STATE LAW GUIDE

Can They Take My House in Texas?

The short answer

No. Not for a consumer debt, and there is no dollar limit on the protection.

A homestead is exempt from seizure for the claims of creditors, except for encumbrances properly fixed on homestead property. See Tex. Prop. Code 41.001.

Texas does not cap the value. A modest house and an expensive one are protected the same way.

The Texas rule, with the statute it comes from.

You are not the only one. Hundreds of thousands of these get filed every year, mostly against ordinary people who hit a bad stretch. Life gets messy. None of it makes you a bad person. It just makes you human.

They file these by the thousand. You are doing this once. That gap is the only real advantage they have, and it closes the moment you know what they have to prove. Learn it, use it, fight back strong.

How much land

Urban: not more than 10 acres, in one or more contiguous lots, together with the improvements on it.

Rural: not more than 200 acres for a family, or 100 acres for a single adult, in one or more parcels, with improvements. See Tex. Prop. Code 41.002.

Those are limits on area, not on value.

The exceptions, which matter

The homestead is not protected against encumbrances properly fixed on it. Those are listed, and they are the ones you agreed to or that the law attaches:

Purchase money, meaning the mortgage you took to buy it
Taxes on the property
Work and material used in constructing improvements, if contracted for in writing as the statute requires
An owelty of partition, including in a divorce
The refinance of an existing lien
A qualifying home equity loan under Section 50(a)(6) of Article XVI of the Texas Constitution
A qualifying reverse mortgage

See Tex. Prop. Code 41.001.

None of those is a credit card, a medical bill or a debt buyer's judgment.

And the proceeds are protected for six months

If you sell, the homestead claimant's proceeds of a sale are not subject to seizure for a creditor's claim for six months after the date of sale. See Tex. Prop. Code 41.001.

That window exists so you can buy the next home without a creditor taking the money in between.

So what can a consumer creditor actually reach in Texas?

Very little, which is what makes Texas unusual.

Not your wages. No current wages for personal service shall ever be subject to garnishment, except for court-ordered child support or spousal maintenance. See Tex. Const. art. XVI, sec. 28
Not your home, per above
Not personal property up to an aggregate $100,000 for a family or $50,000 for a single adult, exclusive of liens, which covers home furnishings, tools of a trade, clothing, two firearms, a vehicle for each licensed family member and household pets. See Tex. Prop. Code 42.001 and Tex. Prop. Code 42.002

A bank account is the realistic exposure. The wage protection attaches to current wages; money already deposited is a harder question.

Why you should still answer the lawsuit

Because a judgment still exists, still accrues, still shows up, and still sends a creditor looking for whatever is not exempt. And because answering is genuinely easy here: a general denial is a sufficient answer in justice court and does not bar any defense at trial, see Tex. R. Civ. P. 502.5, and your deadline is the end of the 14th day after service, see Tex. R. Civ. P. 501.1.

The honest warning

People hear "Texas protects your homestead" and conclude nothing can touch them, then ignore a summons. The protections above are real and they are among the strongest in the country. They are also protections against collection, not against a judgment being entered, and they do nothing about a mortgage or unpaid property taxes, which are the two things that actually take houses.

If the mortgage is the problem, that is a different emergency with different deadlines.

Citations are read from the Texas Legislature's official statutes site and the Supreme Court of Texas rules, and recorded in the site's citation registry.