·Eviction Wizard Team
Pay only when you file: how eviction tooling billing should work
Pay when you file eviction tooling should let you assemble the notice, the petition packet, and the court routing at no charge, then collect a per-case Document Organizer fee only when you authorize the suit. The $149 organizer fee is not a court filing fee, a process-server invoice, or an attorney retainer; those stay on separate lines. A monthly seat that runs in months you never file is a property-management bill, not an eviction-case bill.
Eviction Wizard helps landlords organize eviction documents, submit through the court's e-filing system, request a process server, and track every deadline — in one dashboard. Eviction Wizard AI Partners, LLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
Key takeaways
- Build the case file first. Pay the Document Organizer fee when you authorize filing, not when you upload a lease or draft a notice.
- The organizer fee is $149 per case. Founding members lock $149 for life. Court fees and third-party fees are separate and should appear before you approve them.
- Property-management (PM) suites bill for ongoing operations. An eviction is episodic: many notice files never become a sworn petition.
- You remain the filer. Paying $149 does not make the vendor the plaintiff, the lawyer, or the court.
- In Texas, filing is a late step. Written notice, a counted notice period, and a sworn petition come first under the 2026 rules.
- Typical attorney fees are commonly reported at $1,500–$3,000 (sometimes cited $1,500–$5,000). Typical eviction-service invoices are often cited around $475 — market observations, not bids.
Contents
- Why the bill should attach to filing, not to signup
- Subscription PM suites vs a per-case organizer fee
- What a $149 fee at file should cover
- How to build the case file before you pay
- When file is the billing trigger under the 2026 Texas rules
- Court fees and third-party invoices stay separate
- How Eviction Wizard handles this
- How to compare eviction-tool billing before you subscribe
- Frequently asked questions
- The honest bottom line
Why the bill should attach to filing, not to signup
An eviction is a sequence, not a login. The spine is notice, deliver, notice period, file, citation, hearing, judgment, appeal, writ, then possession. Filing is the fourth stage. Billing that ignores that order charges you for work the court may never see.
Landlords start more files than they file. A tenant pays after the notice. A tenant leaves during the notice period. Counsel says the facts are not routine nonpayment. The county is not live for electronic filing. A drafted notice still has value as a record. It does not have value as a court filing. A vendor that charges at account creation bills the abandoned file the same as the suit.
Pay when you file eviction tools treat authorization as the commercial event. You upload the lease. You confirm tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates. You choose a notice and record delivery. You wait out the notice period. You review a petition packet. You pay the organizer fee when you send that packet to the court — and not before.
The organizer's job does not end at the clerk's stamp. Citation, hearing, judgment, appeal, and writ still have to live on the same case file. A checkout that sells a PDF and walks away is a form sale. A subscription that never opens a writ reminder is a rent ledger with a notice button.
If you never authorize submission to the court's e-filing system, the organizer fee should not have been collected. If you do authorize it, the $149 line is the software charge; the court and any third party invoice separately. For the itemized defense of that $149 line, read eviction software pricing.
Subscription PM suites vs a per-case organizer fee
Property-management software earns its monthly fee. A PM suite holds units, leases, ledgers, owner statements, and maintenance tickets. Praise it for that work. Do not confuse a rent roll with an eviction case file.
Eviction depth in a PM suite is often a notice action and a status flag. The product may generate a letter, mark the unit "in eviction," and return you to the ledger. The Justice of the Peace (JP) precinct, the sworn petition, the e-filing envelope, the citation clock, the appeal window, and the writ request commonly live somewhere else — a form site, a clerk portal, an attorney thread, a spreadsheet. You already paid the seat. You still assemble the case.
That is a category boundary, not a defect. Operations software is priced per month because operations run every month. Eviction tooling is priced per case because a case is a discrete lawsuit. Mixing the two invoices is how landlords think they "already have eviction" and still miss a precinct or a writ.
Form-fillers charge at download. You leave with a PDF; if the tenant cures, you still paid. DIY guides are usually free and expensive in hours.
