Texas HOA Compliance
3. Compliance topics grid
1. Introduction
Texas runs its HOA framework out of several Property Code chapters, not a single statute. Chapter 209, the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, anchors residential property owners' association law. Chapter 82 governs condominiums created under the Texas Uniform Condominium Act. Chapter 81 still applies to condominium regimes created before January 1, 1994. And Chapter 207 supplies the disclosure framework for property owners' associations.1 Those chapters reach subdivision property owners' associations, condominium unit owners' associations, boards, declarants, architectural review authorities, owners, and management companies when the terms appear in the relevant chapter.2
HOA disputes are civil matters, so the ordinary appeal path moves from trial court to court of appeals to discretionary review in the Supreme Court of Texas. Texas keeps a separate Court of Criminal Appeals for criminal matters.3
Texas does not assign HOA oversight to a dedicated regulator. The Texas Real Estate Commission says plainly that it does not regulate HOAs or association management companies, though it maintains the public HOA management certificate database.4 The 2025 Regular Session produced several enacted POA and condominium bills, and recent appellate opinions keep working on covenant interpretation, appellate procedure, assessments, and association authority.5 Within the U.S. HOA landscape, Texas reads as a statute-specific jurisdiction rather than an agency-supervised one.6
2. Primary statute and key resources
- Texas Property Code Chapters 209 and 207. Chapter 209 anchors residential POA law, and Chapter 207 sets POA disclosure requirements.7
- Texas Property Code Chapters 82 and 81. Chapter 82 carries the Uniform Condominium Act, and Chapter 81 still governs older condominium regimes.8
- Texas Judicial Branch, civil appellate system. HOA appeals move from trial court to court of appeals, then by petition to the Supreme Court of Texas.9
- Texas Real Estate Commission, HOA management certificate site. TREC houses certificate filings and states that it does not regulate HOAs or association management companies.10
- Texas Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division. The OAG takes consumer complaints and states that it cannot give legal advice.11
4. Texas's recent regulatory landscape
Recent Legislation
Texas lawmakers pushed five POA bills across the finish line in the 2025 Regular Session, touching solar tiles, turf fines, condominium filings, remote meetings, and political speech in common areas.
HB 431 · 2025 Regular Session
HB 431 folds solar roof tiles into the Property Code definition of "solar energy device," placing them inside Texas's existing POA solar-device framework.[12]
| Property managers | Update architectural review checklists to handle solar roof tiles as a solar-device request. |
| HOA board members | Fit denial decisions inside the existing statutory solar-device limits. |
| Community association attorneys | Separate solar roof tiles from ordinary roof-material disputes when advising on covenants. |
| Homeowners | Solar roof tile applications stand on clearer statutory footing. |
HB 517 · 2025 Regular Session
HB 517 bars certain POA fines for discolored vegetation or turf during an applicable residential watering restriction and for 60 days after the restriction lifts.[13]
| Property managers | Pause eligible turf-discoloration fines during the restriction and through the 60-day window. |
| HOA board members | Separate ordinary maintenance violations from drought-related discoloration on the fine schedule. |
| Community association attorneys | Adjust collection and hearing notices to account for the statutory fine bar. |
| Homeowners | Owners gain a statutory defense against covered turf fines during the protected period. |
SB 711 · 2025 Regular Session
SB 711 reworks rules on condominium online association information, management certificate filings, resale certificate fees, architectural review eligibility, flags, security cameras, perimeter fencing, and other POA operating practices.[14]
| Property managers | Check certificate filings, resale packets, and online document practices against the new rules. |
| HOA board members | Nonfiling can cost the association attorney fees and interest in delinquency matters. |
| Community association attorneys | Add county and TREC certificate status, plus the new operating provisions, to due diligence. |
| Homeowners | Owners gain more access to association information and more statutory detail on selected owner-use rights. |
SB 2629 · 2025 Regular Session
SB 2629 authorizes additional electronic and telephonic meeting and voting methods for condominium and POA governance, subject to limits on certain member-hearing actions.[15]
| Property managers | Build meeting notices, proxies, ballots, and owner portals to support permitted remote methods. |
| HOA board members | Hold remote meetings where allowed, but watch the hearing limits on sensitive enforcement actions. |
| Community association attorneys | Review bylaws, election forms, and meeting scripts for statutory fit. |
| Homeowners | Owners can participate and vote through permitted electronic or remote methods when the association adopts them. |
HB 621 · 2025 Regular Session
HB 621 prohibits covered POAs from blocking owners or residents who want to invite qualifying government officials or political candidates to meet in available common areas, while leaving neutral facility rules in place.[16]
| Property managers | Update common-area reservation forms to handle qualifying official and candidate meetings. |
| HOA board members | Keep neutral rules on hours, occupancy, deposits, and fees in place. |
| Community association attorneys | Audit common-area rules for content-based exclusions and apply the statutory carve-out. |
| Homeowners | Owners may invite covered officials or candidates to available common areas under neutral facility rules. |
Recent Court Rulings
The Supreme Court of Texas decided two HOA matters in 2025 — one on the limits of covenant text, and one on TCPA stay timing in appeals from HOA-related suits.
