The enforcement mechanism is not a fine

SB 711 also added Section 82.116(d), and this is the part of the act with teeth. It reads:

“A unit owner is not liable for attorney's fees incurred by an association relating to the collection of a delinquent assessment against the unit owner, or interest on the delinquent assessment, if the attorney's fees are incurred by the association or the interest accrues during the period a management certificate is not recorded with a county clerk or electronically filed with the Texas Real Estate Commission, as required by this section.”

Three features of that sentence carry the weight. It is keyed to a period, so the exposure is measured by how long the certificate stayed unfiled rather than by the fact of the lapse. It reaches interest as well as fees. And it is phrased as a limit on the unit owner's liability, which means it operates as a defence in a collection action rather than as a penalty the state assesses.

Chapter 209 has carried the mirror-image provision for property owners' associations since 2021, at Section 209.004(e), using the same “during the period” construction and adding that a lien of a non-filing association securing an amount due on the date of transfer to a bona fide purchaser “is enforceable only for an amount incurred after the effective date of sale.”²

Section 82.116(c) and the liability shield that survives

The same act rewrote subsection (c) so that the association and its officers, directors, employees and agents remain “not subject to liability to any person for delay or failure to record a management certificate with a county clerk's office or to electronically file the management certificate with the Texas Real Estate Commission, unless the delay or failure is wilful or caused by gross negligence” — but now “[e]xcept as provided by Subsection (d).” The shield against third-party liability stands; the fee-and-interest forfeiture sits outside it.

The contents change that travelled with it

SB 711 also expanded what a condominium management certificate must state. Section 82.116(a) now requires the name, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address of any management company, the website address of any site where the association's dedicatory instruments are posted under Section 82.1142, and “the amount and description of a fee or fees charged to a unit seller or buyer relating to a transfer of a property interest in a unit.”

A less visible amendment sits in subsection (b). The 30-day duty to record an amended certificate used to be triggered by a change in the information required by Subdivisions (a)(1)–(5); the bracketed strike-through in the enrolled text shows that limitation removed, so the trigger is now a change in any information required by subsection (a).¹ A new management-company phone number or a changed transfer fee now starts the same 30-day recording clock, which in turn starts the seven-day TREC clock.

What is not in the law

A per-day administrative penalty for late filing circulates in trade commentary and is not part of this statute. The enrolled text of SB 711 contains no penalty provision, and neither Section 82.116 nor Section 209.004 authorises one. The $1,000-first-day, $500-per-additional-day figure comes from House Bill 4447 of the same session, which was referred to committee on 2 April 2025 and never moved.⁴ Senate Bill 2586, which would have added a separate TREC filing duty for association rules, passed the Senate and died in House committee on 8 May 2025.⁵

What to watch next

Texas legislates biennially, so the next opportunity to add an enforcement penalty, an ombudsman, or a registry with teeth is the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027. Pre-filing for that session opens in November 2026. Neither chamber assigned an interim charge on association law for 2026, so no committee is formally studying the question between now and then.