1-1     By:  Bosse (Senate Sponsor - Lindsay)                 H.B. No. 1563
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
 1-3     May 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by
 1-5     the following vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to
 1-6     printer.)
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to prohibiting the recording of a plat or replat of a
1-10     subdivision of real property if ad valorem taxes are delinquent.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 12.002, Property Code, is amended by
1-13     amending Subsections (a), (b), (c), (e), and (f) and adding
1-14     Subsection (g) to read as follows:
1-15           (a)  The county clerk or a deputy of the clerk with whom a
1-16     plat or replat of a subdivision of real property is filed for
1-17     recording shall determine whether the plat or replat is required by
1-18     law to be approved by a county or municipal authority or both.  The
1-19     clerk or deputy may not record a plat or replat [requiring
1-20     approval] unless it is approved as provided by law by the
1-21     appropriate authority and unless the plat or replat has attached to
1-22     it the documents required by Subsection (e) or by Section 212.0105
1-23     or 232.023 [232.0035], Local Government Code, if applicable. If a
1-24     plat or replat does not indicate whether land covered by the plat
1-25     or replat is in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the
1-26     municipality, the county clerk may require the person filing the
1-27     plat or replat for recording to file with the clerk an affidavit
1-28     stating that information.
1-29           (b)  A person may not file for record or have recorded in the
1-30     county clerk's office a plat or replat of a subdivision of real
1-31     property unless it is approved as provided by law by the
1-32     appropriate authority and unless the plat or replat has attached to
1-33     it the documents required by Section 212.0105 or 232.023
1-34     [232.0035], Local Government Code, if applicable.
1-35           (c)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), a person who
1-36     subdivides real property may not use the subdivision's description
1-37     in a deed of conveyance, a contract for a deed, or a contract of
1-38     sale or other executory contract to convey that is delivered to a
1-39     purchaser unless the plat or replat of the subdivision is approved
1-40     and is filed for record with the county clerk of the county in
1-41     which the property is located and unless the plat or replat has
1-42     attached to it the documents required by Subsection (e) or by
1-43     Section 212.0105 or 232.023 [232.0035], Local Government Code, if
1-44     applicable.
1-45           (e)  A person may not file for record or have recorded in the
1-46     county clerk's office a plat or replat of a subdivision of real
1-47     property unless the plat or replat has attached to it an original
1-48     tax certificate from each taxing unit with jurisdiction of the real
1-49     property indicating that no delinquent ad valorem taxes are owed on
1-50     the real property.  This subsection does not apply if more than one
1-51     person acquired the real property from a decedent under a will or
1-52     by inheritance and those persons owning an undivided interest in
1-53     the property obtained approval to subdivide the property to provide
1-54     each person with a divided interest and a separate title to the
1-55     property.
1-56           (f)  A person commits an offense if the person violates
1-57     Subsection (b), [or] (c), or (e).  An offense under this subsection
1-58     is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $10 or more
1-59     than $500, by confinement in the county jail for a term not to
1-60     exceed 90 days, or by both the fine and confinement.  Each
1-61     violation constitutes a separate offense and also constitutes prima
1-62     facie evidence of an attempt to defraud.
1-63           (g) [(f)]  This section does not apply to a partition by a
1-64     court.
 2-1           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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