§ 15.084.Forcible Entry and Detainer

The eviction venue rule, and one of the most-used provisions in the chapter.

A suit for forcible entry and detainer — the Texas eviction action — shall be brought in the precinct in which all or part of the premises is located.

Note the word "shall". Most of this subchapter is permissive, adding precincts to the residence default. This one is mandatory: an eviction goes to the property's precinct and nowhere else.

The reason is the nature of the action. Forcible entry and detainer decides possession of a specific piece of land, and the court closest to it is best placed to deal with the writ of possession that follows.

"All or part" handles the property straddling a precinct line, and resolves it in the filing party's favour: either precinct will do.

The tenant-protective effect is real. A tenant facing eviction defends in the precinct where they live, not where a management company keeps an office — which matters in a proceeding that moves fast and where most tenants appear without a lawyer.

Read it beside the landlord-tenant provision earlier in the chapter, which sends lease disputes generally to the county where the property is. The two work in parallel at different levels: county for lease litigation, precinct for possession.

The rents provision in this subchapter completes the picture, allowing a suit to recover rents in the precinct where the rented premises are.