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TXTexas HOA Laws
Property Code chapters 209 and 202, resale certificates, and the protections Texas wrote for solar, flags, and similar restrictions.
Texas Property Code chapters 202, 207, and 209
Read Property Code chapter 209 on the Texas Constitution and Statutes site
Texas splits HOA law across several chapters of the Property Code. Chapter 209 is the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act. It is the one homeowners mean when they say “the HOA statute.” Chapter 202 restricts what a property owners’ association can put in a dedicatory instrument about flags, solar devices, military flags, rain barrels, certain religious displays, and similar subjects. Chapter 207 covers resale certificates. Condominiums are a different act, chapter 82.
Chapter 209 does not govern every set of deed restrictions. Read the applicability section before you cite it to a small voluntary association or to a condo board.
Enforcement, records, and meetings
Section 209.006 requires a detailed notice before the association suspends rights, files suit, or charges for property damage related to a violation, with a chance to cure and a right to request a hearing. Read the section for how the notice has to be sent and how long the cure window is. Do not skip the hearing request. The deadline is in the statute and in the notice.
Section 209.005 is the records statute: budgets, contracts, and other records, with a request process and exceptions. Section 209.0051 covers open board meetings for associations subject to that section. If a decision happened only by email, ask which exception they used.
Restrictions the legislature overrode
Chapter 202 is where Texas told associations they cannot flatly ban certain things even if an old covenant says otherwise. Solar energy devices are section 202.010. The statute still allows some regulation of where a device sits. Flag display, political signs, and standby electric generators have their own sections in the same chapter. Cite the section that matches the notice you received. A solar denial and a flag denial are not the same letter.
If you are buying, ask for the chapter 207 resale certificate and read the litigation and assessment lines before the option period ends. The buying guide lists the questions that certificate is supposed to answer.
Common questions
Does chapter 209 apply to my subdivision?
Chapter 209 applies to residential property owners' associations that meet its definition, generally a mandatory-assessment association in a subdivision. It is not every deed restriction in Texas. Condominiums are primarily under chapter 82. Read section 209.003 and 209.002.
Where is the resale certificate statute?
Property Code chapter 207. A seller in a covered subdivision has to provide it. The contents and the timing are in that chapter.