Lease Acceleration Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Texas law says, what's specific to Austin - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Texas does not ban acceleration clauses, and our record of Austin law shows no city rule on them.
- Section 91.006 requires your landlord to mitigate damages if you abandon the unit in violation of the lease.
- Any lease term waiving that duty is void, whatever you initialed at signing.
- What you owe shrinks by the rent that reasonable re-renting could have brought in.
- The statute sets no deadline. A court decides case by case whether the re-renting effort was reasonable.
Understanding the Lease Acceleration Clause
This page is for Austin renters whose lease has an acceleration clause: the paragraph that makes all the remaining rent due at once if you leave early. Move out in month four of a twelve-month lease and the clause treats every month left as one bill.
Texas does not ban the clause, but it does make your landlord try to re-rent. Every month the unit is filled, or reasonably could have been, comes off what you owe.
What renters assume
If my lease says all remaining rent is due when I leave early, that number is final and I have to pay all of it.
What is actually true
Not in Texas. Under Section 91.006 your landlord must mitigate damages when you abandon in breach of the lease, and lease language waiving that duty is void. The demand is a starting number, not a judgment.
The clause you signed looks nearly identical in Miami, Atlanta, and Austin - the law behind it doesn't. Florida lets a landlord sit on an empty unit and bill you as rent comes due, Georgia courts rarely force re-renting, and Texas makes the mitigation duty non-waivable.
Rent Acceleration Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Austin, TX
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
The paragraph as the Montana Supreme Court reproduced it. One further sentence follows in the original, dealing with when late fees and interest may start to run on an accelerated amount; it is not reproduced here:
If any monthly installment under this agreement is not paid when due and remains unpaid after a date specified by a notice to Tenant, the entire principal rent amount owed for the full lease term shall at once become due and payable at the option of the Landlord and judgment may be had for all said amounts due. The foregoing provision shall not relieve the Landlord of its obligation to mitigate damages. In the event the rental premises is re-rented to another for full value prior to expiration of the lease term, Landlord shall file Notice of Partial Satisfaction of any judgment entered to the extent of the third party rental agreement.
[…]
Quoted from the published opinion in Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164, 357 Mont. 123, 236 P.3d 586 (No. DA 09-0489). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“after a date specified by a notice to Tenant”
Acceleration does not fire on the missed payment here. It fires on a date the landlord chooses and writes into a notice, which is why that notice and the envelope it came in are worth keeping: the date on it is the hinge of every later argument about what was owed and when. Texas answers the other half of the timing question with silence. Tex. Prop. Code § 91.006 sets no deadline for the landlord's efforts, so whether those efforts were reasonable is decided case by case. The clause dates the landlord's demand precisely and leaves the landlord's own duty undated.
See the example
“The foregoing provision”
The provision being pointed back at is the acceleration sentence, and this is the drafter conceding that the first half does not stand alone. In Texas that concession was never the landlord's to give or withhold. Section 91.006 imposes the duty to mitigate whenever a tenant abandons the leased premises in violation of the lease, and it voids any lease provision that waives the right or exempts the landlord from the duty. A lease that deleted this sentence altogether would be in exactly the same position.
“shall not relieve the Landlord”
Relief from the duty is the precise thing Texas forbids, and it is worth being clear about what that does and does not do to a clause like this one. Acceleration is not banned outright in Texas. What shrinks is the recovery: whatever rent reasonable re-letting could have produced comes off the total, so the figure on a demand letter and the figure a court would allow are two different figures. The paragraph can still be the landlord's opening number. It is not the ending one.
See the example
“of its obligation to mitigate damages”
Mitigating means trying to re-let, not succeeding. Texas requires the effort and leaves the standard open - no deadline, no procedure, reasonableness judged on the facts of the tenancy. Compare Washington, which does not stop at requiring the effort: RCW 59.18.310 caps a fixed-term tenant's liability at the lesser of the entire remaining rent, or accrued rent plus the fair-rental shortfall and the actual costs of re-renting. Texas gives you a duty to argue about; Washington gives a ceiling to point at.
The Montana Supreme Court struck this paragraph down, and its conclusion is one sentence: “Thus, we conclude that the accelerated rent provision is unconscionable and therefore unenforceable.” The tenants had moved out of their apartment on October 13, 2006, and Crestview answered with a Statement of Deductions from the Security Deposit charging rent through the end of the lease in June - $6,505.75 billed against a $2,170 deposit. Two reasons carried the court. Acceleration undermines the landlord's duty to mitigate and reduces the incentive to re-rent promptly, because a landlord already holding a judgment for the whole term has little reason to fill the unit. And Crestview drafted the lease while these tenants had no meaningful choice and no opportunity to negotiate any of it. The case was reversed and remanded, and two justices wrote separately - their objection being that the majority had gone as far as treating acceleration clauses as unenforceable in themselves. So read the holding narrowly, as the majority wrote it: this provision, in this residential lease, unconscionable and unenforceable. It is a Montana decision and it binds no other state's courts. What travels is the reasoning, and the reasoning is about mitigation - which is exactly the question the statute in your own city's decode answers.
