By Marchant                                           H.B. No. 1510
         76R5526 WP-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 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 or $250 for a heavy commercial vehicle; and
1-13                 (3)  the buyer's order and the retail installment
1-14     contract must include:
1-15                       (A)  a statement of the amount of the documentary
1-16     fee; and
1-17                       (B)  in reasonable proximity to the place in each
1-18     where the amount of the documentary fee is disclosed, the following
1-19     notice in type that is bold-faced, capitalized, underlined, or
1-20     otherwise conspicuously set out from surrounding written material:
1-21           "A DOCUMENTARY FEE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL FEE.  A DOCUMENTARY FEE
1-22     IS NOT REQUIRED BY LAW, BUT MAY BE CHARGED TO BUYERS FOR HANDLING
1-23     DOCUMENTS AND PERFORMING SERVICES RELATING TO THE CLOSING OF A
1-24     SALE.  A DOCUMENTARY FEE MAY NOT EXCEED $50 FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE OR
 2-1     $250 FOR A HEAVY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE.  THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY
 2-2     LAW."
 2-3           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.