Sliding door locks in a Texas rental: what the Property Code says

The short answer

In Texas, a rented home with a sliding glass door to the outside must have two kinds of security device on that door, and the landlord pays for them. Texas Property Code Section 92.153 (last amended effective January 1, 1996) requires:

"(3) a sliding door pin lock on each exterior sliding glass door of the dwelling;"

"(4) a sliding door handle latch or a sliding door security bar on each exterior sliding glass door of the dwelling"

Section 92.153(c) adds: "A security device required by Subsection (a) or (b) must be installed at the landlord's expense." During the lease, the landlord also has to repair or replace a device that stops working, once the tenant asks.

Every statement on this page about the law is quoted or summarized from the Texas Legislature's own text of Property Code Chapter 92, opened on October 20, 2026, or from the Texas Attorney General's Renter's Rights page, opened the same day. The section dates given below are from the history notes printed with each section.

Check before you act. This page is not legal advice. The code has exceptions this page does not cover. A written lease can affect some steps: Section 92.159 lets it require requests in writing if that requirement is underlined or in bold. But Section 92.006(a) says a landlord's duty or a tenant's remedy concerning security devices under Subchapter D "may not be waived." The Attorney General calls the rental agreement "the most important source of information about your relationship with your landlord." Read it first. For a question about a specific home, ask a lawyer.

The three sliding-door devices

Subchapter D, the part of Chapter 92 on security devices, defines each device in Section 92.151 (last amended effective September 1, 1999):

• Sliding door pin lock: "a lock on a sliding glass door that consists of a pin or nail inserted from the interior side of the door at the side opposite the door's handle and that is designed to prevent the door from being opened or lifted."
• Sliding door handle latch: a latch or lock "located near the handle on a sliding glass door," "operated with or without a key," and "designed to prevent the door from being opened."
• Sliding door security bar: "a bar or rod that can be placed at the bottom of or across the interior side of the fixed panel of a sliding glass door and that is designed to prevent the door from being opened."

So every exterior sliding glass door needs a pin lock. It also needs either a handle latch or a security bar. The table above sets them side by side.

The dead bolt rules are written for a different door. Section 92.153 requires a doorknob lock or keyed dead bolt, a keyless bolting device, and a door viewer on "each exterior door." Section 92.151(3) says an "exterior door" includes a door between a living area and a garage "but does not include a sliding glass door or a screen door." The code lists the sliding-door devices separately.

Hinged patio doors are not sliding doors. Section 92.151(4) defines "French doors" as two hinged exterior doors that abut when closed, and says the term "includes double-hinged patio doors." Section 92.153(b) sets separate rules for them. This page covers sliding glass doors only.

Height. Section 92.155 (amended effective September 1, 1993) says a required pin lock or security bar must be installed "not higher than" 48 inches from the floor if installed on or after September 1, 1993, or 54 inches if installed before. It sets no height for a handle latch.

Which rentals it covers

Section 92.152 (last amended effective January 1, 1996) lists the dwellings it applies to. They include a single family house, duplex, or triplex, a mobile home, a room in a dormitory or rooming house, and "a living unit in an apartment, condominium, cooperative, or townhome project." It does not apply to a room in a hotel, motel, or inn or similar transient housing, to housing run by an accredited college, university, or preparatory school, or to a stay of no more than 90 days tied to a home sale before or after closing.

The requirements in Section 92.153(a) and (b) "apply only when a tenant is in possession of a dwelling." Section 92.153(h) adds that a required device "must be operable throughout the time a tenant is in possession of a dwelling."

Who counts as the landlord. Section 92.151(7) defines "landlord" as "a dwelling owner, lessor, sublessor, management company, or managing agent, including an on-site manager." Section 92.169 makes a managing agent, or an agent to whom rent is regularly paid, the landlord's agent for notices under the subchapter.

Repairs during the lease

Section 92.158 (amended effective September 1, 1993) says:

"During the lease term and any renewal period, a landlord shall repair or replace a security device on request or notification by the tenant that the security device is inoperable or in need of repair or replacement."

