A filing is not a judgment
This difference decides a lot of applications, and most renters don’t know about it.
A filing means a landlord opened an eviction case in a justice court. That’s it. The case may have been dismissed, settled before hearing, decided in your favor, or never pursued.
A judgment means the court decided against you and issued an order.
Screening reports show both, and they don’t always make it easy to tell which is which. That’s why the first step is finding out what your record actually says, not what you think happened.
If you have a filing but no judgment, that’s a much better position than you may think, and it’s worth saying plainly when you apply. For more complicated files, start with second chance leasing.
Lookback windows
There’s no single Texas rule that properties follow. Each property sets its own window, commonly somewhere between three and seven years, and they vary in what they count:
| How the rule reads | What it means |
|---|---|
| Judgments only, 5 years | A dismissed filing doesn’t count |
| Any filing, 3 years | How the case ended doesn’t matter inside the window |
| Any filing, 7 years | The strictest common form |
| Individual review | Looks at how it ended, what you owe, and how long ago it was |
That variation is the whole opportunity. A filing from 2022 that was dismissed clears some Houston properties comfortably and is an automatic decline at others. Nothing about your file changed. Only the criteria did.
Resolve the balance if there is one
As with a broken lease, the money is what makes a decline stick. An unpaid balance reported to a screening bureau, plus any judgment amount, is what turns a maybe into a no.
Clear it if you can, get written confirmation, and bring that confirmation to the application. If you can’t clear it, a documented payment plan is a lot better than nothing. The steps are the same as renting after a broken lease.
Check whether the record can be sealed
Texas has no general process for sealing eviction case records, apart from a few rare situations. If your case was dismissed or decided in your favor, this is worth a conversation with a legal aid organization. Lone Star Legal Aid serves the Houston area. Don’t assume the record is permanent without asking.
Where the flexible buildings are
Older, locally managed communities. Most of Houston’s housing was built before 1990 (about 61% of city housing units, Census ACS 2020 to 2024). Those older buildings are more often locally owned. There, a manager reads the file rather than a scorecard reading it for them.
Criteria change fast, and a stale list costs you an application fee. So we share what we’re hearing about current criteria at the properties on your list.
What to bring
The record itself. Pull your own screening report so you know what’s on it and can correct any error before it costs you.
Proof of how it ended. A dismissal, a settlement, or proof of payment. Court records are available if you ask.
A short written explanation. What happened, what you did, and what’s changed. One paragraph, just the facts, without getting defensive.
Income cushion. Earning well above the income requirement gives a manager room to say yes.
A current landlord reference. If you’ve rented with no problems since, that’s the strongest thing you can bring.
The honest expectation
A recent judgment with an unpaid balance is genuinely difficult. We’ll say so rather than take you on a tour of properties that will decline you. An older filing, dismissed or paid, opens up a good share of Houston’s apartments.
Either way, the plan is the same: know what’s on the record, resolve what you can, ask for criteria in writing before spending anything. We’ll share what we’ve heard about each community along the way. We don’t guarantee approval. The goal is for you to know where you stand before you apply.