Landlord or Tenant: Who Pays for Plumbing Repairs in Texas? A Guide for Houston Renters and Landlords

A large share of Houston households rent, and a lot of that rental stock is old. Garden apartments in Gulfton and Sharpstown from the 1960s and 1970s, bungalows in the Heights and Montrose with their original cast iron and galvanized steel, townhomes from the 1980s with polybutylene, and single-family rentals across Katy, Spring, and Pearland. Pipes in those buildings fail the same way they fail in owner-occupied homes, except that when the toilet backs up at 9 p.m., the first question is not how to fix it. It is who has to.

This guide covers what the Texas Property Code generally requires of landlords, how a tenant gives notice that actually counts, what tenants are responsible for, what the lease can and cannot change, common Houston scenarios, what to do in an emergency, and what happens when a tenant calls a plumber directly. It is written for renters and landlords in the Houston area. It is general information, not legal advice; confirm anything that matters to your situation with the Texas Attorney General’s tenant resources, a local tenant council, or a lawyer.

The General Rule in Texas

Texas rental repairs are governed by Chapter 92, Subchapter B of the Texas Property Code. The short version:

• The landlord must make a diligent effort to repair or remedy a condition if the tenant has given notice, the tenant is current on rent when notice is given, and the condition materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant.
• The landlord is generally not required to repair a condition caused by the tenant, a member of the tenant’s household, or a guest, unless the damage is normal wear and tear.
• The duty is to make a diligent effort within a reasonable time, not to fix it the same day in every case.

Plumbing failures that generally meet the health-and-safety standard: raw sewage backing up into tubs or floor drains, no running water, no hot water, a water heater or gas line leaking gas, a leak that is soaking a ceiling or floor, and a toilet that does not work in a unit with only one bathroom. A faucet that drips, a slow bathroom sink, or a toilet that runs a little are real problems, but they are much harder to argue affect health or safety, and the statute treats them differently.

Two words in that rule do a lot of work. Notice means the landlord has to know. Diligent effort means the landlord has to be trying, which is why a landlord who has a plumber scheduled for the next morning after a nighttime sewage backup is in a very different position from one who has not answered in two weeks.

How to Give Notice That Counts

Most repair disputes in Texas are lost on paperwork, not plumbing. A tenant who texted the landlord three times about a leak has a real complaint but may not have given the kind of notice the statute requires.

1. Put it in writing to the address where rent is paid, or by whatever method the lease specifies. Certified mail with a return receipt is the method the Property Code gives special weight to; if the lease allows written notice by email or a portal, use that and save a copy. A phone call or a text may or may not count depending on the lease.
2. Describe the condition and the risk. Sewage in the tub, no hot water since Tuesday, water dripping through the ceiling onto the bed. Include the date it started and photos if you have them.
3. Stay current on rent. The landlord’s duty under the statute applies only if you were current when you gave notice. This is the single most common way a tenant’s position falls apart.
4. Wait a reasonable time. The statute presumes seven days is reasonable in many cases, but the actual time depends on severity, the availability of parts and labor, and how long the problem has existed. A sewage backup is urgent. A dripping hose bib is not.
5. Send a second written notice if nothing has happened, stating that the condition has not been repaired. In most situations, the formal remedies below are available only after this second notice. If the first notice went by certified mail, one notice may be enough; read the statute or ask a tenant resource.

For a landlord, the mirror image applies: respond in writing, document when you received notice, and document when the plumber was scheduled and what was done. A dated photo of the invoice is cheap insurance.

Tenant Remedies, and the One That Does Not Exist

After proper notice and a reasonable time, the Property Code generally gives a tenant three paths. It does not give the fourth one that most people reach for first.

• Terminate the lease. The tenant can end the lease, move out, and recover a prorated refund of rent and the deposit, subject to the statute’s conditions.
• Repair and deduct. The tenant can have the condition repaired and deduct the cost from rent, but only within strict limits: a dollar cap tied to one month’s rent or a fixed amount, specific conditions on what qualifies, a licensed contractor for some work, and an itemized copy of the bill to the landlord. Get the procedure right or the deduction becomes unpaid rent.
• Sue in justice court. The tenant can ask a justice court for an order requiring the repair, a rent reduction from the date of the first notice, a civil penalty, and attorney fees.

Withholding rent outright is not a remedy in Texas. A tenant who stops paying because the landlord has not fixed the plumbing is a tenant who is behind on rent, and the landlord can proceed with eviction while the plumbing dispute goes nowhere. Pay the rent, keep the paper trail, and use the remedies the statute actually provides.

Texas law also generally bars a landlord from retaliating against a tenant for making a good-faith repair request within a protected window, so a repair request should not be the thing that ends a tenancy.

What Is Usually the Tenant’s Job

The landlord’s duty does not make the tenant a bystander. Leases and the statute both generally expect the tenant to:

• Report problems promptly. A drip under the sink that is reported the day it starts is a cabinet floor. The same drip reported two months later is a subfloor, and the tenant who sat on it can be charged for the difference.
• Not cause the damage. Grease down the kitchen sink, wipes down the toilet, a toy flushed by a toddler, a drain stopper left out so hair goes down the shower. These are tenant-caused conditions. Our flushable wipes guide explains why wipes are the most common one.
• Handle the trivial. Plunging a toilet, clearing hair from a pop-up stopper, replacing a flapper if the lease says minor maintenance is on the tenant.
• Allow access. A landlord who cannot get a plumber into the unit cannot make a diligent effort. Reasonable scheduling cuts both ways.
• Protect against freezing when the lease or the landlord asks, such as leaving a drip running on exposed lines during a hard freeze.

What the tenant generally does not have to do: pay for a water heater that died of age, a cast iron line that collapsed, a slab leak, a sewer line full of roots, or a pipe that burst because it was uninsulated in an attic. Those are the building.

What the Lease Can and Cannot Change

Texas allows a written lease to shift some repair responsibilities to the tenant, which is why one lease says the tenant pays for any drain clog and the next one says nothing. Generally:

• A lease can make the tenant responsible for conditions the tenant caused, and may be able to shift some specific minor repairs if the lease language is clear and conspicuous.
• A lease generally cannot waive the landlord’s duty to repair conditions that materially affect health and safety, and a clause that tries to is generally void.
• A lease cannot make the tenant pay for normal wear and tear.

Read the repair clause before you sign, and read it again before you argue about a bill. If the lease says the tenant pays for clogged drains but the drain is clogged because the line under the slab is broken, the clause does not turn a structural failure into tenant damage.

Common Houston Scenarios

The February 2021 freeze is the case study Houston still argues about. Thousands of rental units had burst lines when power and heat failed. In general, a pipe that burst because the building’s plumbing was exposed, uninsulated, or the heat was out through no fault of the tenant was the landlord’s repair, and the resulting loss of water was a health-and-safety condition. A tenant who ignored a landlord’s written instruction to drip faucets and keep the heat on had a weaker position. Either way, the water damage to a tenant’s own belongings is a renters insurance question, not a landlord repair question, which surprises a lot of people. Our frozen and burst pipes guide covers the prevention side.

It Is 9 p.m. and the Tub Is Full of Sewage

An emergency does not wait for certified mail. A tenant facing an active plumbing failure tonight should:

1. Stop the water. For a leaking fixture, close the supply valve under it. For a burst pipe or a leak you cannot find, close the main shutoff; our how to shut off your water main guide shows where it is on most Houston homes and in many apartment units. For a sewage backup, stop using every drain in the unit, and in a multi-unit building tell the neighbors upstairs to stop too.
2. If you smell gas, leave. Do not flip switches. Call the gas utility from outside, then the landlord.
3. Document. Photos and a short video with the time showing. This is the record for the landlord, the insurer, and if it comes to it, the court.
4. Notify the landlord or the emergency maintenance line right away, and follow up in writing in the morning even if they answered the phone. The call starts the repair; the written notice starts the clock.
5. Decide whether you can wait. If the landlord is sending someone tonight, let them. If you cannot reach anyone and the condition is actively damaging the unit or making it unlivable, you may need to call a plumber yourself, which brings up the bill.

Our what is a plumbing emergency guide sorts the situations that need a truck tonight from the ones that can wait for morning, and the sewage backup guide covers the cleanup and health side.

When a Tenant Calls a Plumber Directly

A tenant can call any plumber at any time. The thing to understand is that the person who books the visit and approves the quote is the customer, and the customer is who the plumber will look to for payment. Calling a plumber does not transfer the bill to the landlord, and the repair-and-deduct remedy only works if the statute’s conditions were met first.

That said, there is a version of this that works well for everyone. Hugo Plumbing’s diagnosis visit is free, with no trip charge or diagnostic fee, and every job is priced as one flat written number before any work starts. A tenant can have a licensed technician come out, identify the cause, and put the repair in writing. The tenant then forwards the quote and the technician’s findings to the landlord or property manager, who can approve the work, send their own plumber, or dispute whether the cause was tenant conduct with an actual diagnosis in hand instead of a guess. Nothing is owed unless someone approves the quote.

For a tenant who approves a repair themselves because the condition could not wait, the written quote and the itemized invoice are exactly the documents the repair-and-deduct process asks for, and they are the evidence a justice court will want. Keep them.

