By: Truan S.B. No. 1605
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the request of certain elderly or disabled tenants for
1-2 a landlord to deactivate or not install a keyless bolting device.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subsection (e) of Section 92.153, Property Code,
1-5 is amended to read as follows:
1-6 (e) A keyless bolting device is not required to be installed
1-7 at the landlord's expense on an exterior door if:
1-8 <(1) the dwelling is part of a multiunit complex in
1-9 which the majority of dwelling units are leased to tenants who are
1-10 over 55 years of age or who have a physical or mental disability;>
1-11 <(2)> (1) <the> a tenant or occupant in the dwelling
1-12 is over 55 years of age or has a physical or mental disability; and
1-13 <(3) the landlord is expressly required or permitted
1-14 to periodically check on the well-being or health of the tenant as
1-15 a part of a written lease or other written agreement.>
1-16 (2) the tenant requests in writing that the landlord
1-17 deactivate or not install the keyless bolting device and certifies
1-18 in the request that the tenant or occupant meets the requirements
1-19 of this subsection. The request must be in a separate document and
1-20 may not be included as a part of a lease or rental agreement. The
1-21 tenant's request and the landlord's deactivation or noninstallation
1-22 must be bona fide and not for the purpose of evading a duty of the
1-23 landlord under this subchapter.
2-1 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-6 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-7 passage, and it is so enacted.