From KUT:
If you’re a renter in Texas and you fail to pay your rent, your landlord may have the legal right to enter your home and take your belongings. The clause, called a landlord’s lien, is standard language in many residential leases, but it can also apply to stores and restaurants that fall behind on rent.
AMLI Residential owns and manages luxury apartment complexes around the country. Many of those developments also rent space to restaurants and retail stores. Those are the tenants Jason Ricks works with.
“My job and the way I see it is, I’m making decisions like a landlord and how it’s going to affect the bottom line,” says Ricks, AMLI’s vice president of retail asset management.
Ricks works with commercial tenants in Texas that have leases which include a landlord’s lien, allowing the landlord to take possession of property and sell it to recoup money for unpaid rent. The process can be complicated with residential property because there are restrictions on what personal items a landlord can take. The rules are somewhat easier to navigate on the commercial side, Ricks says, because of the kind of property that’s being seized.