1-1  By:  Ratliff                                          S.B. No. 1679
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed April 26, 1995; April 27, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
    1-4  April 28, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 8,
    1-5  Nays 0; April 28, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the notice the seller of an interest in coastal area
    1-9  property is required to furnish the purchaser.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 33.135, Natural Resources
   1-12  Code, is amended to read as follows:
   1-13        (a)  A person who sells, transfers, or conveys an interest
   1-14  other than a mineral, leasehold, or security interest in real
   1-15  property adjoining and abutting the tidally influenced waters of
   1-16  the state must include the following notice as a part of a written
   1-17  executory contract for the sale, transfer, or conveyance:
   1-18                "NOTICE REGARDING COASTAL AREA PROPERTY
   1-19              "(1)  The real property described in and subject to
   1-20  this contract adjoins and shares a common boundary with the tidally
   1-21  influenced submerged lands of the state.  The boundary is subject
   1-22  to change and can be determined accurately only by a survey on the
   1-23  ground made by a licensed state land surveyor or registered
   1-24  professional land surveyor in accordance with the original grant
   1-25  from the sovereign.  The owner of the property described in this
   1-26  contract may gain or lose portions of the tract because of changes
   1-27  in the boundary.
   1-28              "(2)  The seller, transferor, or grantor has no
   1-29  knowledge of any prior fill as it relates to the property described
   1-30  in and subject to this contract.
   1-31              "(3)  State law prohibits the use, encumbrance,
   1-32  construction, or placing of any structure in, on, or over
   1-33  state-owned submerged lands below the applicable tide line, without
   1-34  proper permission.
   1-35              "(4)  The purchaser or grantee is hereby advised to
   1-36  seek the advice of an attorney or other qualified person as to the
   1-37  legal nature and effect of the facts set forth in this notice on
   1-38  the property described in and subject to this contract.
   1-39  Information regarding the location of the applicable tide line as
   1-40  to the property described in and subject to this contract may be
   1-41  obtained from the surveying division of the General Land Office in
   1-42  Austin."
   1-43        SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
   1-44  to a notice required to be provided on or after the effective date
   1-45  of this Act.  A notice required to be provided before the effective
   1-46  date of this Act is covered by the law in effect on the date the
   1-47  notice was required to be provided, and that law is continued in
   1-48  effect for that purpose.
   1-49        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-50        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-51  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-52  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-53  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-54  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-55                               * * * * *