There are numerous homeowner and neighborhood associations in District 1, the highest concentration in the city. For our homeowner associations, some have hired property managers and some are self-managed. Virtually all have some common property that must be maintained; maintenance that the city, like most other Texas cities, seeks to avoid responsibility. The HOA's, through annual assessments, take care of their neighborhoods, work to support their property values, and do so without being a burden to taxpayers citywide.
 
There are thousands and thousands of such associations across the state and country. In Texas every two years, dozens of bills are filed for consideration by the Legislature that would affect HOA's, most of them negatively. Every association is unique: its by-laws and deed restrictions will be different than other associations. A bill written with one neighborhood in mind can be devastating to hundreds or thousands of others.
 
A bill introduced last session would have limited board members to a total of six years. Why? The Legislature doesn't limit their own terms; they don't mandate city council terms; they don't seek to limit the terms of other corporate boards. An HOA is a nonprofit corporation that exists through a contractual relationship with its members. The effect would be to make sure board members have limited experience and once they do know the jobs of managing an association well, they would have to step down. Austin doesn't know what is best in your neighborhood. I'm much closer and I freely confess I don't know what you need as well as you do.
 
The only statewide organization that represents neighborhoods is Texas Neighborhoods Together. Board members come from all over the state and everyone serves voluntarily. Garland is represented by TNT and currently has two board members: Lee Smith and myself. I invite you to check TNT's website for its Legislative Agenda and a synopsis of the bills filed this session that affect neighborhoods. You can also sign up for e-mail alerts.
 
To give a little perspective and history of bills that affect mandatory associations, I'm pleased to post this information from Sharon Reuler, who represents clients involved with property owner associatons. She is well known in Garland to several local architects and builders.
 

2009 MUSINGS ON TEXAS POA BILLS

Prepared by Sharon Reuler
Revised March 5, 2009

 
POA or HOA?
 
POA is the acronym for “property owners association” – any mandatory association of property owners, residential or non-residential, condominium or non-condo. HOA is the acronym for “homeowners association.” To date, most of the POA Bills have been limited to residential contexts, so POA and HOA may be used interchangeably without harm. However, the term “homeowners association” is not likely to appear in the text of the POA Bills. Why not? Because Texas statutes use and define “property owners association” – even when referring to residential-only developments. In the Texas codes, “homeowners association” is not a defined term. Also, do not assume that condominium associations are not POAs. Depending on the statute, they are.
 
WHAT IS A "POA BILL"?
 
People who monitor legislation could easily disagree about where to draw the line in identifying POA Bills. In a broad context, many parts of the Texas statutes have some affect on POAs or on the people who live in common interest communities, such as laws dealing with real property, property taxes, nonprofit corporations, land use, creditor rights, crime, schools, roads, and utilities. In a narrow context, only statutes that refer to "property owners associations" or "condominium" might be considered "POA Bills." My perspective is slightly broader than the narrowest context, and is attuned to bills relating to the development of planned communities and the marketing of homes in planned communities. I mention this because my list of POA Bills may look different from lists generated by others who monitor this subject. The best part is that you are not limited by what you get from me or anyone else. It is easy to do your own research by using the Texas Legislature's incredible search engine that allows you to search all bills for certain words. www.capitol.state.tx.us
 
LAST SESSION - 2007
 
In 2007, I identified 20 bills as "POA Bills." Of those, only 6 became law before the session ended. Of the 6 new laws in 2007, only 2 applied statewide. The other 4 were "bracketed" to the Houston area.
 
THIS SESSION - 2009
 
What happened to the 14 POA Bills that were filed during the 2007 session, but did not become law? Well, some of them were filed again for the 2009 session.
 
