1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to documentary fee included in a vehicle retail
1-3 installment contract.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 348.006(c), Finance Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (c) For a documentary fee to be included in the principal
1-8 balance of a retail installment contract:
1-9 (1) the retail seller must charge the documentary fee
1-10 to cash buyers and credit buyers;
1-11 (2) the documentary fee may not exceed $50 for a motor
1-12 vehicle retail installment contract or a reasonable amount agreed
1-13 to by the retail seller and retail buyer for a heavy commercial
1-14 vehicle retail installment contract; and
1-15 (3) the buyer's order and the retail installment
1-16 contract must include:
1-17 (A) a statement of the amount of the documentary
1-18 fee; and
1-19 (B) in reasonable proximity to the place in each
1-20 where the amount of the documentary fee is disclosed, the following
1-21 notice in type that is bold-faced, capitalized, underlined, or
1-22 otherwise conspicuously set out from surrounding written material:
1-23 "A DOCUMENTARY FEE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL FEE. A DOCUMENTARY FEE
1-24 IS NOT REQUIRED BY LAW, BUT MAY BE CHARGED TO BUYERS FOR HANDLING
2-1 DOCUMENTS AND PERFORMING SERVICES RELATING TO THE CLOSING OF A
2-2 SALE. A DOCUMENTARY FEE MAY NOT EXCEED $50 FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE
2-3 CONTRACT OR A REASONABLE AMOUNT AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES FOR A
2-4 HEAVY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE CONTRACT. THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY
2-5 LAW."
2-6 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-7 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1510 was passed by the House on May
13, 1999, by a non-record vote.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1510 was passed by the Senate on May
26, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor