By Woolley                                            H.B. No. 2444
         76R6813 PAM-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a residential landlord's duty to mitigate damages when
 1-3     a tenant abandons the leased premises before the lease expires.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 91.006, Property Code, is redesignated as
 1-6     Section 92.013, Property Code, to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 92.013 [91.006].  LANDLORD'S DUTY TO MITIGATE DAMAGES.
 1-8     (a)  A landlord has a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons
 1-9     the leased premises in violation of the lease.
1-10           (b)  A provision of a lease that purports to waive a right or
1-11     to exempt a landlord from a liability or duty under this section is
1-12     void.
1-13           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-19     passage, and it is so enacted.