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Senate Bill 83 |
Senate Author: Nelson et al. |
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Effective: 1-1-10 |
House Sponsor: Guillen |
Senate Bill 83 amends the Property Code to authorize a tenant to terminate his or her rights and obligations under a lease and vacate the dwelling before the end of the lease term and avoid liability for future rent and any other sums due under the lease as a result of those actions if the tenant is the victim, or a parent or guardian of a victim, of specified sexual offenses that take place during the preceding six-month period on the premises or at any dwelling on the premises. The bill provides that a temporary ex parte protective order to protect a tenant or other occupant of a leased dwelling is a valid protective order for this purpose, and removes language limiting the use of a temporary injunction or protective order in such a situation to family violence committed by a cotenant or occupant of the dwelling. The bill requires the tenant to provide the landlord or landlord's agent with a copy of the documentation of the assault or abuse or of a protective order and requires the tenant to notify the landlord in writing about the termination of the lease and meet other notification requirements.
Senate Bill 83 specifies that its provisions do not affect the liability of a tenant for delinquent, unpaid rent or other sums owed the landlord before the lease was terminated, with certain exceptions; makes a landlord who violates the above requirements liable to a tenant for specified damages; and establishes that a tenant may not waive the rights established by these provisions.