In February 2026, FEMA distributed draft Harris County flood maps that would substantially expand the county’s 100-year floodplain and place many thousands of additional homes within mapped flood-hazard areas. It’s the first major overhaul of the county’s flood maps in nearly 20 years, and it lands right on top of Senate Bill 2349, which reshaped how Texas landlords have to deliver flood notices as of September 1, 2025.
If you own rentals in Houston or Austin, the rules that apply before you sign a lease, during the tenancy, and after a flood have all shifted. The sections below walk through each stage in order so you can see where your process needs to change.
Flood compliance starts long before a tenant tours the property. It starts when you decide what you actually know about the address.
Harris County’s current regulatory maps still date to 2007, but the draft 2026 update tells you where FEMA thinks the risk sits today. The proposed map is the first comprehensive revision in nearly two decades, and residents can look up an address on the flood control district’s interactive tool. The draft carries no regulatory weight yet, but a smart landlord treats it as an early warning. If your rental is drifting into the expanded Special Flood Hazard Area, insurers, lenders, and tenants will catch up soon enough.
Austin owners don’t get a pass here either. The 2026 changes are Harris County–specific, but Texas law generally requires covered residential landlords to give prospective tenants a written notice stating whether the landlord is aware that the dwelling is in a 100-year floodplain and whether the dwelling has flooded during the previous five years.
Before you list, pull the following on every unit:
This is where most landlords are going to slip up in 2026, because the notice rules changed in a way that looks small on paper and is anything but. Under SB 2349, which took effect September 1, 2025, the required flood notice has to be in writing and the document containing it must be signed by both the landlord and the tenant.
As one industry breakdown of the bill notes, you can put the notice in a lease paragraph, add it as an addendum, or hand it over as a separate written document, but it has to be delivered at or before signing and everyone has to sign it. Short-term leases under 30 days and certain temporary occupancy tied to a sale are exempt.
The old habit of stapling a generic flood notice to the back of the lease and hoping the tenant read it is done. If a dispute lands in court, the judge is going to look for signatures on the actual notice document. Practical fixes to make now:
The next stage is the one nobody wants to think about. A named storm sits in the Gulf, or a spring stall parks over Central Texas, and suddenly your unit is the story.
Texas landlord-tenant law gives you specific duties the moment a rental becomes damaged. If the property is partially unusable, the tenant may be entitled to a rent reduction proportional to the loss of use. If it’s entirely unusable through no fault of the tenant, either party can terminate the lease.
Communication in the first 48 hours will decide how the rest of the claim goes. Get in writing when the tenant reported damage, when you inspected, and what interim housing arrangements were offered. Document with photos, dated. Keep utility shutoffs and vendor invoices in the same folder as the lease and the signed flood notice.
One thing to be careful about: your own flood policy almost certainly does not cover the tenant’s belongings. Standard renters insurance also typically excludes external flooding, so tenants who want that protection may need a separate flood policy or flood endorsement.
Once the water is gone, a different set of rules takes over, and this is where the tenant gains the upper hand.
Texas Property Code §92.0135 gives a tenant a specific termination remedy when a landlord failed to provide the required flood notice and the tenant later suffers substantial loss or damage to personal property from flooding. The tenant generally must give written termination notice no later than the 30th day after the loss or damage occurred. That remedy is separate from the casualty-loss rules that may apply when the dwelling itself becomes totally or partially unusable.
Security deposit disputes spike after every major storm event. A few things to keep straight:
The draft Harris County maps aren’t final. The process is expected to take at least two more years, although no final effective date has been established. That gap is a planning window, not a reason to stall.
If your Houston portfolio is on the wrong side of the new lines, three things are going to move before the maps become official: flood insurance quotes, lender escrow requirements at refinance, and tenant expectations about disclosure.
Austin owners face a milder version of the same pressure as the state legislature keeps returning to flood policy after every major event. Underwriting new acquisitions off the current effective map is going to look shortsighted the moment those preliminary FEMA maps get published for formal appeal.
For owners who would rather not track every legislative session and FEMA release cycle themselves, this is exactly the kind of compliance load the team at Green Residential is built to absorb.
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