2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB72
SB72 extends Texas’s private-passenger rental-car law to agreements of up to 180 days and requires refunds of certain unused damage-waiver charges.
Official caption: Relating to the regulation of private passenger vehicle rental companies.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Zaffirini. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- SB72 extends Texas’s private-passenger rental-car law to agreements of up to 180 days and requires refunds of certain unused damage-waiver charges.
- The bill changes the time limit in Chapter 91’s definitions of “rental agreement” and “rental company” from 30 days to 180 days.
- A damage waiver is the rental company’s agreement not to hold an authorized driver responsible for all or part of damage to the vehicle.
- A company must refund waiver charges for a period beyond the number of calendar days the waiver was in effect when the renter returns the vehicle early.
What does it do?
SB72 extends Texas’s private-passenger rental-car law to agreements of up to 180 days and requires refunds of certain unused damage-waiver charges. Signed May 27, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025. The changes apply only to agreements entered into on or after that date; earlier agreements remain under the prior law. Official history; final law.
The bill changes the time limit in Chapter 91’s definitions of “rental agreement” and “rental company” from 30 days to 180 days. It keeps the exception for businesses licensed under Occupations Code Chapter 2301 whose primary business is not renting private passenger vehicles. It does not impose a 180-day limit on every kind of vehicle lease.
A damage waiver is the rental company’s agreement not to hold an authorized driver responsible for all or part of damage to the vehicle. It is optional and is not insurance. Statutory definition; Existing consumer notice.
A company must refund waiver charges for a period beyond the number of calendar days the waiver was in effect when the renter returns the vehicle early. The same refund duty applies when the renter cancels the waiver before the anticipated return date and the company confirms that the vehicle was not damaged before cancellation. That no-prior-damage confirmation is a condition of the cancellation provision, not an additional condition written into the early-return provision. The law concerns damage-waiver charges, not an automatic refund of every rental fee.
What changed along the way?
The introduced, Senate committee and engrossed texts required a pro-rata damage-waiver refund from the date of an early vehicle return. The House committee substitute replaced that wording with the calendar-days-in-effect calculation and added the cancellation route with the company’s no-prior-damage confirmation. Text versions; Senate-passed version; House substitute.
The House committee and final operative texts match. There are no indexed floor amendments; the House substitute was the change accepted by the Senate on May 12. The 180-day definitions, prospective-agreement rule and September 1 effective date remained throughout. Amendment index; Final text.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
The latest posted fiscal note, April 25, 2025 for the House substitute, anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact and assumes state costs and revenue effects would be insignificant. Earlier notes reach the same broad conclusion. This is a government-budget estimate, not a prediction that renters or companies face no financial change. Latest fiscal note.
Eligible renters gain a right to recover excess waiver charges, and rentals lasting 31–180 days come within the chapter’s expanded definitions. Rental companies must account for waiver days, process qualifying refunds and confirm the vehicle’s condition for the cancellation route. The bill does not set a specific refund-processing deadline, cap waiver prices or quantify consumer savings, company costs or future rental prices. Refund conditions and scope.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