How fast. Section 92.161(a) (added effective September 1, 1993) says the landlord must comply "within a reasonable time," and that a reasonable time "is presumed to be not later than the seventh day after the date the request is received by the landlord." Under Section 92.161(c), the presumption is 72 hours after the landlord receives the request and any required advance payment, if the tenant told the landlord, when making the request, that an unauthorized entry occurred or was attempted in the tenant's dwelling, that one occurred or was attempted in another unit in the complex in the two months before the request, or that a crime of personal violence occurred in the complex in that time. Section 92.161(d) lets a landlord rebut the presumption in Subsection (a) or (b) in some cases, such as when materials, labor, or utilities were unavailable despite the landlord's diligence.

How to ask. Section 92.159 says a tenant's request "may be given orally" unless a written lease requires it in writing and that requirement "is underlined or in boldfaced print in the lease."

Who pays for a repair. Section 92.162(a) (added effective September 1, 1993) says: "A landlord may not require a tenant to pay for repair or replacement of a security device due to normal wear and tear." Under Section 92.162(b), a landlord may charge for a repair needed because of misuse or damage by the tenant, a family member, an occupant, or a guest, but only if "an underlined provision in a written lease" authorizes it. The same subsection presumes that misuse or damage during the tenancy was caused by one of those people, and puts on the tenant the burden of proving another party caused it.

The Attorney General's page puts the core of it in plain words: the devices "must be installed at the landlord's expense. If such devices are missing or are defective, you have the right to request their installation or repair."

Who chooses the hardware, and who may change it

Section 92.160 lets the landlord "select the type, brand, and manner of installation, including placement," of a device installed under the subchapter, except where the subchapter says otherwise. Section 92.163 makes an installed device "a fixture of the dwelling," and says a tenant may not remove, change, rekey, replace, or alter it without the landlord's permission, except under the repair-and-deduct remedy in Sections 92.164(a)(1) and 92.165(1).

If a landlord does not comply

Sections 92.164 and 92.165 list what a tenant may do when a landlord does not install, repair, or replace a required device as the subchapter requires. Sections 92.1641 and 92.167 list a landlord's defenses, and Section 92.166 sets the notice a tenant gives when deducting a repair cost from rent. The steps, notices, and time limits differ by section and turn on the facts. This page does not summarize them. Read the sections themselves, and talk to a lawyer before acting on them.

Checking the sliding doors you manage

Four questions to start with for each exterior sliding glass door:

1. Is there a pin lock?
2. Is there a handle latch or a security bar?
3. Do they work? A device has to be operable for the whole time a tenant is in possession.
4. Is the pin lock or security bar no higher than the height in Section 92.155?

A required device that is missing is a different case from one that needs repair. Section 92.157(c) covers a security device that Section 92.153 required to be installed on or after January 1, 1995, without a tenant's request: if the landlord has not installed it, the tenant may ask the landlord to install it immediately, and the landlord "shall immediately install it at the landlord's expense." For a device the code required before that date, the subsection does not apply as written. The seven-day presumption in Section 92.161 is a timing rule for a tenant's request to repair, replace, rekey, change or install a device; the next paragraph quotes the subsection that keeps it away from the landlord's own duty to install. Section 92.161, including its seven-day presumption, "does not apply to a landlord's duty to install or rekey, without necessity of a tenant's request, a security device under Section 92.153 or 92.156(a)" (Sec. 92.161(e)).

Write what you find on the door record card, one card per door, but keep lock problems and anything that would help someone open the door from outside off the card. Put them in your work-order system instead.

This page does not explain how to install, drill for, or adjust any of these devices. Do not lift or remove a sliding panel to work on a lock. JELD-WEN's vinyl patio door guide marks "Operating Panel Removal" and "Fixed Panel Removal" as "For Professionals Only."

When the latch is the problem

A handle latch that will not catch is not always a broken latch. The locks and handles page explains that many lock problems are alignment problems: if the door has dropped or the keeper has loosened, the hook can miss the keeper. It also explains how to tell the two apart, and the alignment page covers a panel that rubs, sits crooked, or whose latch misses the keeper. A panel that drags or sits crooked may also have worn rollers, which the roller repair page covers. If you are writing up a repair, the photo guide lists what to photograph and what to leave out.

For a non-urgent lock or latch repair in Plano, Allen, McKinney, or Frisco, describe the door and what the lock does on the contact page. The operator reviews every inquiry and replies with the next step. Sending the form is not a booking. This site cannot dispatch anyone: if a door will not lock tonight, contact a local locksmith or door service directly.