Taylor, TX Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

Taylor adopted the 2018 International Property Maintenance Code by Sec. 18-81 (Ord. No. 2021-31), then amended several habitability sections. Sec. 3, replaced by Sec. 18-82(n), requires every owner or operator who furnishes heat to tenants under a lease, whether expressed or implied, to maintain at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit in habitable rooms, bathrooms, and toilet rooms. Two exceptions temper that floor: when the outdoor temperature drops below the winter design temperature set in the city Plumbing Code appendix, the heating system only has to run at full capacity rather than hit 68 degrees, and where the average monthly temperature runs above 30 degrees Fahrenheit, 65 degrees is the acceptable minimum.

Sec. 4, replaced by Sec. 18-82(o), extends a similar 65-degree floor to occupiable indoor workspaces while they are in use, aside from processing or storage areas needing special temperatures and spaces used for vigorous physical activity. Sec. 2, replaced by Sec. 18-82(p), backstops all of it: a person cannot occupy, or let another occupy, any premises that fails to meet the property maintenance code's requirements, reaching heat along with the code's other structural and sanitary standards. Because these are code amendments layered onto the adopted 2018 IPMC rather than a stand-alone ordinance, a renter with a cold apartment or an unsafe unit can point straight to Sec. 3 or Sec. 2, both effective under Ord. No. 2021-31, adopted October 14, 2021.