourts.gov/programs-services/self-help/self-represented-li…
• Texas Statute: statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.92.htm
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: hud.gov
• Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex

Taking Control of Your Texas Eviction Record

A Texas eviction record is not a life sentence — it is a document, and documents can be sealed, corrected, or accurately explained. The tenants who struggle longest are usually the ones who never look at what their Texas eviction record actually says, so start by pulling the court file and your screening reports.

Whether Texas offers sealing or only the federal dispute route, acting on the Texas eviction record beats hoping landlords will not check — they almost always do. A short, honest cover letter to a prospective landlord explaining the circumstances can also do real work while the record process runs.

This Texas eviction record guide was last verified against official sources in August 2026. Sealing laws are changing fast — new states pass them every year, so re-check before relying on this page.

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Disclaimer: This guide is informational only and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant laws change and vary by city and county within a state. Verify current rules with your state, your local court, or a free legal-aid office before acting. If you are facing eviction, contact a local tenant attorney or legal-aid organization right away.