EIS Development II, LLC v. Buena Vista Area Association
The Supreme Court of Texas held that a deed restriction limiting a tract to no more than two residences on any five-acre tract did not prohibit one residence on each platted lot smaller than five acres, and it reversed the lower courts' declaratory and injunctive relief on that point.[17] The practical effect: POA covenant enforcement turns on the restriction's text, not a broader land-use objective inferred from the subdivision plan.[18]
| Property managers | Read lot-size and density restrictions as text-specific enforcement rules. |
| HOA board members | Track enforcement decisions to what the recorded covenant clearly prohibits. |
| Community association attorneys | State minimum lot area and dwelling-count limits expressly when drafting. |
| Homeowners | Tie development objections directly to recorded covenant language. |
In re Madison
In an HOA-related suit involving Talise de Culebra Home Owners Association, Inc. and its law firm, the Supreme Court of Texas held that a TCPA automatic stay stayed in place until the court of appeals issued its mandate, so the trial court lacked authority to award TCPA attorney fees before mandate.[19] The practical effect: HOA litigants should confirm mandate status before they seek or act on post-appeal fee orders after a TCPA interlocutory appeal.[20]
| Property managers | Wait for counsel confirmation before acting on collection or fee instructions tied to appeal results. |
| HOA board members | A favorable appellate opinion may not end the stay until mandate issues. |
| Community association attorneys | Fold Texas mandate timing into TCPA stay analysis. |
| Homeowners | Fee orders entered before mandate may be open to challenge. |
Regulatory Developments
TREC enforces no HOA rules, but it now hosts the condominium management certificate database that SB 711 made mandatory by March 1, 2026.
Texas Real Estate Commission
SB 711 required a condominium unit owners' association that had recorded a management certificate or amendment before the Act's effective date to file the most recent certificate or amendment electronically with TREC by March 1, 2026. TREC's public site remains a certificate database, not a general HOA enforcement forum.[21]
| Property managers | Reconcile county records and TREC database records for covered condominiums. |
| HOA board members | A missed certificate filing can cost attorney-fee and interest recovery in delinquency matters. |
| Community association attorneys | Confirm certificate status before escalating a collection demand. |
| Homeowners | The database widens access to association contact and certificate information. |
Active Policy Debates
Unenacted 2025 proposals show that Texas lawmakers keep training their attention on day-to-day resident-use restrictions, including HB 648 on clotheslines and SB 141 on raising or keeping chickens.22 Similar proposals could return in the next 12 to 24 months, because the enacted 2025 package already swept in turf, solar roof tiles, fencing, common-area meetings, and association procedures.23
5. Closing note
Our look at Texas is ongoing. We'll be here as new bills move through the Legislature, as the Supreme Court of Texas weighs in on new disputes, and as TREC's certificate database fills out. Beyond Austin, federal frameworks — the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and FCC OTARD rules — also reach Texas associations depending on the issue, and we'll cover those federal frameworks in more detail as we build out our upcoming sections.24
Footnotes
- Texas Property Code Chapter 209, Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act; Texas Property Code Chapter 82, Uniform Condominium Act; Texas Property Code Chapter 81; Texas Property Code Chapter 207 ↩
- Texas Property Code Chapter 209; Texas Property Code Chapter 82 ↩
- Texas Judicial Branch, Courts of Appeals; Supreme Court of Texas; Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ↩
- Texas Real Estate Commission, HOA Registration and Search Tool Launched; Texas HOA Management Certificate Database ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, SB 711, 89th Regular Session; Supreme Court of Texas, June 13, 2025 orders and opinions; Supreme Court of Texas, October 31, 2025 orders and opinions ↩
- Texas Real Estate Commission, HOA Registration and Search Tool Launched; Texas Property Code Chapter 209 ↩
- Texas Property Code Chapter 209; Texas Property Code Chapter 207 ↩
- Texas Property Code Chapter 82; Texas Property Code Chapter 81 ↩
- Texas Judicial Branch, Courts of Appeals; Supreme Court of Texas ↩
- Texas Real Estate Commission, HOA Registration and Search Tool Launched; Texas HOA Management Certificate Database ↩
- Texas Attorney General, File a Consumer Complaint ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, HB 431, 89th Regular Session; HB 431 enrolled bill text ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, HB 517, 89th Regular Session; HB 517 enrolled bill text ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, SB 711, 89th Regular Session; SB 711 enrolled bill text ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, SB 2629, 89th Regular Session; SB 2629 enrolled bill text ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, HB 621, 89th Regular Session; HB 621 enrolled bill text ↩
- Supreme Court of Texas, EIS Development II, LLC v. Buena Vista Area Association, No. 23-0365 ↩
- Supreme Court of Texas, June 13, 2025 orders and opinions ↩
- Supreme Court of Texas, October 31, 2025 orders and opinions, In re Lynn Madison, No. 24-1073; Supreme Court of Texas, Case Summaries, October 31, 2025 ↩
- Supreme Court of Texas, Orders, October 31, 2025, In re Lynn Madison, No. 24-1073 ↩
- SB 711 enrolled bill text; Texas Real Estate Commission, HOA Registration and Search Tool Launched; Texas HOA Management Certificate Database ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, HB 648, 89th Regular Session; Texas Legislature Online, SB 141, 89th Regular Session ↩
- Texas Legislature Online, HB 431; Texas Legislature Online, HB 517; Texas Legislature Online, SB 711; Texas Legislature Online, SB 2629; Texas Legislature Online, HB 621 ↩
- U.S. Department of Justice, Fair Housing Act; ADA.gov, Americans with Disabilities Act; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation F; U.S. Department of Justice, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act; Federal Communications Commission, OTARD Rule ↩