120 Days for Your Car, One Year for Your House
Read this first: the rule below is not law. TDI filed it as a proposal on 23 April 2026, it published in the Texas Register on 8 May 2026, and the earliest it could have been adopted was 7 June 2026. On 18 August 2026 we read TDI's own rules table and the Adoption Filed, Adoption Publishes and Effective Date columns for these sections are all empty. Anyone telling you Texas now gives you 120 days to demand appraisal on a car claim is quoting a proposal as if it were a rule. We are quoting the proposal, and saying so.
The comparison, which is the whole point
The proposed Division 4 implements Senate Bill 458 from the 89th Legislature. It writes two appraisal timetables into one document, and both clocks start at exactly the same event: the notice of acceptance or rejection of your claim required by Insurance Code § 542.056.
| Policy | Deadline to demand appraisal | Proposed section |
|---|---|---|
| Residential property | One year | 28 TAC § 5.9805(a)(1) |
| Personal automobile | 120 days | 28 TAC § 5.9806(a)(1) |
Same trigger, same rule, same agency, same day. One-third the window for the car, and not quite that: 120 days against 365 is a shade under a third.
The proposal does not explain the gap as a considered judgment about cars, and we are not going to invent a rationale for it. What we can say is what it means in practice: on a house, a policyholder who is unhappy with a settlement has four seasons to think about it, gather a second opinion and decide. On a car, they have four months, and most of a collision repair dispute happens inside the first six weeks while the vehicle is still in a shop.
The auto clock in full
If the rule is adopted as proposed, § 5.9806 is what a personal auto appraisal provision has to contain.
| Deadline | What must happen | Section |
|---|---|---|
| 120 days from the § 542.056 notice | Written demand for appraisal | 5.9806(a)(1) |
| 30 days from a lawsuit being filed | If suit is filed on the loss, the respondent's window to demand | 5.9806(a)(2) |
| 20 days from the demand | Each party hires its own appraiser and gives the name and contact details to the other side in writing | 5.9806(b)(1) |
| 15 days | Appraisers jointly choose an umpire, after appraisers are named or after they fail to agree | 5.9806(b)(2) |
| 10 days' notice | Written notice to the other party before asking a court or a vendor to appoint an umpire | 5.9806(b)(3)(C) |
| 40 days from the demand | The two appraisers must attempt to agree on the amount of loss in dispute | 5.9806(b)(4) |
| 180 days from the demand | Where an umpire is involved, the award must issue | 5.9806(b)(5) |
| 15 days | If the award misses that deadline, the umpire's engagement terminates and the appraisers choose a new one | 5.9806(b)(5) |
Two of those are worth pulling out.
The 40-day deadline is not the same thing as the 120-day one and the two get confused constantly. The 120 days is how long you have to ask for appraisal. The 40 days is how long the two appraisers then have to try to agree, once you have asked. Miss the first and you are out. Miss the second and the process moves on to an umpire.
The 10 days' notice before requesting an umpire appointment is the sleeper. It means neither side can quietly go to a court or a vendor and come back with an umpire already appointed. The proposal also requires the requesting party to give the other a copy of the request on or before submitting it.
The deadlines can be moved, but not before a particular moment
Section 5.9806(c) lets the parties modify any deadline in the process by written agreement. There is a condition on it: the modification can only happen after the insurer has provided the appraisal process notice required by § 5.9803.
That sequencing matters. It means an insurer cannot present a shortened timetable to a policyholder who has not yet been told, in the form the rule prescribes, how the process is supposed to work. Agreement to vary a deadline is only available to someone who has already been shown the default.
What we are not saying
We are not saying this is the law in Texas today. It is a proposal that has not been adopted, and the numbers above could change in an adopted version, or the rule could not be adopted at all. When TDI files an adoption, the deadlines and the effective date go in this page and the status line at the top changes.
We are not saying 120 days is too short. That it is under a third of the residential window from the same trigger is a fact. Whether that is right for a class of claim that usually resolves in weeks is an argument, and the comment period for making it closed on 8 June 2026.
We are not telling you your policy already contains these deadlines. The rule, if adopted, would govern what an appraisal provision must contain going forward. What your current policy says is a question about your current policy.
We are not describing any other state. Texas is doing something specific here. We have not compared the fifty states on appraisal demand windows, and when we do it will be a table with every jurisdiction named.
If you have a Texas auto claim now
The practical reading, while this is still a proposal, is about attention rather than entitlement.
Find out whether your policy has an appraisal provision at all and what it says about timing, because that is what governs you today.
Note the date on the letter accepting or rejecting your claim. Under the proposal that letter is the starting gun for both timetables, and it is the document people throw away.
Watch for the adoption. TDI publishes proposed and adopted rules for each year in one table with the filing and effective dates in it, which is the same table this page's status line was read from.
Sources
- 28 TAC §§ 5.9800 - 5.9806 (proposed), Texas Register, 8 May 2026, Title 28 proposed rules, read in full on 18 August 2026 from the Texas Secretary of State's own archive. Filed with the Secretary of State on 23 April 2026, TRD-202601783, earliest possible date of adoption 7 June 2026. The rule text of § 5.9805(a)(1) and all of § 5.9806 was read verbatim.
- Adoption status, read 18 August 2026 from TDI's own "Proposed and Adopted Rules for 2026" table. The row for Chapter 5, Subchapter Q, Division 4 shows Proposal Filed 04/23/2026 and Proposal Publishes 05/08/2026, with Adoption Filed, Adoption Publishes and Effective Date blank.
- Senate Bill 458, 89th Legislature, 2025, which the proposal states it implements.
- Texas Insurance Code § 542.056, notice of acceptance or rejection of claim, which is the trigger for both demand windows.
- Where to file an insurance complaint in every state
- When insurance will not pay for a proper repair
- Total loss: why the first check is low
- How to read a repair estimate
General consumer information: not legal, insurance, or financial advice. Requirements, coverage, and practices vary by state, policy, and manufacturer.