When must a Texas property-entry request or motion be served?

Identify the designated property, its ownership and the desired inspection or testing.

Establish the discovery endpoint and any applicable inspection or hearing order.

Select the party request or nonparty motion and hearing-notice procedure, including every required recipient.

1. Identify the designated property, its ownership and the desired inspection or testing.
2. The thirty-day-before-discovery-end service limit applies to the specified request or motion and notice. It does not create an automatic entry date. The party response and any nonparty hearing or entry order have separate requirements.
3. Read any signed order and establish the actual required act, recipients and completion method.
4. Check closed days without silently shortening the required interval.

These periods exceed five days, so Rule 4’s exclusion of intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays for short periods does not apply. Do not move a latest date forward toward trial, a hearing or discovery closure merely because the nominal date is closed. That can leave less than the required lead time. Check Rule 4, the controlling order and actual court calendar. This source guide applies no automatic backward closed-day adjustment and supplies no computed last date.

Complete actual service under the applicable rule. Rule 21a distinguishes permitted service methods from filing. Electronic service completes on transmission to the serving party’s electronic filing service provider. Fax received after 5 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone is deemed served the next day. The three-day qualifying-mail addition in Rule 21a(c) concerns a prescribed period after service, not an automatic addition to a backward trial or discovery limit. Preserve recipients, method and completion evidence.

The combined preset cannot select the ownership branch, required motion and hearing, inspection terms or actual court authorization. It also does not resolve a backward closed-day last date. This guide explains the complete procedure without a computed result.

Party property

Rule 196.7(a)(1) uses a request on all parties. Under (c)(1), the ordinary written response is due thirty days after service, with fifty days for its Family Code early-service defendant branch.

Nonparty property

Rule 196.7(a)(2) requires a motion and hearing notice served on all parties and the nonparty. Under (d), an entry order requires good cause and property relevant to the action’s subject matter.

Inspection specifics

The party request or nonparty order must state time, place, manner, conditions and scope, and specifically describe the testing or sampling procedure and persons performing it.

Unknown nonparty identity or address

If reasonable diligence cannot obtain the nonparty’s identity or address, Rule 196.7(a)(2) requires the court to permit other reasonably calculated notice means. A requester cannot simply omit notice.

• This guide does not establish the actual discovery endpoint, hearing or trial setting, service validity, court calendar or terms of an order.
• A timing explanation does not establish discovery compliance or permission to take the requested action.

• Identify the designated property, its ownership and the desired inspection or testing.
• Establish the discovery endpoint and any applicable inspection or hearing order.
• Select the party request or nonparty motion and hearing-notice procedure, including every required recipient.
• Rule 196.7(a)(1) uses a request on all parties. Under (c)(1), the ordinary written response is due thirty days after service, with fifty days for its Family Code early-service defendant branch.
• Rule 196.7(a)(2) requires a motion and hearing notice served on all parties and the nonparty. Under (d), an entry order requires good cause and property relevant to the action’s subject matter.
• The party request or nonparty order must state time, place, manner, conditions and scope, and specifically describe the testing or sampling procedure and persons performing it.
• If reasonable diligence cannot obtain the nonparty’s identity or address, Rule 196.7(a)(2) requires the court to permit other reasonably calculated notice means. A requester cannot simply omit notice.
• For party property, serve the request on all parties. For nonparty property, serve the motion and hearing notice on all parties and the nonparty. Motions and responses must be filed under Rule 191.4(b); a party discovery request ordinarily need not be filed under Rule 191.4(a), subject to its exceptions. Preserve the actual hearing order and the authorized inspection conditions. Do not treat a date calculation as permission to enter.