What happens if something is wrong with your new home?

Before you can sue a Texas builder over a construction defect, Property Code Chapter 27 — the Residential Construction Liability Act — requires you to send the contractor written notice by certified mail at least 60 days before you file. That notice starts a defined sequence with its own clocks: the contractor may inspect the property within 35 days of receiving the notice, and may make a written settlement offer within 45 days of receiving it. Skip the notice and you do not lose the claim, but you hand the other side a procedural tool that stops your case in its tracks until you go back and do it.

Most new-home problems never get anywhere near this. A nail pop, a sticking door, a hairline crack in drywall at the first seasonal swing — those go to the builder's warranty department and get fixed. This page is about the ones that do not.

What is the Residential Construction Liability Act?

Chapter 27 is not a cause of action you file. It is a framework that sits on top of the claims you already have — breach of contract, breach of warranty, negligence, and claims under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act — when those claims arise from a construction defect in a residence. It modifies how those claims work: it requires pre-suit notice, it gives the contractor a chance to inspect and to offer a fix, and it limits what can be recovered.

The reason it exists is worth understanding, because it explains why the process is shaped the way it is. Texas abolished the Texas Residential Construction Commission in the 2009 Sunset review, effective September 1, 2010, and has had no state homebuilder license since. There is no agency you file a complaint with that will inspect your foundation and order a repair. What Texas has instead is a private-remedy system, and Chapter 27 is the front end of it. The pre-suit notice and inspection window are the state's substitute for a regulator: an enforced opportunity for the builder to look at the problem and fix it before anyone spends money on lawyers. That regulatory history from the builder's side is covered at does Texas license homebuilders.

What is the sequence, and what is the clock on each step?

1. Give written notice by certified mail, at least 60 days before filing suit. Describe the defects in reasonable detail. This is the step everything else hangs on, so send it certified with return receipt requested and keep the green card. Chapter 27 is written to reach arbitration as well as a lawsuit, so do not assume an arbitration clause in your contract lets you skip it — confirm that with your attorney.
2. Provide access for inspection within the contractor's 35-day window. Within 35 days of receiving your notice, the contractor may inspect the property to determine the nature and cause of the defect and the nature and extent of repairs necessary. You are expected to give reasonable access. Refusing it can be used against you on damages, so let them in, and be present with your own documentation.
3. Wait out the 45-day offer window. Within 45 days of receiving your notice, the contractor may make a written settlement offer. The offer may be money, repairs, or both, and a repair offer should identify who will do the work and when it will be done.
4. Respond to any offer in writing. This is where homeowners get hurt. If you reject an offer and a court later finds it was reasonable, your recovery can be limited to roughly the value of what you turned down, plus the fees and costs you had incurred before you rejected it. Rejecting a serious offer out of frustration is an expensive decision, and it is one to make with counsel rather than at the kitchen table.
5. File after the 60 days have run, if the matter is unresolved. If no offer comes, or the offer does not address the problem, suit or arbitration proceeds once the statutory period has elapsed.

What happens if you file first and send notice later?

The case gets abated. Chapter 27 provides that an action filed without the required notice is subject to abatement — the proceeding pauses, on the other side's motion, until the notice period has run. It is not a dismissal and it does not destroy the claim, but it costs you months, it costs you fees, and it starts the relationship with the judge on the wrong foot. Send the notice first. It is one certified letter.

What should you do in the first week you notice a problem?

1. Photograph and date everything, including wide shots that establish location, not just close-ups of the crack.
2. Write down when you first saw it and what has changed since. A dated log is worth more than a memory two years later.
3. Submit it through the builder's warranty channel exactly as the warranty document requires, and keep the submission confirmation.
4. Keep every response in writing. If someone tells you something useful on the phone, follow up with an email summarizing it.
5. Do not tear it out and repair it yourself before the builder has had a chance to inspect. Destroying the evidence and the opportunity to cure is the fastest way to weaken a real claim.
6. If it is structural, plumbing under slab, or water intrusion, get an independent licensed engineer's report early. It costs money and it is usually the difference between a complaint and a claim.

Is it a defect, or is it within tolerance?

This is the fight in most disputes, and it is decided by the performance standards in your written warranty rather than by what looks wrong to you. Warranties commonly define an allowable deflection across a span, an allowable crack width, an allowable slope in a floor. A condition inside the stated tolerance is not a warranty defect no matter how much it bothers you, and a condition outside it is a defect even if the builder's representative shrugs at it. Find those tables in your warranty and measure against them before you decide how hard to push. If you have not read the warranty yet, start at how long a new home is covered in Texas.

How long do you have?

Two separate limits apply and you need both. The first is the outside deadline in Civil Practice and Remedies Code §16.009, the statute of repose, which runs from substantial completion regardless of when the defect appeared — and which House Bill 2024, 88th Legislature, effective June 9, 2023, shortened from ten years to six for most detached homes and qualifying townhouses where the builder gave the specified written warranties. The second is whatever limitations period applies to the particular claim you are bringing, which Chapter 16 of the same code sets and which can be shorter.

Both clocks can run out while you are still politely exchanging emails with a warranty coordinator. That is the single most common way a legitimate claim dies in Texas: not a bad outcome in court, but a good claim raised too late because the homeowner kept waiting for the next callback. Being patient with the builder and preserving your deadlines are not the same activity, and you can do both at once. The full explanation of the repose change is at our page on the six-year repose period.

What does Chapter 27 not do?

It does not decide whether you win. It does not force a builder to make an offer — the 45-day provision says the contractor may make one, not must. It does not cover every dispute you might have with a builder; it reaches claims arising from construction defects in a residence, and whether a particular grievance fits is a legal question. And it does not replace your contract. If your purchase agreement contains a dispute-resolution clause, a venue clause, or an arbitration provision, those still apply on their own terms — which is one more reason to read the contract before you sign it rather than after something goes wrong. See how a builder's contract differs from a TREC form.

If you are on the other side of this — a builder or developer trying to structure a program that avoids these disputes rather than litigating them — that is covered at what a development sales partnership delivers.

How we sourced this

Written from Texas Property Code Chapter 27, the Residential Construction Liability Act, and from Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §16.009 as amended by House Bill 2024, 88th Legislature, effective June 9, 2023. The abolition of the Texas Residential Construction Commission effective September 1, 2010 follows the 2009 Sunset review. Verified August 2026 and current as of that date. Statutes change and courts interpret them; confirm the current text before you rely on it. This is general information, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines in this area are unforgiving. If you think you have a construction defect claim, talk to a Texas construction attorney now rather than after the next warranty appointment.

The Agency Dallas is independently owned and operated by Damon & Megan Williamson. Damon Williamson, Broker-Owner · Licensed Real Estate Agent, State of Texas. Dallas, Dallas County, Texas 75225. Equal Housing Opportunity. Texas Real Estate Commission Information About Brokerage Services and Consumer Protection Notice are available at trec.texas.gov. This is not intended as a solicitation of property currently listed for sale.