How this state's law treats this clause
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Texas Law on Lease Acceleration Clause
- Section 91.006 imposes a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons the leased premises in violation of the lease.
- Any lease provision that waives this right or exempts the landlord from this duty is void.
- The statute sets no deadline, so whether the landlord's efforts were reasonable is decided case by case.
- Acceleration clauses are not banned outright, but recovery shrinks by whatever rent re-renting could reasonably have produced.
Sources include Tex. Prop. Code § 91.006 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Step by step
How it plays out
- You leave earlyRemaining rent may fall dueAn acceleration clause can make every remaining month due at once. Texas does not ban the clause.
- Unit sits emptyLandlord must try to re-rentUnder Section 91.006 your landlord must mitigate damages once you abandon in breach. A lease term waiving that duty is void.
- Bill arrivesRe-rent value comes offRecovery shrinks by whatever rent re-renting could reasonably have produced. With no deadline in the statute, a court judges reasonableness case by case.
Copy and send: When your landlord bills you for the rest of the lease after you moved out
Ask what was done to re-rent the unit
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
In Texas one statute answers this question: Tex. Prop. Code § 91.006. Its duty applies to the same lease as your acceleration clause, and where the two clash, the statute wins.
- The duty. If you abandon the leased premises in violation of the lease, your landlord has a duty to mitigate damages, meaning a duty to try to cut the loss by re-renting.
- No waiver. Any lease provision that waives this duty or exempts the landlord from it is void.
- No deadline. The statute sets no time limit, so whether the landlord's efforts were reasonable is decided case by case.
- A smaller bill. Acceleration clauses are not banned outright, but recovery shrinks by whatever rent re-renting could reasonably have produced.
Other states draw the line differently. Washington caps a tenant's liability at the lesser of the remaining rent or accrued rent plus actual re-renting costs.
What's Specific to Austin
How Texas compares
Landlord duty to mitigate after an early lease break, state by state
No figureGuide coming soonYou are here
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Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Our record of Austin law finds no city ordinance on rent acceleration or mitigation. Section 91.006 applies citywide and cannot be waived by lease, so the same rule covers every Austin neighborhood.
If a dispute reaches court, a Travis County judge weighs whether your landlord's re-renting effort was reasonable. Listing dates, photos and screenshots of the property's own ads are useful evidence on that question.
It should. Texas requires mitigation anyway, but a written credit for the next tenant's rent saves you the argument later.
A fixed number lets you plan, instead of learning the charge after you hand back the keys.
That language is void under Section 91.006. Printing it in the lease does not take the duty away.
Paying a reletting fee and every remaining month means paying twice for one empty unit. Question it in writing.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Tex. Prop. Code § 91.006 on tcss.legis.texas.gov, Texas's own publication of its statutes.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Entire balance due on demand
Wording that makes all remaining rent payable now is a starting number, not a court judgment. Ask what is being done to re-rent before you pay.
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Sole discretion to re-rent
Language saying the landlord may choose whether to market the unit reads like an opt-out from mitigation. Section 91.006 voids lease terms that waive the duty.
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No accounting of the re-lease
Without an itemized statement you cannot check how quickly the unit filled. Ask for the re-lease date and the new rent in writing.
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Your unit never shows up online
Check the property's own site and the big listing sites. If your unit is not listed, screenshot the search with the date showing.
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Rent billed after a new tenant moved in
Rent from the next tenant reduces what you owe. A demand that still counts those months is overstated.
Your Rights as a Austin Tenant
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A duty you can't sign away
Section 91.006 applies once you abandon the unit in breach of the lease. Nothing you initialed removes it.
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A bill cut by re-renting
Your landlord's recovery shrinks by whatever rent re-renting could reasonably have produced, not only by rent actually collected.
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Reasonableness judged case by case
With no deadline in the statute, a court weighs whether the marketing effort was genuine. Listing dates and photos are the evidence.
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The right to contest the number
A demand letter is not a judgment. You can dispute it, negotiate, or make your landlord prove the damages in court.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find the acceleration paragraph
Search your lease for 'accelerate', 'entire balance' or 'reletting'. That wording sets what they will demand; Section 91.006 limits what they can collect.
Put your move-out in writing
Send an email and a certified letter with your move-out date. Dated proof shows when your landlord knew the unit was empty.
Return keys and document the unit
Hand the keys over formally and photograph every room. A clean, rent-ready unit removes the easiest excuse for a slow re-lease.
Track the listing weekly
Screenshot the property's own site and the big listing sites each week. A unit that never gets listed is evidence on your side.
Ask for an itemized accounting
Ask in writing for the re-lease date, the new rent and each charge. Those numbers show how much of the bill holds up.
Negotiate, then defend if sued
Offer to settle for the months the unit sat empty despite real re-renting efforts. If sued in Travis County, press the landlord to show what they did to re-rent.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Lease Acceleration rules near Texas
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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