For the landlord side, the diagnosis settles the argument about cause more cheaply than anything else. A toilet that backed up because of wipes looks different on a camera than a line that is backing up because the cast iron bottom has rotted out, and a sewer camera inspection at $295 to $350 puts the answer on video.

For Landlords and Property Managers

The economics of rental plumbing favor the landlord who moves fast.

• A small leak fixed this week is a plumbing bill. The same leak fixed next month is a plumbing bill plus drywall, flooring, mold remediation, and possibly a rent abatement. Houston humidity turns a wet subfloor into a mold problem in days, not weeks.
• Use a licensed plumber. Water heater replacements, gas work, and sewer repairs generally require permits in the City of Houston, and the permit protects the owner if something goes wrong later. A licensed plumber also carries the liability, and the paper trail of a licensed repair is what you want in front of a judge.
• Document the condition at move-in and at each repair. Photos, dated invoices, the plumber’s notes on cause. When a tenant disputes a charge for a wipes clog, the plumber’s written finding is the whole case.
• Respond in writing to every repair request, even a text, and note the scheduled date. Diligent effort is easier to prove when it is written down.
• Set up a billed account. Property managers with multiple units can run repairs through a commercial account so the tenant calls, the technician diagnoses, the manager approves by text, and the invoice goes to the office rather than to whoever happened to be home.
• Inspect the old stuff before it fails. A plumbing inspection on a 1960s building with original cast iron, or a camera run through a sewer line that has backed up twice, costs far less than the third backup with a tenant’s belongings in the tub.

Hugo Plumbing is licensed (MPL 41319), answers the emergency line 24/7, quotes free, prices flat by the job with permits included wherever the city requires them, and warranties its work for at least a year with extended coverage by job type; drain cleaning is the one exception, because the condition of an existing line is outside anyone’s control. Spanish-speaking technicians and office staff are available, which matters in a city where a lot of landlord-tenant communication happens in two languages. Financing is available on larger jobs like a water heater or a sewer line, and customers 55 and older and military receive 10% off, not combinable.

Whether you own the building or rent a unit in it, the number is the same: (713) 409-7176, call or text. Tell us who should receive the written quote, and we will send it there.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is responsible for plumbing repairs in a Texas rental, the landlord or the tenant?

Generally the landlord. Under Chapter 92 of the Texas Property Code, once a tenant gives notice and is current on rent, the landlord must make a diligent effort to repair any condition that materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant. Sewage backups, no running water, no hot water, major leaks, and gas leaks generally qualify. The landlord is generally not required to repair damage the tenant, a household member, or a guest caused, beyond normal wear and tear. The lease can shift some minor repair costs, but it cannot waive the health and safety duty. Confirm your situation with the Texas Attorney General’s tenant resources or a lawyer.

How do I give my landlord proper notice of a plumbing problem in Texas?

Put it in writing. A text or a call is a start, but the Property Code remedies depend on written notice sent to the address where you pay rent, by certified mail, or by whatever method the lease specifies. Describe the problem, the date it started, and the health or safety risk, and keep a copy. If a reasonable time passes with no repair, send a second written notice; the statute presumes seven days is reasonable in many cases, but a sewage backup or no water is urgent and a dripping faucet is not. Only after the second notice do the formal remedies open up.

Can I withhold rent in Texas if my landlord will not fix the plumbing?

No. Texas does not allow a tenant to simply stop paying rent because repairs are undone, and doing so can lead to eviction. The remedies the Property Code provides, after proper written notice and a reasonable time, are terminating the lease, repairing the condition yourself and deducting the cost from rent within strict dollar limits and procedures, or suing in justice court for a repair order, a rent reduction, and damages. Each has conditions, so read the statute or talk to a tenant resource before acting.

Does the tenant have to pay for a clogged toilet or drain?

It depends on the cause. A toilet clogged by wipes, toys, or paper towels, or a kitchen sink stopped with grease, is tenant-caused damage that the landlord generally does not have to fix for free, and many leases make that explicit. A slow drain that backs up because a 1960s cast iron line is collapsing, a sewer backup when nobody flushed anything unusual, or a clog in a line shared with another unit is a building problem and is generally the landlord’s repair. A plumber’s diagnosis usually settles which it was.

Can a tenant call a plumber directly, and who gets the bill?

A tenant can call any plumber, and in an emergency often should, but the person who books the visit and approves the written quote is the customer who owes the bill. Hugo Plumbing’s diagnosis visit is free, so a tenant can have the problem identified and priced, forward the written quote to the landlord or property manager before approving anything, and let them authorize the work or send their own plumber. Property managers can set up a billed commercial account so repairs at their units are approved and paid directly.

Whoever owns the pipe, if the drain won’t go, call Hugo.