The most prominent of these are the batch of nine POA Bills authored by Senator Royce West of Dallas. Senator West chairs the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee ("IGR"), the committee in which the POA Bills are heard on the Senate side of the Capitol. In 2007, and again this session, Senator West is filling an "omnibus bill" (S.B. 429) comprised of many single-issue individual POA Bills. Because of its length and range of topics, SB 429 appears to be "comprehensive" - written as a whole in which all the parts work together. Not so. The sections of Senator West's SB 429 are largely independent of each other. The several parts of SB 429 have also been filed as 8 smaller bills. So, although Senator West filed 9 POA bills, one of the nine contains the meat of the other eight.
 
From bill filings alone, Senator West is taking the lead on POA bills in the Senate. Most POA bills will be channeled to the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee, chaired by Senator West. So, his influence will be substantial In the House, Representative Burt Solomons is garnering attention for his omnibus POA bill (HB 1976) and his concept of a Texas constitutional amendment to prohibit assessment lien foreclosures on homesteads (HJR 76). Especially in the House, many other lawmakers are involved with POA legislation.
 
WHERE DO THE BILLS COME FROM?
 
There is no single source of POA Bills. Homeowners have discovered that the fastest and cheapest way to make a change in their HOA’s governing documents and practices is to have a public law that overrides the private restrictions. It's the job of a lawmaker to come to the aid of a constituent who has a grievance that is capable of being addressed with a state law, even if the constituent has access to other means of relief – such as the political processes within his HOA or the courthouse for a declaratory judgment, both of which can be cumbersome, costly, and uncertain. Some bills originate with industries that have goods and services to sell, such as satellite television, rain sensor lawn irrigation, and solar panels. And, some bills are initiated by well-intentioned lawmakers, organizations, and individuals who want to make the world of HOAs a better place.
 
CONCERN - UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
 
Most of the bills seek to protect homeowners in established subdivisions from perceived abuses by the directors, managers, and attorneys of the property owners associations. The problem (from my perspective) is that the bills typically assume that all planned developments in Texas - all POAs - are alike. They do not recognize the diversity of planned developments. A law written for a subdivision of detached houses may have weird outcomes for a subdivision of townhomes or duplexes. A law that targets a homeowner-elected board of directors may have dire consequences for a developer-appointed board. A law that addresses a circumstance in large subdivisions with nominal common areas and low assessments may be detrimental to small subdivisions with extensive common areas (and common services) and high assessments.
 
Another more technical problem is that the POA bills typically refer to other state laws for definitions, or they amend current laws. Because of our crazy quilt lawmaking, Texas statutes have multiple definitions for terms like "property owners association." To the uninitiated, the definitions seem interchangeable. However, subtle differences make one definition apply to condos as well as non-condos, while another applies to non-condos only. For example, a bill that is tied to Chapter 202 of the Texas Property Code is likely to apply to condos as well as non-condos. Whereas the same bill - if tied to Chapter 209 of the Texas Property Code - will not apply to condos.
 
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
 
CONDOMINIUMS. Texas has comprehensive statewide laws for the creation and operation of properties that are condominium in ownership. The Texas Uniform Condominium Act was enacted in 1993 as Chapter 82 of the Texas Property Code. Its predecessor, the Texas Condominium Act, was enacted in 1963 as (now) Chapter 81 of the Texas Property Code. Neither act has been much amended, indicating that they more-or-less "work" as written. In addition to the two comprehensive condominium acts, condominium developments are also subject to some of the other state laws regulating "property owners associations" or "restrictions" in general.
 
PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS. For the other types of mandatory membership common interest developments, there is no statewide comprehensive law in Texas. Texas has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, or the Uniform Planned Community Act. There appears to be no support for comprehensive legislation in this era. Instead, Texas has been adopting laws in a piecemeal fashion thus creating a crazy quilt of applicable statutes. Most of the "POA laws" are congregated in Title 11 of the Texas Property Code, which is titled "Restrictive Covenants." These are the laws in the "200" series - Chapter 201 and onward. Several other "POA laws" are found in Chapter 5 of Title 2 ("Conveyances") of the Texas Property Code. What is particularly maddening, some of the POA laws are not statewide in application - they are "bracketed" to apply to a particular geographic area - or a single development - within the state.