If you are a landlord in Texas, you should be very familiar with Texas Property Code, especially Chapter 92. Residential Tenancies. In this article, we will briefly talk about the requirements on Security Devices and Exterior Door Locks.
This is from the TAR (Texas Association Of Realtors) residential lease, Paragraph 19. Security Devices and Exterior Door Locks, “Subchapter D, Chapter 92, Property Code requires the Property to be equipped with certain types of locks and security devices, including (with some exceptions): (1) window latches on each window;(2) a keyed doorknob lock or keyed deadbolt lock on each exterior door; (3) a sliding door pin lock on each exterior sliding glass door of the dwelling; (4) a sliding door handle latch or a sliding door security bar on each exterior sliding glass door of the dwelling; and (5) a keyless bolting device and a door viewer on each exterior door of the dwelling. Landlord has rekeyed the security devices since the last occupant vacated the Property or will rekey the security devices within 7 days after Tenant moves in. ‘Security device’ has the meaning assigned to that term in Chapter 92.151, Property Code”. This is a short version of what Subchapter D of Chapter 92 covers.
For most residential rental properties, the requirements of 1 to 4 mentioned above are met, however, the fifth one – a keyless bolting device is the one that many landlords miss or do not know what it is. The one that All Side Realty usually uses on rental properties is as following:
It is a single-sided deadbolt which can only be locked from inside and no key holes or anything on the other side of a door. This provides extra safety assurance to the tenant while he/she is inside, especially alone. Almost all properties do not come with this kind of deadbolt at the time of being built and not many landlords know it is required until a real estate professional or a property manager brings it to the landlord’s attention, but we do hear lawsuit concerning properties without this device and we think we should bring this to every landlord’s attention.
As many landlords know, that a rental property needs to be rekeyed after a tenant moves out or within 7 days of a new tenant’s move-in, we suggest landlord to hire professional locksmith to perform the rekey and bring property to code at the same time, including but not limit to the installation of keyless deadbolts and door viewers (if missing), and check status of smoke alarms. The installation of keyless deadbolts should be a one-time expense, unless intentionally sabotaged by someone, and can last for several years.
In our future articles, we will talk more about Property Code and hopefully they can be useful to every landlord.