Texas HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Texas?

A Texas condominium or property owners association can restrict short-term rentals, but under Tarr v. Timberwood Park Owners Ass'n, Inc., 556 S.W.3d 274 (Tex. 2018), the restriction must be explicit; a general "residential use" covenant is not sufficient to bar them.¹ Condominiums created on or after January 1, 1994 are governed by the Texas Uniform Condominium Act, Chapter 82 of the Texas Property Code (Tex. Prop. Code § 82.001 et seq.), with the older Texas Condominium Act, Chapter 81, governing pre-1994 condominiums; non-condominium planned communities are governed by the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, Chapter 209 (Tex. Prop. Code § 209.001 et seq.), with Chapter 202 governing the construction of restrictive covenants generally.⁴ The Tarr rule is interpretive: because short-term residential occupancy is still a residential use, an association that wants to prohibit or limit short-term rentals needs an express leasing or short-term-rental provision, such as a minimum-lease-term requirement, in its declaration. A separate track, city regulation of short-term rentals (most prominently in Austin), state attempts to preempt that regulation, and the hotel occupancy tax, governs the relationship between an owner and the government and neither grants nor removes an association's authority under its declaration.³ Texas has two courts of last resort, but only one hears civil matters: HOA disputes proceed from a District Court to one of the fourteen Texas Courts of Appeals districts and then to the Supreme Court of Texas, not the Court of Criminal Appeals. The sections below detail the statutory framework, the Tarr line of authority, the two regulatory tracks, and the operational mechanics of enforcement.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The condominium chapters and the Property Owners Protection Act

Texas separates its community-association law by community type. Condominiums whose declarations were recorded on or after January 1, 1994 are governed by the Texas Uniform Condominium Act, Chapter 82, which is based on the Uniform Condominium Act.⁴ Condominiums recorded before that date remain under the older Texas Condominium Act, Chapter 81, although Section 82.002 makes a specified list of Chapter 82 provisions apply retroactively to pre-1994 condominiums and allows a pre-1994 condominium to opt fully into Chapter 82 by amendment.¹³ Non-condominium planned communities, meaning mandatory-membership residential subdivisions, are governed by the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, Chapter 209, and by Chapter 202, which governs the construction and enforcement of restrictive covenants across community types.⁵

Texas is not a CC&R-primary state. Chapter 209 supplies a statutory framework for property owners associations covering management certificates, records, elections, notice and hearing before certain enforcement actions, and foreclosure of assessment liens. That framework, however, does not itself grant or define substantive rental authority. The source of an association's power to restrict rentals remains the recorded declaration. Chapter 82 contains no provision addressing the substance of rentals, and Chapter 209 addresses leases only at the margins: Section 209.016 lets an association request limited tenant contact information and the lease term, and expressly states that nothing in that section prohibits a declaration provision establishing a restriction relating to occupancy or leasing.⁵

An important distinction runs through the analysis: authority over long-term leasing is analytically separate from authority over short-term or transient rentals. Both derive from the declaration, and under Tarr both require language that actually reaches the conduct the association wants to limit. A covenant that permits leasing without a stated minimum duration does not become a short-term-rental prohibition by implication.¹⁴

2B. The Tarr rule, restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

In Tarr v. Timberwood Park Owners Ass'n, the Supreme Court of Texas held that deed restrictions limiting tracts to "residential purposes" and barring "business purposes" did not prohibit a homeowner from renting his single-family home on a short-term basis. Justice Jeff Brown's unanimous opinion reasoned that "[s]o long as the occupants to whom Tarr rents his single-family residence use the home for a 'residential purpose,' no matter how short-lived, neither their on-property use nor Tarr's off-property use violates the restrictive covenants in the Timberwood deeds," and that "no construction, no matter how liberal, can construe a property restriction into existence when the covenant is silent as to that limitation."¹ The Court confined its holding to the particular covenants before it and noted that a differently worded restriction, one specifying a minimum lease duration or enumerating prohibited conduct, could reach short-term rentals. The Court also observed that amending the deed restrictions to specify a minimum lease duration was an option available to the association.

The Supreme Court reaffirmed Tarr in JBrice Holdings, L.L.C. v. Wilcrest Walk Townhomes Ass'n, Inc., 644 S.W.3d 179 (Tex. 2022), holding that neither a residential-use covenant nor Property Code Section 204.010(a)(6) authorized an association to ban rentals of fewer than thirty days where the covenants set no minimum lease duration and elsewhere barred restraints on leasing.¹⁴ The practical lesson for both condominiums and planned communities is the same: reliance on a general "residential use" clause is not a defensible strategy after Tarr.

