How to Rent to College Students in Texas: Laws, Licensing, and Local Rules

Renting to college students in Texas got substantially easier on September 1, 2025, when Senate Bill 1567 took effect and stripped home-rule cities with a university campus of the power to cap occupancy based on relationship status, familial status, age, or occupation. College Station's famous "no more than four" rule is gone — the city repealed it, along with both of its occupancy overlays, on September 11, 2025. Texas still sets no cap on security deposits but gives you 30 days from surrender of possession to refund the balance with an itemized list of deductions, and a bad-faith failure costs $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld.

Key Takeaways

• The "no more than four unrelated" rule is dead in Texas college towns. SB 1567 killed it statewide, effective September 1, 2025.
• Cities can still limit occupancy — just not by relationship. The new floor is one person per sleeping room of 70 square feet, plus one more for each additional 50 square feet.
• College Station repealed its Restricted Occupancy Overlays and High Occupancy Overlays outright, by ordinance, on September 11, 2025.
• Deed restrictions and HOA rules survived the bill untouched. Your subdivision can still cap what the city no longer can.
• No statewide rental license. Dallas, however, registers every single-family rental at $74 a year.
• Security devices — keyed deadbolt, keyless bolting device, door viewer — go in at your expense, before the tenant moves in. Not on request.

SB 1567 Ended Relationship-Based Occupancy Caps in Texas College Towns on September 1, 2025

If you researched Texas student rentals before last fall, almost everything you read is now wrong. Senate Bill 1567, authored by Senator Paul Bettencourt and passed 30-1 in the Senate, prohibits a home-rule municipality with a university campus inside it from adopting or enforcing any zoning regulation that limits how many people may occupy a dwelling unit based on age, familial status, occupation, relationship status, or degree of blood relation.

The House Research Organization analysis is blunt about the target: occupancy limits were making it harder for students to find affordable housing, and the health-and-safety goals cities claimed could be met with metrics that have nothing to do with who is related to whom.

Three provisions matter to you specifically. A covered city cannot impose a limit more restrictive than one occupant per sleeping room with at least 70 square feet of floor area, plus one additional occupant for every 50 square feet beyond that in the same room. A city cannot make a broker, agent, or other third-party fiduciary hand over a lease so the city can count unrelated occupants. And if a city violates the bill anyway, you can sue it — governmental immunity is expressly waived to the extent of liability.

What survived: building codes, fire codes, Department of State Health Services standards, and affordable housing program guidelines. Cities can still regulate occupancy through those. They just have to do it with square footage and egress instead of family trees.

College Station Repealed "No More Than Four" and Both Occupancy Overlays in September 2025

College Station spent years enforcing an ordinance barring more than four unrelated people from a single-family home, and its Restricted Occupancy Overlays pushed some neighborhoods down to two. Texas A&M's Student Government Association lobbied the Legislature over it. The bill that resulted was, in the local coverage, College Station-inspired.

The city complied by ordinance rather than by argument. On September 11, 2025, council adopted Ordinance 2025-4619, amending the Unified Development Ordinance's definition of "family" to comply with SB 1567, and Ordinance 2025-4620, removing all ROO and HOO language from the code and the zoning map.

So a five-bedroom house off Holleman that could legally hold four tenants in August 2025 can hold five now, assuming the bedrooms clear the square-footage math. That is a whole extra bedroom of revenue on a property you already own. Denton, home to UNT and TWU, is a home-rule city with a university campus and falls under the same preemption.

One caveat worth taking seriously: the bill did not touch private agreements. If your house sits in a subdivision whose deed restrictions cap unrelated occupants, that restriction is still enforceable, and the city being preempted does nothing for you. Read the restrictive covenants before you advertise a fifth bed.

Texas Has No Statewide Rental License, But Dallas Registers Every Single-Family Rental

There is no state-level residential rental license in Texas, and no statewide registration filing of the kind Ohio requires. The obligations are municipal, and they vary more than owners expect.

