From the 89th – Prefiled Edition
For those members like us here at TMHA thinking that January 14th can’t come fast enough, I have great news for you, filing of bills as already started.
We already have 1,791 and counting bills that have be pre-filed for the coming 2025 Texas Legislative Session. We expect between now and the bill filing deadline in March that the total will exceed 8,000 bills. We have read the pre-filed bills and kicked off our tracking reports.
It’s a pretty simple process that we start with for every session. We read all the bills filed, and then cull that down to a tracking or watch report in our various software systems. We run multiple systems with Rob and me independently reviewing all of the bills. Our lobby team also goes through the bills on their own. Rob has built a custom AI system that reads all the bills, but beyond simple keyword or areas of Texas law searches, is built and “learned” based on all the prior sessions on the bills we have flagged before. The point is we try to build in multiple layers of redundancy to reduce the probability that we will miss something.
And when we build our lists of targeted bills, they run the gambit of good, bad, and ugly. Sure, there are the overt bills that hit our industry square in the chest. We already have one of those this session on increased county authority regulating new manufactured home community development. Then there are ones in broad areas that are important like tax policy, landlord tenant issues, transportation, and occupational licensing. But our goal is to capture not only all of those but other bills as well that might be a bit more ancillary or near-adjacent to topics, policy or specific areas of Texas law. This last category is where some of the biggest threats, and opportunities can arise months later as we see what bills move and what bills die for later amendment risks, and possibly places for…more creative solutions.
Once we have our full track list, which will probably narrow down to about 400 bills, that defines our to-do list, and we go to work in the halls of the Capitol. We start talking to offices, staff, lobby, other trade associations, committee chairs, specific committee members, and of course the bill authors. Sometimes we get to have a nice conversation about how their bill is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and other times we have to tell some folks we think their baby is ugly. But they get to do the same with our ideas, meaning it goes both ways.
We have time down the line to get into all of that as it gets closer. At this point the newly elected haven’t even been sworn in or assigned offices, and the opening gavel strike is still a little more than a month away.
So, for now, a few of the first horses out of the barn have caught our eye. And don’t worry, I’m not going to have you read all 1800 bills, or even the 64 we have already added to the to-do list.
But here are a few:
Direct Manufactured Housing Impact Bills:
HB 328 - Relating to the regulation of manufactured home rental communities located in certain counties.
Comment: A bracketed bill for Brazoria County but would give that county additional authority above the current law to regulate lot size, road requirements, and access for manufactured home communities.
Land Use and Increased Local (city and county) Control/Regulations:
HB 733 - Relating to verification of citizenship or legal residency for purposes of certain contracts for or concerning the purchase of residential real property located in platted subdivisions; creating a criminal offense.
Comment: This is one of many bills we anticipate in response to the stories and legal action taken earlier this year about the Colony Ridge development, in which both the Texas Attorney General, and US Dept of Justice/CFPB sued the developers. This bill would require proof of citizenship before a person could enter into a “contract for deed” to purchase land in a county.
HB 878 - Relating to the regulation of residential land use and accessory dwelling units by a political subdivision; authorizing a fee.
Comment: This bill does quite a lot and quite a lot more than just ADUs. First, for the City of Pearland would not be allowed to require a minimum lot size greater than 2,500 sqft, and the City of Pearland then could not require a setback greater than five feet (front, back and sides), covered parking, more than one parking space, and other restrictions.
Second, the bill would grant all Texas counties with a population of less than one million, that has more than two houses per acre, essentially complete land use and zoning controls over housing. The counties would also regulate platting and counties would not be allowed to approve any lot sizes in those counties that are less than 10,000 sqft or have width of less than 100 ft. This would apply, based on the one million or less size requirement, to every Texas county except the larger ones of Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, Collin and Denton.
The last third of the bill address ADUs, and says that statewide an ADUs can go on any lot zoned for single-family or duplex or that is not zoned and that the “political subdivision”(which means city or county) can’t regulates or require parking, owner occupancy of the primary home, setbacks larger than five feet, limit the size of the ADU that is less the 50% of the primary house or 800 sqft, charge an impact fee, and several other restrictions on local governments, including ministerial approval of a ADU permit limited to building codes, design standards and fire codes.
Lastly, the bill creates a complaint and enforcement mechanism via the attorney general office to impose the “no new revenue tax rate” provisions un Chapter 26, Tax Code.
HB 1322 - Relating to municipal approval of subdivision plans or plats in certain municipalities.
Comment: Think of this as the small town/city extra time bill. Current law requires a platting application approval to be completed within 30-days. This bill would allow all Texas cities with populations less than 10,000 to have up to 90-days to decide on a platting application, and if a groundwater availability certification is required. Additionally, the bill would extend the time to perform a “takings impact assessment” from 15 days to 45 days for cities with a population under 10,000.