Adopting an explicit restriction is done by amending the declaration. For condominiums, Section 82.067(a) requires a vote of at least 67 percent of the allocated votes, or any larger majority the declaration specifies; notably, Section 82.067(e) requires 100 percent approval to change the use restrictions on a unit, a provision that can complicate a condominium rental amendment depending on how the change is characterized.⁶ For property owners associations, Section 209.0041(h) sets a 67 percent threshold unless the declaration states a lower percentage, subject to stated exceptions.⁷

Chapter 82 is based on the Uniform Condominium Act rather than the 2008 amendments to the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it does not contain a 2008-style rental owner-protection provision. Grandfathering, therefore, is not resolved by a statutory shield. Whether a rental restriction adopted by amendment binds an owner who bought before the amendment turns on the applicable chapter, the declaration's own amendment clause, and Texas common law, read through the Tarr interpretive rule. Texas courts have generally enforced validly adopted amendments against existing owners where the original restrictions provided a method for amendment, that method was followed, and owners were on constructive notice.⁸ Texas does not import a Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering shield, and no Texas statute caps an association's rental authority in the way California Civil Code § 4741 or Arizona A.R.S. § 33-1806.01 do; the constraint in Texas is interpretive, not a statutory limit.

2C. The two short-term-rental tracks, tax, and the layering

Texas short-term-rental law runs on two separate tracks. The local-government track concerns city and county regulation. Austin is the center of that fight: its 2016 ordinance banned non-homestead ("type 2") short-term rentals and restricted assembly at rental properties, and in Zaatari v. City of Austin, 615 S.W.3d 172 (Tex. App.—Austin 2019, pet. denied), the Third Court of Appeals held the non-homestead ban unconstitutionally retroactive under the Texas Constitution and struck the assembly restriction.¹⁵ The Supreme Court of Texas denied the City's petition for review in Case No. 20-0470 on June 11, 2021, leaving the decision in place.¹⁶ The Legislature has repeatedly considered bills to preempt or limit local short-term-rental regulation; HB 2665 (88th Legislature, 2023), filed by Representative Gary Gates, began as a preemption bill barring cities from limiting short-term-rental duration, frequency, capacity, or location before it was amended into an interim-study measure and then died in the Senate without being referred to committee. No broad statewide short-term-rental preemption is in effect as of July 2026, and Texas cities continue to regulate short-term rentals through permitting and zoning.³

The critical point is the layering. City regulation, and any state preemption of it, governs the owner-to-government relationship. It neither grants nor removes a community association's authority under its declaration. Conversely, the Tarr rule about covenant interpretation does not depend on local regulation. An owner who obtains a city short-term-rental permit and pays the hotel occupancy tax may still violate a declaration that contains an explicit minimum-lease-term covenant, and an owner whose declaration is silent on rentals may still face city permitting requirements.

Texas taxes short-term lodging through the hotel occupancy tax, not the general sales tax. The state rate is 6 percent of the cost of a room under Tax Code Chapter 156, and cities, counties, and special-purpose districts may impose additional local hotel occupancy taxes under Chapters 351 and 352; the Comptroller states that the combined rates of state, county, municipal, and sports and community venue taxes cannot exceed 17 percent.⁹ The tax applies to stays of fewer than 30 consecutive days; a guest who occupies a room for at least 30 consecutive days is a permanent resident and is exempt.⁹ Texas requires short-term-rental marketplaces to collect and remit the state hotel occupancy tax on bookings made through the platform, though owners remain responsible for local hotel occupancy tax and for taxes on direct bookings.¹⁷

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

After Tarr and JBrice, the most reliable mechanism for a Texas association is an explicit minimum-lease-term covenant in the declaration, for example a provision stating that no lease may be for a term of fewer than 30 consecutive days, or a direct prohibition on short-term or transient rentals with defined terms. General "residential use" or "no commercial use" language does not accomplish this.¹⁴ Adopting such a covenant means amending the declaration under the applicable chapter: Section 82.067 for condominiums (67 percent generally, with the 100 percent requirement of Section 82.067(e) for changes to use restrictions on a unit) and Section 209.0041 for property owners associations (67 percent unless the declaration sets a lower figure).⁶

Rental caps by percentage of units and similar limits are not addressed by statute for either community type; whether an association may impose them turns on the declaration. Short of a duration restriction, an association may impose internal administrative requirements: Section 209.016(e) permits a property owners association to request the name and contact information of each person who will reside under a lease and the lease's commencement date and term, though Section 209.016(b) bars a declaration provision requiring association approval of tenants or submission of a credit report or rental application.⁵

B. Enforcement, Chapter 209, and the appellate path

For property owners associations, Chapter 209 imposes procedural steps before enforcement. Under Section 209.006, before levying a fine, suspending common-area use, or filing certain suits, the association must give written notice by certified mail describing the violation, stating any amount due, and informing the owner of the right to cure a curable violation and to request a hearing.¹⁸ Section 209.007 gives the owner the right to a hearing before the board or a committee, which the association must hold within 30 days of the request. These notice-and-hearing steps do not apply where the association sues for a temporary restraining order, temporary injunctive relief, or foreclosure.¹⁰ Chapter 82 contains no equivalent general pre-fine notice-and-hearing regime for condominiums, so a condominium's fining procedure is governed primarily by its declaration and rules.