Use the table as a billing filter, not a score of any named vendor.
| Billing model | When money moves | What you typically buy | What you still pay later |
|---|---|---|---|
| PM suite subscription | Monthly, per door, or per seat | Ledgers, units, maybe a notice button | Court, servers, counsel, and the rest of the case file |
| Form-filler checkout | When you download a PDF | A form, not a lifecycle | Filing, service, hearing prep, writ |
| DIY guide | Usually $0 | Instruction | Your hours, kickbacks, and every fee |
| Attorney retainer | Up front and often hourly | Advice, strategy, appearances | Court and third-party costs the firm does not advance |
| Eviction-service invoice | Package price (often cited around $475) | Someone else running steps | Whatever the package excluded |
| Per-case organizer at file | When you authorize filing | Packet, authorized e-file, deadline tracking | Court fees and third-party fees, shown separately |
A PM subscription can be the right bill for the portfolio. It is the wrong default bill for a single forcible-detainer suit. For operations suite versus dedicated case workflow, see PM software vs eviction tools. Bulk filing, team seats, and portfolio guardrails are coming; they are not live. Do not buy a monthly add-on on "eviction is included" unless the vendor can show the notice-to-writ spine, name the filer, and separate court invoices from the software invoice.
What a $149 fee at file should cover
Price confusion is how landlords buy a PDF and think they bought a filing. The Document Organizer fee is $149 per case. Founding members lock $149 for life. As of 2026, that is the waitlist price for the organizer, not a bundled "eviction, including the court."
What $149 is built to cover is the organizer work: state-specific notice options populated for your review; a filing packet formatted from court form templates; submission to the court's e-filing system that you review, confirm, and authorize (you remain the filer); tracking through service, hearing, judgment, appeal, and writ; and deadline alerts at each of those stages.
What $149 is not: the JP filing fee; an e-filing service fee charged by the portal; constable or sheriff citation service; a process-server invoice for notice delivery; a writ fee; or attorney advice, optional completeness review, or representation at the hearing.
Those exclusions are the point of pay when you file eviction billing, not a footnote. If a vendor advertises one number that "covers everything," ask which court, which county, which server, and which attorney they have prepaid. Courts, servers, and attorneys set their own fees. Software cannot honestly swallow those lines.
Typical attorney fees for an eviction are commonly reported at $1,500–$3,000, and some public comparisons cite $1,500–$5,000. Typical eviction-service companies are often cited around $475. A $149 organizer fee sits next to those figures as a different purchase: documents and workflow, not counsel. If a competitor is cheaper than $149 and stops when the PDF hits the printer, you are not comparing the same stage. If a competitor is more expensive and appears in court, you are comparing representation. Both can be rational. The longer eviction software pricing article pressure-tests the $149 line item by item.
How to build the case file before you pay
The free-build path is the practical meaning of the billing rule. You should turn a lease into a reviewed packet without a card charge. The fields that must be right are tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates.
Work the file in this order.
- Collect the source documents. Pull the signed lease, addenda that change rent or occupants, and the payment ledger.
- Confirm tenant name. Use the name as it appears on the lease, including every adult tenant you intend to name.
- Confirm property address. Street, unit, city, and county. In Texas, a precinct / JP helper may propose a court from that address — based on the information you provided, not as a guarantee.
- Confirm rent amount. Monthly rent and the unpaid period. If the ledger and the lease disagree, fix that before a form repeats it.
- Confirm lease dates. Start date, end date, and whether the tenancy continued month-to-month.
- Upload the lease. Extraction should place tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates into the selected forms for review. The upload is a draft, not a filing and not a charge.
- Edit before you proceed. Correct spelling, add missed occupants, remove a rent figure from another unit. Extraction is a clerk. You are the reviewer.
- Choose the notice, record delivery, and wait. Delivery proof, the notice-period clock, and the later petition should inherit the same four fields. Filing is not available the morning you print the notice. Check the lease. Consult a Texas attorney. Do not treat a software clock as legal advice.
- Pay when you authorize filing. Review the sworn petition, confirm the court, and authorize submission to the court's e-filing system. That is the $149 Document Organizer bill. Court and third-party amounts should appear beside it, not inside it.
Two failure modes show up constantly: paying a form site before you know you will file, and treating extraction as authority. You can stop after step 8 and never owe the organizer fee. The abandoned file still sits as a record. The court never sees it, and the $149 line never posts.
