1-1     By:  Marchant (Senate Sponsor - Shapiro)              H.B. No. 1510
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 13, 1999;
 1-3     May 14, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
 1-4     Affairs; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to documentary fee included in a vehicle retail
 1-9     installment contract.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 348.006(c), Finance Code, is amended to
1-12     read as follows:
1-13           (c)  For a documentary fee to be included in the principal
1-14     balance of a retail installment contract:
1-15                 (1)  the retail seller must charge the documentary fee
1-16     to cash buyers and credit buyers;
1-17                 (2)  the documentary fee may not exceed $50 for a motor
1-18     vehicle retail installment contract or a reasonable amount agreed
1-19     to by the retail seller and retail buyer for a heavy commercial
1-20     vehicle retail installment contract; and
1-21                 (3)  the buyer's order and the retail installment
1-22     contract must include:
1-23                       (A)  a statement of the amount of the documentary
1-24     fee; and
1-25                       (B)  in reasonable proximity to the place in each
1-26     where the amount of the documentary fee is disclosed, the following
1-27     notice in type that is bold-faced, capitalized, underlined, or
1-28     otherwise conspicuously set out from surrounding written material:
1-29           "A DOCUMENTARY FEE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL FEE.  A DOCUMENTARY FEE
1-30     IS NOT REQUIRED BY LAW, BUT MAY BE CHARGED TO BUYERS FOR HANDLING
1-31     DOCUMENTS AND PERFORMING SERVICES RELATING TO THE CLOSING OF A
1-32     SALE.  A DOCUMENTARY FEE MAY NOT EXCEED $50 FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE
1-33     CONTRACT OR A REASONABLE AMOUNT AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES FOR A
1-34     HEAVY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE CONTRACT.  THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY
1-35     LAW."
1-36           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-37           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-38     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-39     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-40     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-41     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-42                                  * * * * *