Amend CSHB 1355 (house committee printing) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
SECTION ____. Subchapter B, Chapter 2703, Insurance Code, is amended by adding Sections 2703.055 and 2703.056 to read as follows:
Sec. 2703.055. REQUIREMENT OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS PROHIBITED. The commissioner may not require by rule or through adoption of a title insurance policy or other insuring form that a title insurance policy delivered or issued for delivery in this state:
(1) insure against a loss that a person with an interest in real property sustains from damage to the property by reason of severance of minerals from the surface estate; or
(2) provide insurance as to ownership of minerals.
Sec. 2703.056. EXCEPTIONS; MINERAL INTERESTS. (a) Subject to the underwriting standards of the title insurance company, a title insurance company may in a commitment for title insurance or a title insurance policy include a general exception or a special exception to except from coverage a mineral estate or an instrument which purports to reserve or transfer all or part of a mineral estate.
(b) The inclusion in a title insurance policy of a general exception or a special exception described by Subsection (a) does not create title insurance coverage as to the condition or ownership of the mineral estate.
SECTION ____. Sections 2703.055 and 2703.056, Insurance Code, as amended by this Act, apply only to a title insurance policy that is delivered or issued for delivery on or after January 1, 2012. A policy delivered or issued for delivery before January 1, 2012, is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.