By Naishtat, Ehrhardt                                 H.B. No. 2852
       74R7234 PAM-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to charging late fees under a residential lease.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 92, Property Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 92.012 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 92.012.  LATE FEES.  (a)  Except as provided by
    1-7  Subsection (b), a landlord may not charge a tenant a fee or receive
    1-8  a pecuniary benefit from a tenant as a result of the tenant's late
    1-9  payment of rent.
   1-10        (b)  A landlord may charge as a late fee not more than:
   1-11              (1)  50 cents a day for each day a rental payment is
   1-12  late plus three percent of the portion of the rental payment that
   1-13  is late during the period that begins the first day and ends the
   1-14  30th day after the date the payment is due under the lease; and
   1-15              (2)  50 cents a day for each day a rental payment is
   1-16  late plus six percent of the portion of the rental payment that is
   1-17  late during the period that begins the 31st day and ends the 60th
   1-18  day after the date the payment is due under the lease.
   1-19        (c)  A landlord who deducts an unpaid late fee from a
   1-20  subsequent rental payment may not charge the tenant an additional
   1-21  late fee for the subsequent rental payment unless, before deducting
   1-22  the previously owed late fee, the rental amount due was not paid in
   1-23  full.
   1-24        (d)  A tenant may recover from a landlord who accepts or
    2-1  requests from a tenant or contracts with a tenant to receive a fee
    2-2  or a pecuniary benefit in violation of this section:
    2-3              (1)  all late fees received by the landlord in
    2-4  violation of this section;
    2-5              (2)  actual damages;
    2-6              (3)  an amount equal to the greater of three times the
    2-7  rental payment under the lease or $2,000; and
    2-8              (4)  reasonable and necessary attorney's fees.
    2-9        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-10        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.