Dallas is the one that catches people. Chapter 27 of the Dallas City Code requires annual registration of single-family rentals, duplexes, and condo units through Code Compliance Services. As of October 1, 2025, that means an online application, a non-refundable $74 fee per dwelling, and an annual Owner's Self-Inspection Checklist with a signed affidavit. A city code officer inspects the interior, exterior and premises at least once every five years.

Check the specific city, every time. A summary of "Texas law" will tell you there is nothing to file, and for a house in Bryan that is true. For the identical house in Dallas it is a $74 registration and a checklist you sign under oath.

Deposits: No Cap, a 30-Day Clock That Starts Late, and Treble Damages If You Blow It

Texas does not limit what you can collect. It limits what happens next.

Under Property Code 92.103 you have 30 days after the tenant surrenders possession to refund the balance, and 92.104 requires a written description and itemization of any deductions. Miss that deadline and Section 92.109 presumes you acted in bad faith. The exposure is real: $100, plus three times the portion of the deposit wrongfully withheld, plus the tenant's attorney's fees. You also forfeit the right to withhold anything at all, and the right to sue the tenant for damage to the premises. In any suit, the burden of proving your retention was reasonable sits on you.

Here is the piece most owners get backwards. Under Section 92.107, your obligation to return the deposit or provide the itemization does not start until the tenant gives you a written forwarding address. Four students scattering to Houston, Plano, and two different summer internships often means nobody sends you one. Your clock has not started. But the statute also says the tenant does not forfeit the refund by failing to provide the address — so this is a shield against the penalty, not a way to keep the money.

Practical move: put a forwarding-address line in your move-out packet and get it signed at key handoff. It protects you and it costs nothing.

Security Devices and Smoke Alarms Are Your Expense, and They Go In Before Move-In

Texas is unusually prescriptive about hardware, and this is where a first-time student landlord actually gets caught.

Property Code 92.153 requires every exterior door to have a keyed deadbolt or doorknob lock, a keyless bolting device, and a door viewer. Exterior sliding glass doors need a pin lock plus either a handle latch or a security bar. All of it installs at the landlord's expense, and the duty is not conditioned on the tenant asking. Rekeying between tenancies is also on you.

For alarms, Section 92.255 requires at least one smoke alarm in each separate bedroom. If several bedrooms open onto the same corridor, you need one in that corridor near the bedrooms. Multi-level house, which describes most of the older stock near Texas A&M and UNT: one on every level.

Repairs run on a short clock too. Section 92.056 sets a rebuttable presumption that seven days is a reasonable time to fix a condition affecting health or safety after proper written notice — rebuttable based on severity, when you received the notice, and whether parts and labor were actually available.

Where to List a Texas Student Rental

Students at Texas A&M, UNT, UTA, UTSA and the University of Houston search by campus, not by metro. Find My Place lets private owners list a place directly — a duplex, a condo, a house or two — with per-bedroom pricing shown natively and verified reviews attached to the property. If you are earlier in the process, start with our guide to renting out your house to college students, and see the state-by-state rental license guide for how Texas compares.

This is general information about Texas law as of August 2026, not legal advice. SB 1567 is less than a year old and cities are still amending their codes around it. Confirm your city's current ordinance and talk to a Texas attorney before you sign anything.

Frequently Asked Questions About Renting to Students in Texas

Can I put five students in a five-bedroom College Station house?

Yes, as of September 2025. The "no more than four" ordinance was repealed by Ordinance 2025-4619 and the overlays by Ordinance 2025-4620, both in compliance with SB 1567. What still governs is square footage — each sleeping room needs at least 70 square feet for the first occupant — plus any deed restrictions on your subdivision, which the state did not preempt.

Do I need a rental license to rent to students in Texas?

Not from the state. Texas has no statewide residential rental license or registration filing. Cities set their own rules, and Dallas is the notable one for private owners: $74 a year per single-family rental, plus a self-inspection affidavit, under Chapter 27.

How much security deposit can I charge a student in Texas?

As much as the market will bear — there is no statutory cap. The risk is entirely on the back end. Refund the balance with an itemized list within 30 days of the tenant surrendering possession and giving you a written forwarding address, or you are looking at $100 plus treble damages plus their attorney's fees.