You bought the house from a man. Not a bank, not a title company — a man, who owned it and agreed to sell it to you directly.
Maybe there was a contract typed up on somebody’s computer. Maybe it was a page and a half, signed at a kitchen table. He said once it was paid off, you’d get the deed.
So you paid. Every month, for years. You’ve got a shoebox of money order stubs, or a notebook where somebody wrote down each payment. You put a roof on it. You raised kids in it. You’ve paid the taxes as long as you can remember.
And you don’t have a deed.
Something before anything else, because of how often people carry this one around: you did not do something stupid, and you are not the only one. These arrangements are common across the South Side, the West Side, and a lot of South Texas, and have been for generations. Texas wrote law specifically about them because so many families are in this position.
Nick Disney. I buy houses in San Antonio, and I’ve sat across from more than one family in this spot. Here’s what the law actually says you’re owed.
What You Have Is Called an Executory Contract
That’s the legal name — lawyers also call it a contract for deed. The structure is: the seller keeps legal title and hands over the deed only when you finish paying.
Texas regulates these under Property Code Chapter 5, Subchapter D. The rules generally apply when the property is residential, is used as the buyer’s residence, and the contract runs longer than 180 days.
The legislature wrote those rules because the old version of this arrangement went badly for buyers in a specific way: you could pay for fifteen years, miss a couple of payments, and lose everything — not just the house but every dollar you’d put in — because technically you were never an owner, just a person with a contract.
Texas changed that. The protections below are real and they’re yours.
What the Law Says You’re Owed
You can demand the deed right now. Not at the end — now. Under Section 5.081, a buyer under one of these contracts is entitled, at any time and without paying penalties or charges of any kind, to convert their interest into recorded, legal title. This works whether or not the seller ever recorded the contract. You tender a promissory note for what’s still owed, on the same terms as the contract, and the seller executes a deed to you. You go from “person making payments” to “owner with a mortgage,” which is a completely different legal position.
The seller was supposed to record the contract. Section 5.076 requires it, within a short window after signing. Many sellers never did. That failure is on them, not you, and it doesn’t erase your rights.
The seller owes you an annual accounting. Section 5.077 requires a yearly statement showing what you’ve paid and what’s left. Never received one in twenty years? That’s a violation.
When you finish paying, the deed has a deadline. Section 5.079 requires the seller to transfer recorded legal title within 30 days of your final payment, and attaches real penalties when they don’t.
The seller had to actually own it free and clear. Section 5.085 bars a seller from entering one of these contracts if they don’t own the property in fee simple, free of liens. If there was a mortgage on the house the whole time you were paying, that’s a serious problem — with the seller, not with you.
And there’s equity protection. Once you’ve paid a meaningful share of the price or made enough payments, Texas stops treating a default like a tenant eviction and requires a foreclosure process instead. That provision exists specifically to prevent the “miss two payments, lose twenty years” outcome.
Before You Call Me, Call Them
I buy houses. I am not the right first call here, and it would be a disservice to pretend otherwise.
Two organizations in this city handle exactly this, and for families who qualify financially the help is free or close to it.
San Antonio Legal Services Association works deed and county-records problems — changing or adding a name on a deed, removing a deceased relative’s name, transferring a parent’s deed, dealing with a fraudulent deed or lien. Start at their intake page. There are income qualifications.
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid covers housing, foreclosure, and property matters across this region, also based on income eligibility.
Worth knowing about a third: Caritas Legal Services, through Catholic Charities, also handles property deed work in San Antonio.
Call before you do anything else. Bring whatever you have — the contract if there is one, payment records, money order stubs, tax statements in your name, utility bills, anything showing you’ve been the one living there and paying. Documentation of what actually happened matters enormously here, and none of it has to be pretty.
If a lawyer can get the deed into your name, you own a house. That’s worth more than anything I could offer you for a piece of paper.
When the Seller Is Gone
This gets harder, and it’s extremely common after twenty years.
The man you bought from has died. Or the company dissolved. Or nobody has an address for him and his kids know nothing about a house on the South Side.
It’s still solvable, but the path changes. You may be dealing with his estate, which means his heirs have to be identified before anyone can sign a deed — which is its own problem, and one I’ve written about: when a house is still in a dead person’s name.
Two things that help enormously: a long record of paying the taxes in your own name, and continuous occupancy nobody disputes. Both are facts a court can work with.
Do not let the difficulty talk you out of starting. The longer it sits, the more people have to be found.
What Ms. Hartin’s House Taught Me
Ms. Hartin owned a property on Congress Street, on the South Side. It was in rough shape, and underneath the condition there were title problems that had been sitting for a long time.
By the time we talked, she had decided the house was finished. Not worth fixing. Probably had to come down.
It didn’t come down. The house got repaired, and it sold — we buy houses in that condition regularly, and “past saving” is almost always somebody’s guess rather than a finding.
I think about her when someone tells me their situation is hopeless, because hers wasn’t — it just looked that way from inside it. A paperwork problem left alone for years looks exactly like a dead end. It usually isn’t. It’s a problem nobody has sat down and worked through yet.
If You Do Get Title, Then You Have Options
Once the deed is in your name you own an asset. You can stay. You can borrow against it. You can leave it to your kids with a clean chain of title so they aren’t reading this same post in thirty years.
Or you can sell it, to whoever you want, and keep what it’s actually worth.
I’d be glad to be one of the people you talk to at that point. I’d just rather you get there first.
I’m not an attorney and nothing here is legal advice. The statutes have been amended more than once, and your facts matter. Please talk to a lawyer about your specific situation.
Questions People Ask Me About This
Q: I’ve paid for years but have no deed. Do I own the house? A: Not in the way you need. You have contract rights, which are real and enforceable, but legal title is still in the seller’s name. Texas gives you a right to convert that into recorded title, and that’s the step to take.
Q: The man I bought from died. Now what? A: It’s still workable, but his heirs generally have to be identified before anyone can sign a deed. Start with legal aid, and bring your payment and tax records.
Q: Can they take the house back over one late payment? A: Texas law limits that considerably, especially once you’ve paid a meaningful portion of the price or made enough payments. If anyone has threatened this, talk to a lawyer immediately rather than moving out.
Q: How do I get the deed put in my name? A: Texas Property Code Section 5.081 gives a buyer the right to convert the contract into recorded, legal title at any time, without penalties or charges, whether or not the contract was ever recorded. An attorney can walk you through what to tender and what the seller must sign.
Q: I only have a handwritten agreement. Is that enough? A: Bring it. Bring everything else too — payment records, tax statements, utility bills in your name. Documentation of what actually happened matters a great deal here, and it doesn’t have to be pretty.
Q: Can I sell a house I don’t have a deed to? A: Not cleanly, because a title company has to be able to insure the sale. Clearing title comes first. Any buyer who tells you otherwise is not being straight with you.
Twenty years of payments is not nothing. It’s the biggest thing most families ever do, and the fact that the paperwork never got finished doesn’t undo it.
Make one phone call this week — to Texas RioGrande Legal Aid or the San Antonio Legal Services Association — and find out what it takes to put your name on the deed to the house you’ve already paid for.
If you get there and decide you’d rather sell than stay, we’ll talk then, or you can reach us any time at (210) 201-6644. But get your name on it first.