Available remedies for a short-term-rental violation include fines (for property owners associations, subject to the Section 209.006 and 209.007 process), injunctive relief, and the assessment lien. A property owners association may not foreclose its assessment lien without first obtaining a court order through the expedited process under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 736, as required by Section 209.0092.¹² Condominium associations have a lien under Section 82.113 and may foreclose nonjudicially, a meaningful difference between the two community types.¹¹ A contested enforcement action proceeds in a Texas District Court, with appeal to the applicable Texas Court of Appeals district (for example, the Third Court in Austin or the Fourth Court in San Antonio) and then to the Supreme Court of Texas.

Association enforcement and local-government enforcement are independent. A city may cite an owner for operating an unpermitted short-term rental while the association separately enforces (or cannot enforce) its declaration, and success or failure on one track does not determine the other.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No statewide short-term-rental preemption bill and no hotel-occupancy-tax rate change affecting associations passed the 89th Legislature.

B. Recent rulings

C. Active legislative or local debates

Cities including Austin, Houston, and Dallas continued to revise short-term-rental registration and zoning rules into 2025 and 2026, and litigation over some municipal ordinances remains active; these local actions affect owners and cities, not association authority under a declaration.³

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Texas sits apart from states that regulate the HOA short-term-rental question through a single statutory provision. It maintains separate condominium chapters (82 for post-1994 condominiums and 81 for earlier ones) and a statutory framework for property owners associations in Chapter 209, so it is not a CC&R-primary state, yet its defining rule is interpretive rather than statutory: under Tarr, an association needs an explicit restriction and cannot rely on a general residential-use covenant. Its short-term-rental conflicts have centered on city regulation and repeated preemption efforts rather than on a statute limiting HOA authority, unlike California (Civil Code § 4741) and Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1806.01). City regulation, preemption bills, and the hotel occupancy tax restrain local governments and owners, not associations. For a multi-state operator entering Texas, the practical implications are that explicit minimum-lease-term or short-term-rental covenants are essential after Tarr, that Chapter 209 governs property owners association fining and requires a court order under Rule 736 before lien foreclosure, and that the Texas short-term-rental markets are among the largest in the country, with Houston alone counting more than 9,000 active listings in early 2026.²¹

HOA Weekly's Texas Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature, the Supreme Court of Texas and the Courts of Appeals, and local governments act. Federal frameworks, including the Fair Housing Act, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD, also apply to Texas associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Tarr v. Timberwood Park Owners Ass'n, Inc., 556 S.W.3d 274 (Tex. 2018) (holding quoted in JBrice opinion, Supreme Court of Texas) ↩
2. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Hotel Occupancy Tax (no statewide STR registration; local permits vary) ↩
3. Zaatari v. City of Austin, 615 S.W.3d 172 (Tex. App.—Austin 2019, pet. denied) (local-government track distinct from association authority) ↩
4. Tex. Prop. Code ch. 82 (Uniform Condominium Act) ↩
5. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.016 (Regulation of Residential Leases or Rental Agreements) ↩
6. Tex. Prop. Code § 82.067 (Amendment of Declaration; 67% general, 100% to change use restrictions on a unit) ↩
7. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0041 (Adoption or Amendment of Certain Dedicatory Instruments; 67%) ↩
8. Swan Point Landing Cmty. Ass'n v. Martin, No. 13-24-00051-CV (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg May 29, 2025) (enforceability of amendment against existing owners) ↩
9. Texas Comptroller, Local Hotel Occupancy Tax Overview (6% state rate; combined cap of 17%; 30-day threshold) ↩
10. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.007 (Hearing Before Board; Alternative Dispute Resolution) ↩
11. Tex. Prop. Code § 82.113 (Association's Lien for Assessments; condominium foreclosure) ↩
12. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0092 (Judicial Foreclosure Required; court order under Tex. R. Civ. P. 736) ↩
13. Tex. Prop. Code § 82.002 (Applicability; pre-1994 condominiums and retroactive provisions) ↩
14. JBrice Holdings, L.L.C. v. Wilcrest Walk Townhomes Ass'n, Inc., 644 S.W.3d 179 (Tex. 2022) (opinion, Supreme Court of Texas) ↩
15. Zaatari v. City of Austin, No. 03-17-00812-CV (Tex. App.—Austin Nov. 27, 2019) (opinion) ↩
16. City of Austin v. Zaatari, No. 20-0470, Supreme Court of Texas (petition for review denied June 11, 2021) ↩
17. Texas Comptroller, Hotel Occupancy Tax FAQs (marketplace/short-term rental provider collection) ↩
18. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.006 (Notice Required Before Enforcement Action) ↩
19. Tex. S.B. 711, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025), effective Sept. 1, 2025 (Texas Legislature Online) ↩
20. Swan Point Landing Cmty. Ass'n v. Martin, No. 13-24-00051-CV (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg May 29, 2025) (Thirteenth Court of Appeals case search) ↩
21. Texas Comptroller, Hotel Occupancy Tax (Texas STR market administered under Ch. 156); market-size figures per third-party listing datasets (AirROI/Rabbu, 2024–2026) ↩