2003 Legislative Update No. 2 for Real Estate: Narrowing the Field Well, here we are in very interesting times. The Dems run for the Red River, and leave behind a whole lot of unfinished business. As a result, of the real estate-related legislation we are watching, 43 of 81 land use bills are dead, 11 of 17 construction related bills are dead, 6 of 6 landlord/tenant bills died, and 3 of 5 hunting/fishing/recreational land use bills slipped into not-in-this-session land. Basically, if it hadn’t passed the House before the Dems ran to Ardmore, and it was a House bill, it’s dead. Land Use: what more can we say other than just about every bill passed that relates to land use gives the government, whether that be the city or county or state, more rights, which means the landowner has less rights. Watch for increased ability of counties to regulate land use, where they haven’t been able to before. Moving to the county to escape land use regs may become a thing of the past. HB 1207 is still alive, having passed the House, which would give cities great power to regulate “appearances.” Living in a subdivision with a homeowners association that has, and loves, this power, my experience is there’s a dark side to this Camelot. TxDOT’s new plans to not build any more frontage roads continues to go down in flames. A bill heavily supported by most major cities, SB 361, has already passed the Senate and been favorably reported out of House Committee. Construction: It looks like those who demolish structures will be able to claim a mechanics lien if they’re not paid (HB 208, which has passed the House). And HB 730, the huge residential construction bill that establishes the Texas Residential Construction Commission and requires builders to register, and acts as a dispute resolution body over construction disputes, has passed the House and is being looked over in a Senate committee. Franchise Tax: for those of you who have Family Limited Partnerships and/or own real estate in limited partnerships, all 7 bills in the House which expanded the franchise tax to other entities (some including limited partnerships) are all dead. SB 1030 is still alive, but I don’t expect it to go anywhere. This topic is “special session” stuff, which is coming up shortly after the regular session closes, according to my sources. Landlord/Tenant: HB 2180, which would change the way current law regulates the computation of charges assessed against a tenant in certain commercial leases (pass through items such as common area maintenance, ad valorem taxes, and insurance premiums), is an employment act for lawyers and other professionals. It is just so loosey-goosey, only allowing landlords to assess these charges in a "reasonable" manner that is in the "customary use" of the industry. Do you know what that is? Does it change depending on the type of structure, location, use by the tenant? It'd take many years of judicial development (as in test cases) to inject this proposed statute with any sort of certainty. As bad as the current law is, this one introduces so much uncertainty, so many issues that parties could legitimately disagree on, it hardly solves the problem in a positive way, no matter which side of the landlord/tenant equation you're on. And I don't have any clients I know of that want to be test cases, intentionally or not. This bill has passed the House and now goes to the Senate. On the Hunting and Fishing side, you’ll be glad to note that landowners can hunt and kill feral hogs on their own property without having to have a license. If you don’t know why this is good, perhaps I should introduce you to one of them there pigs. I went hunting a few weekends ago with some friends and we collectively took 2 of ‘em. Big ‘uns, too. Browse through our 2003 Legislative Tracking Center to get a more complete update on where we’re at. The dead bills are easily identified (hint: they say “DEAD” in the Status box). We update our Legislative Tracking Center daily, so bookmark this page and keep it handy for the next 2 weeks as we wind up the lunacy in Austin, and watch for our next Special Legislative Email Alert right after June 2, the last legislative day. www.mctexlaw.com/2003legislation.asp. Close
Window |