When file is the billing trigger under the 2026 Texas rules
"File" is a legal act with a date, a court, and a sworn petition. It is not "I started a draft." Under Texas SB 38 (89th Legislature) and rewritten Rule 510 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, eviction suits filed on or after January 1, 2026 follow Texas Property Code Chapter 24 as amended. This section reports those mechanics. It is not advice for any lease, property, or county.
| Stage before the $149 posts | What Chapter 24 / Rule 510 describe as of 2026 |
|---|---|
| Written notice | Section 24.005; default three days unless the lease sets another period; Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) 30-day notice still applies to covered properties |
| First unpaid-rent delinquency | Notice to pay rent or vacate required before a standard notice to vacate |
| Day count | Section 24.0042: exclude the trigger day; weekends/holidays count; last day on a weekend/holiday rolls to the next business day |
| Delivery methods listed | In-person to an occupant 16+, mail, conspicuous posting; electronic only if agreed in writing. This article does not say any method is sufficient |
| Sworn petition | Section 24.00505 initiates the suit |
| Venue | JP precinct of the property; wrong precinct is dismissed, not transferred |
Check the lease. Consult a Texas attorney before you treat a notice form, a delivery method, a day count, or a precinct as sufficient. A precinct helper that proposes a court from the property address is based on the information you provided. You confirm. It is not a guarantee. That sequence is why the organizer fee belongs at authorization, not at lease upload.
After you file, a sheriff or constable serves the court citation. Section 24.0051 gives a five-business-day window to attempt service. Do not conflate citation with the landlord's notice delivery. Trial is generally set 10 to 21 days after the petition is filed, subject to county practice. Appeals remain a five-day window; SB 38 adds a sworn good-faith affirmation — point questions to counsel. Summary disposition is for unauthorized occupancy and forcible entry only, not routine nonpayment. Only law enforcement executes a writ. Self-help lockouts and utility shutoffs are illegal. Uncontested Texas evictions are commonly reported from about three weeks to about 75 days depending on county and appeals — reported ranges, not a promise.
The billing point is narrower than the 2026 Texas eviction law changes: do not pay the organizer fee until you initiate that sworn petition, in the precinct you confirmed, after the notice work the statute describes.
Court fees and third-party invoices stay separate
If the software invoice swallows the court, you cannot tell what you paid the clerk. If it swallows the server, you cannot tell what you paid for attempts. If it swallows counsel, you cannot tell whether you hired a lawyer or a form. Keep the lines apart.
| Line item | Who typically invoices | Inside the $149 fee? | Commonly reported figure (hedged) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document Organizer | The software vendor | Yes — this is the $149 | $149 per case; founding members lock $149 for life |
| JP filing fee | The court / county | No | Commonly reported in the tens of dollars; confirm with that court |
| E-filing service fee | The portal or e-filing provider | No | Set by the provider; shown at checkout |
| Citation / constable service | County or authorized server | No | Combined filing-plus-service totals in Texas often reported roughly $100–$200+ — not a quote |
| Process server for notice delivery | The independent server you request | No | Varies by vendor and attempt |
| Writ of possession fee | The court / county | No | Commonly reported around $150–$200 |
| Attorney representation | The attorney you hire | No | Commonly $1,500–$3,000; sometimes cited $1,500–$5,000 |
| Eviction-service company | The service shop | No | Often cited around $475 |
| Optional packet review | The independent attorney | No | Set by that attorney; completeness, not representation, unless you hire for more |
Texas JP filing fees and writ fees vary by county. Treat every dollar in that table as a commonly reported figure, not a quote for your precinct. Confirm the current schedule with the court before you budget.
A process-server request in the organizer is a request to browse independent process servers and to track notice delivery from acceptance to proof of service. It does not replace constable citation service. The Attorney Directory lists independent attorneys, not employees or agents. Optional packet review is a completeness pass, not an appearance unless you hire that attorney directly.
You should see court and third-party amounts before you approve them. Launch is Texas first, county by county. Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada are next and are not live. The waitlist is the next step, not a charge.
How Eviction Wizard handles this
The product implements the rule the earlier sections describe. You build the case free. You pay the Document Organizer fee when you file. Court fees and third-party fees stay on their own lines and are shown before you approve them.
Upload the lease. The tool may extract tenant name, property address, rent amount, and lease dates into the forms you selected. You review and edit. Nothing in that extraction is a filing, and nothing in it is a $149 charge.
Enter the property address. For Texas properties, the helper proposes the precinct and JP court commonly associated with that location, including typical filing-fee context and e-filing portal information. The screen frames the result as based on the information you provided. You confirm the court. The helper is not a guarantee of venue.
When the packet is ready, you submit through the court's e-filing system from the same file. You review, confirm, and authorize. You remain the filer. The $149 Document Organizer fee is the software charge at that authorization. Case number and hearing information come back to the dashboard.
