2023 Texas Legislative Sessions Means New Landlord Laws

We were fairly lucky in the Lone State State in this year’s legislative session compared to many other places around the United States. Three bills passed that will have an impact on property management in Texas.

1. Source of Funds: Recently, an HOA in Texas passed an ordinance stating that tenants could not live in the community if they were using a Housing Choice Voucher, aka Section 8, to rent the property. This rule disproportionately affected women and Black tenants, and was not aligned with what the Legislature has done to remove discriminatory deed restrictions. On Sept 1, a new law goes into effect that prevents HOAs from prohibiting a property owner from renting to a Housing Choice Voucher recipient. 
   
   Interestingly enough, the state legislature has written into our constitution that a property owner does not have to participate in government regulated programs like the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The new law seems to align with the notion that property owners should have the authority to rent to whomever they choose.
   

2. Evictions: The new "pre-emption" law passed this session covers eviction. A municipality or county may not adopt, enforce, or maintain an ordinance, order, or rule regulating evictions or otherwise prohibiting, restricting, or delaying delivery of notice to vacate or filing a suit to recover possession of the premises under Chapter 24, Property Code. This law prohibits municipalities and counties from enacting their own regulations regarding these issues. A lawsuit has already been filed to stop this law because it removes authority from local governments, and transfers the power to the state. The law has been a hot topic regarding local ordinances passed to protect people by mandating work breaks for construction workers when the temperature is over a certain threshold. We reached out to legal counsel to see if this would apply to “Notice of Tenants Rights” that the City of San Antonio created in response to evictions during Covid, but was advised that since this ordinance was already on the books that it would not be affected. We will be watching to see if the implementation of the law will be delayed due to the current lawsuit.

3. Service Animals: A new law revises provisions relating to the improper use of assistance animals in order to deter future offenders from fraudulently exploiting this accommodation. Under the new law, a person commits an offense if intentionally or knowingly represents that an animal is a service animal when the animal is not specially trained or equipped to help a person with a disability. An offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 (previously $300) and 30 hours of community service. The bill also includes a provision that subjects a person who habitually abuses or neglects to feed or otherwise neglects to properly care for the person’s service animal to seizure of the animal under the Health and Safety Code. We have been advised by legal counsel that Texas code does not distinguish between service animals and emotional support animals so these fines could be applied with either