By:  Ratliff                                          S.B. No. 1679
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the notice the seller of an interest in coastal area
    1-2  property is required to furnish the purchaser.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 33.135, Natural Resources
    1-5  Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  A person who sells, transfers, or conveys an interest
    1-7  other than a mineral, leasehold, or security interest in real
    1-8  property adjoining and abutting the tidally influenced waters of
    1-9  the state must include the following notice as a part of a written
   1-10  executory contract for the sale, transfer, or conveyance:
   1-11                "NOTICE REGARDING COASTAL AREA PROPERTY
   1-12              "(1)  The real property described in and subject to
   1-13  this contract adjoins and shares a common boundary with the tidally
   1-14  influenced submerged lands of the state.  The boundary is subject
   1-15  to change and can be determined accurately only by a survey on the
   1-16  ground made by a licensed state land surveyor or registered
   1-17  professional land surveyor in accordance with the original grant
   1-18  from the sovereign.  The owner of the property described in this
   1-19  contract may gain or lose portions of the tract because of changes
   1-20  in the boundary.
   1-21              "(2)  The seller, transferor, or grantor has no
   1-22  knowledge of any prior fill as it relates to the property described
   1-23  in and subject to this contract.
   1-24              "(3)  State law prohibits the use, encumbrance,
    2-1  construction, or placing of any structure in, on, or over
    2-2  state-owned submerged lands below the applicable tide line, without
    2-3  proper permission.
    2-4              "(4)  The purchaser or grantee is hereby advised to
    2-5  seek the advice of an attorney or other qualified person as to the
    2-6  legal nature and effect of the facts set forth in this notice on
    2-7  the property described in and subject to this contract.
    2-8  Information regarding the location of the applicable tide line as
    2-9  to the property described in and subject to this contract may be
   2-10  obtained from the surveying division of the General Land Office in
   2-11  Austin."
   2-12        SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
   2-13  to a notice required to be provided on or after the effective date
   2-14  of this Act.  A notice required to be provided before the effective
   2-15  date of this Act is covered by the law in effect on the date the
   2-16  notice was required to be provided, and that law is continued in
   2-17  effect for that purpose.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-19        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.