Issued March 11, 2013
Dear Citizens,
Give thanks! Bill-filing ended on Friday 3/8 and now we have a pretty good notion of what we're dealing with this Session (which ends in 77 days). I've identified only 28 POA-Specific Bills - largely those amending Titles 7 and 11 of the Texas Property Code. Here is a link to that report -
Title 7 has the condo laws - Chapters 81 & 82 (TUCA is 82). Title 11 has laws that pertain to both condos and single-family (Chapter 202), and laws that pertain only to single-family (Chapter 209 aka TROPA).
In my next transmission I'll include my overview of the "Sundry Bills" - other bills that may interest the members, directors, managers, attorneys, and developers of common interest communities, but which are not POA-Specific.
WORRISOME BUT NOT "SEXY" IN 2013
In previous sessions we were dealing with big hot juicy issues that were easy to relate to - voting rights, secret ballots, open records, open meetings. This session the issues are less captivating, and the consequences are harder to explain because they sound like legal technicalities. Though boring, those legal technicalities may bear bitter fruit - for developers especially - if they aren't effectively addressed before these bills become law. One such worrisome "technicality" is the blurring of a developer's "control rights" over HOA governance with the developer's "development rights" for expansion, build-out, and sell-out. If the distinction isn't carefully honored, development rights are at stake (IMHO).
DEVELOPERS GET ATTENTION
Four of the POA-Specific Bills directly deal with developers:
HB 1933 by Allen amending TUCA
HB 2944 by King amending the Timeshare Act
SB 1372 by Hinojosa amending the Timeshare Act
Two other POA-Specific Bills that seem likely to affect developers are:
HB 35 by Menendez regarding control of lot use
HB 503 by Hernandez Luna re: HOA contracts
HEARINGS HAVE BEGUN
After a bill is filed, it will be assigned to a committee and scheduled for a hearing. If a bill makes it out of committee, it competes to get on the calendar for a vote by the full chamber. House Bills are heard first in the House, Senate Bills in the Senate. That's half the battle. Still has to clear hurdles in the other chamber.
A word about bills that are "pending" in a committee after having a hearing at which testimony was taken. A pending bill can be "substituted" ~ or replaced with a version that doesn't get a hearing. (Seems unfair.)
At any time after the hearing, the committee may vote on the original bill that was heard, or on the substituted version that was not heard. If a substituted version is approved by the committee, the bill number is preceded by C.S. for "Committee Substitute." Hence, SB 198 becomes CSSB 198.
You can watch the hearing on your computer (or other devices, I suppose). If you miss the live webcam, you can watch the archived hearings at your leisure. I belatedly watched the hearing on March 5 in the House Committee on Business & Industry at which 5 POA-Specific Bills were heard. Here are links to the Hearing Webcams:
The first hearing a bill gets may be the only that has testimony and webcam coverage. After that first hearing, if the bill gets out of committee, it may get no further public scrutiny, even though it gets another hearing in the second chamber.
YEAR OF CONDOS
So far, the most significant POA-specific bills of 2013 are the two multi-part condo bills - HB 1933 by Allen, and HB 2075 by Anchia (the companion is SB 1231 by West). My section-by-section overview of those two bills is at the back of the report on POA-Specific Bills. Because it's challenging to navigate Title 7 of the Texas Property Code without a roadmap, my overview also provides some background information about the relationship between Chapters 81 and 82, and between Chapters 82 and 209.
YEAR OF TECHNOLOGY
A number of "technology" bills have been filed that are interesting by way of analogy to POAs. Several bills address telephone conferencing, video conferencing, or internet broadcasts of meetings of local governments and special districts.
HB 584 by Rodriguez will require county clerks to publish foreclosure posting notices on a website.
HOW TO COUNT BILLS
The attached overview of POA-Specific Bills identifies 28 that have been filed through March 8, 2013. Two of the 28 bills are multi-purpose, containing 6 unrelated proposals, each of which could stand alone as a bill.
Five of 28 bills are "companions" - the same bill was filed in both chambers (House and Senate) to increase the bill's odds of clearing all the hurdles before the session ends. And two of the 28 bills are "bracketed" to specific developments, and not likely to interest a statewide audience. So, bill counts are only an indication - not to be relied on.
