Breaking a Lease After a Sexual Assault

What does Section 92.0161 give you?

Section 92.0161(b) lets you terminate the lease, vacate before the end of the term, and avoid liability for future rent and other sums due under the lease for ending it early. That protection applies once you do what subsection (c) requires.

Who qualifies to end a lease after a sexual assault?

Under subsection (c), you must be a victim, or the parent or guardian of a victim, of one of these offenses committed during the preceding six-month period. Under subsection (i), a parent or guardian must live with the victim. The offenses are:

• Sexual assault, Penal Code Section 22.011
• Aggravated sexual assault, Penal Code Section 22.021
• Indecency with a child, Penal Code Section 21.11
• Sexual performance by a child, Penal Code Section 43.25
• Continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual, Penal Code Section 21.02
• An attempt to commit any of the above, under Penal Code Section 15.01

Read that list against the six-month clock, because the six-month clock can end this right. Nothing in subsection (c) requires that the offense happened at the apartment. If you were assaulted somewhere else entirely, you can still qualify for this protection. That is different from the stalking provision in subsection (c-1), which does require that the stalking occur on the premises.

What documentation do you need?

Subsection (c) requires a copy of one of the following, and one is enough:

• Documentation of the assault from a licensed health care services provider who examined the victim
• Documentation from a licensed mental health services provider who examined or evaluated the victim
• Documentation from an individual authorized under Chapter 420 of the Government Code who provided services to the victim, such as a sexual assault program advocate
• A protective order issued under Subchapter A, Chapter 7B of the Code of Criminal Procedure, other than a temporary ex parte order

You do not need a police report, a criminal charge or a conviction. A SANE nurse, a treating physician, a licensed counselor, or a sexual assault advocate can each supply the documentation the statute describes. If you are an advocate, the third option is the one to remember. With it, the survivor does not have to go back to a hospital or a police station to get out of a lease.

What steps make the termination effective?

Subsection (d) makes the right effective only after all four of these have happened:

• The tenant gives the landlord a copy of the documentation
• The tenant gives the landlord written notice of termination on or before the 30th day before the lease terminates
• That 30th day passes
• The tenant vacates the dwelling

The order of these steps matters, because the right is not effective until every one has happened. The thirty days run from the notice, not from the assault.

Do you still owe rent that was already past due?

Usually, yes. Under subsection (e), terminating the lease this way does not erase rent or other sums that were already unpaid before termination. Future rent is gone, but past due rent generally is not.

Subsection (g) creates an important exception to that general rule. If your lease does not contain language substantially equivalent to the statutory warning sentence, you are released from all delinquent unpaid rent owed on the effective date of termination. The sentence reads: “Tenants may have special statutory rights to terminate the lease early in certain situations involving certain sexual offenses or stalking.” That sentence may be missing from your lease, so read your lease before you assume any back rent is owed.

Subsection (f) protects the tenant from the other direction. A landlord who violates this section is liable to you for actual damages, a civil penalty equal to one month’s rent plus $500, and attorney’s fees. Subsection (h) provides that a tenant may not waive this right. A lease clause that tries to give it up conflicts with that statutory protection.

Is ending the lease the same as a claim for the assault?

No. Terminating a lease is a remedy against the lease, not a claim against anyone for the assault. If the assault happened at the complex, and the complex knew about prior violent crime on the property or about a specific developing threat and did nothing, you may have a separate premises liability claim. The two remedies do not conflict, and you can pursue both.

Moving costs are also compensable through the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation program in defined circumstances, which is a third, independent source. Using one does not, by itself, rule out the others.

Primary sources

• Tex. Prop. Code § 92.0161, right to vacate and avoid liability following certain sex offenses or stalking
• Tex. Penal Code §§ 22.011, 22.021
• Tex. Penal Code §§ 21.02, 21.11
• Tex. Gov’t Code ch. 420, sexual assault program advocates
• Tex. Code Crim. Proc. ch. 7B, protective orders

Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.

This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.