This section lets a landlord ask a tenant to name a contact person and sign an authorization for what happens to the tenant’s property and security deposit if the tenant dies.
Sec. 92.014. PERSONAL PROPERTY AND SECURITY DEPOSIT OF DECEASED TENANT. (a) Upon written request of a landlord, the landlord's tenant shall: (1) provide the landlord with the name, address, and telephone number of a person to contact in the event of the tenant's death; and (2) sign a statement authorizing the landlord in the event of the tenant's death to: (A) grant to the person designated under Subdivision (1) access to the premises at a reasonable time and in the presence of the landlord or the landlord's agent; (B) allow the person designated under Subdivision (1) to remove any of the tenant's property found at the leased premises; and (C) refund the tenant's security deposit, less lawful deductions, to the person designated under Subdivision (1). (b) A tenant may, without request from the landlord, provide the landlord with the information in Subsection (a). (c) Except as provided in Subsection (d), in the event of the death of a tenant who is the sole occupant of a rental dwelling: (1) the landlord may remove and store all property found in the tenant's leased premises; (2) the landlord shall turn over possession of the property to the person who was designated by the tenant under Subsection (a) or (b) or to any other person lawfully entitled to the property if the request is made prior to the property being discarded under Subdivision (5); (3) the landlord shall refund the tenant's security deposit, less lawful deductions, including the cost of removing and storing the property, to the person designated under Subsection (a) or (b) or to any other person lawfully entitled to the refund; (4) the landlord may require any person who removes the property from the tenant's leased premises to sign an inventory of the property being removed; and (5) the landlord may discard the property removed by the landlord from the tenant's leased premises if: (A) the landlord has mailed a written request by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the person designated under Subsection (a) or (b), requesting that the property be removed; (B) the person failed to remove the property by the 30th day after the postmark date of the notice; and (C) the landlord, prior to the date of discarding the property, has not been contacted by anyone claiming the property. (d) In a written lease or other agreement, a landlord and a tenant may agree to a procedure different than the procedure in this section for removing, storing, or disposing of property in the leased premises of a deceased tenant. (e) If a tenant, after being furnished with a copy of this subchapter, knowingly violates Subsection (a), the landlord shall have no responsibility after the tenant's death for removal, storage, disappearance, damage, or disposition of property in the tenant's leased premises. (f) If a landlord, after being furnished with a copy of this subchapter, knowingly violates Subsection (c), the landlord shall be liable to the estate of the deceased tenant for actual damages. Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1439, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999. Renumbered from Sec. 92.013 by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, Sec. 21.001(97), eff. Sept. 1, 2001.