A daily struggle at Mueller

On the tidy blocks of Mueller, the routine for one property manager has become anything but. “It’s like Groundhog Day. Every morning, different times I turn up, I’ll find three or four different units broken into. They’re either squatters or homeless people camped out inside them,” said Tim Roadnight, CEO of Light Tower Property Management, describing conditions at Mueller Square in Yahoo.

What happens next, he said, is just as deflating. “They come straight back. Literally we had four arrested on Monday morning, and they were back in the afternoon,” Roadnight said in Yahoo.

Those on-the-ground realities are the backdrop for a pair of new Texas laws that promise faster court timelines and more direct law-enforcement authority to recover property from alleged squatters—changes that could soon reshape the daily calculus for landlords and renters from Mueller to the rest of Austin.

What the laws change

Lawmakers approved two measures this year aimed squarely at speeding up evictions and empowering officers to act when owners report unlawful occupancy.

  • SB 38 requires justice or county courts to schedule eviction trials no later than the 21st day after a petition is filed, according to Texas Legislature. Appeals must move just as quickly: the justice court has 10 days to forward case records, and the county court must hold a trial within 21 days of receiving them, provisions set out by Texas Legislature.
  • SB 1333 authorizes sheriffs and constables to recover property after a sworn complaint from the owner, with verification of ownership and notice directing the occupant to leave. It also increases criminal penalties tied to unlawful occupancy and provides for civil damages ranging from $1,000 to $300,000 for vandalism or destruction, according to LegiScan.

Supporters cast the changes as overdue fixes that align court schedules with urgent safety concerns and give officers clearer instructions when faced with disputed occupancy.

Voices on both sides

State leaders framed the laws as a defense of bedrock property rights. “Private property rights are a cornerstone of our Texas values. Texas is facing a squatting crisis, with property owners struggling to evict delinquent tenants or remove people who were never supposed to be on their property in the first place. Through these new laws, homeowners now have an efficient means of evicting squatters from their property,” Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement from Office of the Governor.

Some owners welcome the shift as a practical answer to chronic break-ins and costly repairs. “Being able to utilize these and protect families and protect property is just the beginning of allowing our state to continue to thrive,” said property owner Ari Rastegar in Yahoo.

Tenant advocates, however, warn that speed can come at a constitutional cost if safeguards aren’t preserved. “Due process is a constitutional right. You can’t change that,” said Mark Melton of the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center in an interview reported by KUT. Reporting from The Texas Tribune and KUT documents broader concerns that accelerating court calendars and changing procedures could erode renter protections or allow removals before tenants have their full day in court.

A faster clock in the courts

For Mueller landlords, the most immediate shift may be procedural. SB 38’s 21-day requirement for trials and parallel 21-day timetable for county-court appeals compress the window between filing and judgment, reducing the weeks—or months—that contested cases can linger, according to Texas Legislature and the related appeal schedule in Texas Legislature.

SB 1333, meanwhile, sets out a law-enforcement path that begins with an owner’s sworn complaint, verification of ownership, and an instruction to the occupant to vacate. With those steps satisfied, sheriffs and constables are empowered to recover the property, and the statute bolsters both criminal penalties and potential civil damages for property destruction, according to LegiScan.

The broader eviction picture in Texas

The new policies arrive amid elevated eviction activity across Texas’ largest metro areas. Marketplace Homes’ analysis shows filings in Fort Worth running about 25% above pre-2020 levels, roughly 18% higher in Austin, and approximately 42% higher across the Houston area, according to Marketplace Homes.

Local court dockets reflect the volume. In 2023, Bexar County recorded more than 24,500 eviction cases—about 8% of renter households—with nearly 14,500 ending in vacancies, as reported by San Antonio Express-News. While San Antonio’s experience isn’t a proxy for Austin, the numbers illustrate how widespread and disruptive eviction cycles have become statewide.

How it lands in Mueller

For a planned neighborhood built on predictability—morning jogs along pocket parks, strollers and scooters sharing the sidewalks—the repetitive disruptions Roadnight describes have become a defining headache. His account of same-day returns after arrests underscores why owners and managers in Mueller view the new tools as essential. The promise of quicker hearings and clear law-enforcement authority will be tested unit by unit, building by building.

Proponents say those tools will deter unlawful occupancy and restore a sense of safety; critics caution that any system built for speed must still leave room for mistakes to be corrected and for tenants’ defenses to be heard. Both points will play out in courtrooms and on the ground, where a 21-day trial clock under Texas Legislature and the law-enforcement recovery process outlined by LegiScan will intersect with lived realities in places like Mueller Square.

Back in Mueller, the expectations are pragmatic. A quicker docket won’t stop every break-in, and a sheriff’s visit won’t resolve every dispute. But for residents and managers who have watched the same doors pried open again and again, the state’s message is clear—and the results, soon enough, will be visible in the mornings when they arrive to see what happened overnight.

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