1-1     By:  Brown, Carona                                     S.B. No. 884
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 4, 1999; March 8, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
 1-4     March 22, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 9,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 22, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to a landlord's duty to mitigate damages under certain
 1-9     circumstances.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 92, Property Code, is
1-12     amended by adding Section 92.013 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 92.013.  LANDLORD'S DUTY TO MITIGATE DAMAGES.  (a)  A
1-14     landlord has a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons the
1-15     leased premises in violation of the lease.
1-16           (b)  A provision of a lease that purports to waive a right or
1-17     to exempt a landlord from a liability or duty under this section is
1-18     void.
1-19           SECTION 2.  Section 91.006, Property Code, is repealed.
1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-25     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-26     passage, and it is so enacted.
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