|
House Bill 1228 |
House Author: Dutton |
|
Effective: See below |
Senate Sponsor: West |
House Bill 1228 amends the Property Code to require a property owners' association composed of more than 14 lots to adopt reasonable guidelines to establish an alternative payment schedule by which an owner may make partial payments to the association for delinquent regular or special assessments or any other amount owed to the association without accruing additional monetary penalties. The association is required to file the guidelines in the real property records of each county in which the subdivision is located, and certain associations are exempted from those requirements.
House Bill 1228 requires a payment received by an association from the owner to be applied to the owner's debt in a specified order of priority unless the owner is in default under a payment plan entered into with the association, in which case a fine assessed by the association may not be given priority over any other amount owed to the association. The bill restricts an association's authority with regard to third-party collections and specifies that an owner is not liable for fees of a collection agent retained by the association under certain circumstances.
House Bill 1228 prohibits an association from foreclosing an assessment lien on real property by giving notice of sale or by commencing a judicial foreclosure action unless the association has provided notice of the amount of the delinquency to certain lienholders and provided a recipient of the notice an opportunity to cure the delinquency. The bill also prohibits an association, with certain exceptions, from foreclosing an assessment lien unless the association first obtains a court order in an application for expedited foreclosure under certain rules adopted by the Supreme Court of Texas. A provision granting a right to foreclose a lien on real property for unpaid amounts due to an association may be removed from or adopted in a dedicatory instrument by a specified vote. The bill specifies that a lien, lien affidavit, or other instrument evidencing the nonpayment of assessments or other charges owed to an association and filed in the official public records of a county is a legal instrument affecting title to real property. The bill takes effect January 1, 2012, except for provisions requiring the supreme court to adopt rules establishing expedited foreclosure proceedings, which take effect September 1, 2011.