SB 325 - Relating to county regulation of subdivisions and approval of subdivision plans or plats.
Comment: Current law prohibits a county from being able to require a subdivision plat if the landowner does not lay out a part of the land for Section 232.001(a)(3), which is, “streets, alleys, squares, parks, or other parts of the tract intended by the owner of the tract to be dedicated to public use.” This bill would expand this to also include, and thus could require county subdivision platting if the landowner lays out, “one or more streets, alleys, squares, parks, or other parts of the tract intended for the use of purchasers or owners of lots fronting on or adjacent to the streets, alleys, squares, parks, or other parts.” Essentially, any private use streets or parks, under this proposed bill, would require a county subdivision platting (regardless of track size, meaning including tacks over 10 acres).
SB 253 - relating to county subdivision platting requirements.
Comment: This effectively would have the same effect as SB 325 (above). It is worded differently and placed in the county platting requirements section of Chapter 232, Local Government Code, but says nearly the same thing. If an owner in a county lays out a street, park, etc. dedicated for private use, this proposed law change would require platting.
A comment on both SB 325 and SB 253, this bills look to reverse out changes the 2023 Legislature made with the passage of HB 3697. Recall HB 3697 was significant pre-development bill passed last session. In addition to clarifying, which these bills would reverse out, that only dedicated roads and streets triggered county platting, the bill streamlined the county platting process, eliminated a lot of individual country variability in the platting process, and requires counties to publish on their website all documents and other information required for a plat application process. We wrote about this law change and its sister-bill back last session - Recap from the 88th - A Good Session for Housing Developers
Landlord Tenant
Before getting into the pre-filed bills, we want to put on everyone’s’ radar who has an interest in landlord/tenant issues, specifically the Texas eviction process that we know there will be legislation in 2025 attempting a major overhaul of the eviction process. Leading this effort is the Texas Apartment Association, but a large and growing coalition of associations and lobby are expected to join in this effort. TMHA is already involved, and we plan to help with our other coalition partners along the way. This will be a legislative ”heavy lift,” but the goal is to streamline the eviction process and organize very specific timelines with state preemptive impact. For anyone who has had to deal with eviction issues post-COVID, especially if you have multiple properties in different jurisdictions and courts, then you know the disjointed, inconsistent, and opaque nature of some of these eviction proceedings. This effort would seek to clarify one consistent, predictable, and expeditious process that would apply state-wide.
Alright, now for some pre-filed bills that caught our attention:
HB 410 - Relating to pet deposits or fees collected by landlords.
Comment: Limits pet deposits for renters to an initial one-time deposit or a monthly fee that is not more then $20/mth, but not both
HB 414 - Relating to the unauthorized entry, occupancy, sale, rental, lease, advertisement for sale, rental, or lease, or conveyance of real property, including the removal of certain unauthorized occupants of a dwelling; creating criminal offenses; increasing a criminal penalty; authorizing a fee.
Comment: This is an anti-squatters bill that would give additional criminal penalties and squatter removal authority to the sheriff.
HB 577 - Relating to the notice period for certain evictions.
Comment: Would move the timeline for notices to vacate from 3-days to 14-days.
HB 798 - Relating to certain rights and duties of residential tenants and landlords; increasing the amount of civil penalties.
Comment: A significant number of proposed changes to landlord tenant law that would, among other things, provide a right to cure mandate, sealing of some evictions records and limited reporting, change late fees to the lesser of 10% of the rent or $75, and late fees cannot be applied to unpaid charges that are not rent (such as other service fees), prohibits a tenants arrest from being a default under lease agreement, expanding tenants options to repair and withhold rent, enhanced penalties on retaliation by a landlord.
HB 1299 - Relating to certain deposits, fees, or charges required to be provided by a tenant or prospective tenant in connection with a residential lease.
Comment: Redefines what is a security deposit and defaults all monies paid in any form of fees, deposits etc. as the security deposit.
Miscellaneous/Grab Bag – MLOs, HVAC Sales Tax Holiday, and RV Parks
SB 74 - Relating to an exemption from residential mortgage loan originator licensing requirements.
Comment: Would reduce the de minimis amount to not have to get licensed from five to three loans per year. This would align with federal de minimus.
SB 214 - Relating to a temporary exemption from sales and use taxes for certain residential heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems and installation services.
Comment: Would provide a sales tax exemption on all new HVAC system purchases from March 1, 2026 thru September 1, 2027.
SB 385 - Relating to construction standards for certain recreational vehicle parks and campgrounds.
Comment: This is a bill supported by the RV Campground Association. This bill nearly passed last session. It made it through the House but ran out of time in the Senate. This bill would impose state preemptive standards on building RV Parks set to “the National Fire Protection Association 1194, Standard for Recreational Vehicle Parks and Campgrounds, 2021 Edition, other than Section 1.1.1.”