Request a process server from the same case file. Browse independent process servers. Track notice delivery from acceptance to proof of service. That request does not replace court-directed citation service, and the server's fee is not inside $149. If you want counsel, use the Attorney Directory. Those attorneys are independent. Optional attorney review of the packet is a completeness pass, not representation, and is not included in the organizer fee.
Tracking stays on after the stamp: citation, hearing, judgment, appeal, writ, possession. Founding members on the waitlist lock $149 per case for life. That lock is a price term, not a scarcity countdown. Property-manager bulk filing, team seats, and portfolio guardrails are coming; they are not live.
The product does not advise whether a notice method was sufficient or whether a precinct is correct. Check the lease. Consult a Texas attorney. Eviction Wizard AI Partners, LLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
How to compare eviction-tool billing before you subscribe
Before you put a card on a monthly eviction add-on, write the invoices you expect to see on one page. If the vendor cannot fill the blanks, you do not have a price. You have a slogan.
Ask when the software charge posts. Signup or the first of the month is a seat — rational for PM operations, the wrong default for a case you may never file. "When you authorize filing" is a per-case organizer. Ask who the filer is. If the vendor "files for you" in a way that makes them the plaintiff or sounds like counsel, ask for the workflow. The correct pattern is organize, format, present; you review; you confirm; you authorize. You remain the filer.
Ask what sits inside the software number — notice options for review, a packet from court templates, authorized e-filing, and tracking through writ — and what sits outside it: court filing fees, e-filing service fees, citation service, notice-server invoices, writ fees, and counsel. Those should be named, not implied. If the tenant pays or leaves and you already paid, you paid for a file the court will never see. If the product goes quiet after judgment, you still have an appeal window and, if you obtain a writ, a law-enforcement execution. Only officers execute the writ. Changing locks or shutting off utilities without that process is illegal.
Ask whether the vendor is live in your county. Texas is first, county by county. A waitlist is not a live filing path. Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada are roadmap states, not live. Bulk filing, team seats, and portfolio guardrails are coming.
Run those questions against the PM suite you already pay and a dedicated organizer. PM software vs eviction tools is the side-by-side for depth. This article is the side-by-side for the invoice date. The honest organizer answers "at file," "$149," and "court and third parties separate."
Frequently asked questions
What does pay when you file eviction actually mean?
It means you assemble the case file — lease fields, notice, delivery record, petition draft, and proposed court — without a software charge. The Document Organizer fee posts when you review, confirm, and authorize submission to the court's e-filing system. If you never authorize filing, the $149 line should not appear. Court and third-party fees are separate and show before you approve them.
Does the $149 Document Organizer fee include court fees?
No. The $149 fee covers notice options for your review, a filing packet from court form templates, e-filing you authorize, tracking through service, hearing, judgment, appeal, and writ, and deadline alerts. Justice of the Peace filing fees, e-filing service fees, citation service, process-server invoices, and writ fees are paid independently. Founding members lock $149 for life.
Do I pay if the tenant leaves or pays before I file?
You should not pay the Document Organizer fee if you never authorize filing. That is the point of a pay-at-file model. You may still owe a process server you already hired for notice delivery, and you still have whatever costs you incurred printing or mailing. Those are third-party costs, not the $149 organizer line.
Is paying $149 the same as hiring an eviction attorney?
No. Typical attorney fees are commonly reported at $1,500–$3,000, and sometimes cited at $1,500–$5,000, because counsel advises and appears. The organizer fee is for documents and workflow. Eviction Wizard AI Partners, LLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Use the Attorney Directory when you want an independent attorney.
What is founding-member pricing?
Founding members on the waitlist lock the $149 Document Organizer fee per case for life. It is a price lock, not a claim that filing is live in every Texas county. Launch is Texas first, county by county. Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada are next and are not live. Court fees and third-party fees remain separate after the lock.
The honest bottom line
Eviction tooling should bill like a case, not like a seat. Pay when you file eviction means a free build, a $149 Document Organizer fee at authorization, and court and third-party invoices on their own lines. PM subscriptions and form-filler checkouts can be the right tools for other jobs; they are the wrong default invoice for a sworn petition you may never send. If you want that billing rule on the waitlist, with founding members locking $149 for life, join the Eviction Wizard waitlist.
Next step
Build the case file before you file
Join the waitlist for Texas county-by-county launch. Court fees and third-party fees stay separate.