To look up deed restrictions in Texas, start with the county clerk’s office in the county where the property is located. That office is the official keeper of recorded property documents, and restrictive covenants filed against a subdivision or individual lot will live there. You have three practical ways in: searching the clerk’s records directly (in person or online), reading the title commitment if you’re mid-purchase, and asking the HOA for its current governing documents.1Texas State Library. About County Records
Search the County Clerk’s Records
The county clerk accepts for filing everything from deeds to liens to restrictive covenants.1Texas State Library. About County Records When a developer files a subdivision plat or a homeowners association records its covenants, those documents go into the clerk’s records. That’s where the restrictions on your property sit.
Before you search, get the property’s legal description: lot number, block number, and subdivision name. A recent tax statement or the county appraisal district record usually has it. With that in hand, you can search the clerk’s grantor-grantee index and trace the chain of title back to the original subdivision filing, which is typically where restrictive covenants were recorded.
Searching in Person
Any Texas county clerk’s office is open during business hours for public records searches. You can use the terminals yourself, and staff will help you navigate the system. What staff will not do is run a title search for you or tell you which restrictions apply to your property. That interpretation is on you or your attorney.
Copy fees vary by county. Tarrant County, for example, charges $1 per page, plus $5 if you need the copy certified.2Tarrant County, TX. Copies of Official Public Records (Real Property) Expect similar ranges elsewhere.
Searching Online
Most Texas county clerks offer free online portals for recorded documents. You can search by name, property description, or document type. Larger counties like Harris, Dallas, Bexar, and Travis have solid online databases. Start at your county clerk’s website and look for a “real property records” or “official public records” search tool. Some counties also participate in aggregator platforms that search across multiple Texas counties at once.
Online indexes have a real limitation: they’re only as reliable as the data entry behind them. Older documents, especially anything recorded before counties digitized, may not appear in electronic searches. If your property sits in a subdivision platted before the 1980s, plan on a trip to the clerk’s office to look through microfilm or the physical indexes for the original covenants.
Read the Title Commitment
If you’re buying, the title commitment is the fastest path to the restrictions because the title company has already done the digging. The commitment lists every recorded encumbrance on the property: restrictions, easements, liens, anything that could affect ownership.
Turn to Schedule B. That’s the section listing exceptions to the title insurance coverage, and it’s where references to restrictive covenants show up. Schedule B does not reproduce the full text. It gives you document references, typically volume and page numbers, that point back to the actual instruments in the county clerk’s records.
Schedule B also lists standard exceptions for things a records search wouldn’t catch at all: boundary disputes a survey would reveal, unrecorded easements visible from inspecting the land, mechanic’s liens for unpaid work. Those aren’t deed restrictions, but they affect what your title insurance will and won’t cover. Extended coverage can remove some of those standard exceptions, usually with a current survey.
Ask your title company for copies of every document Schedule B references. They will typically send them. If the language reads as impenetrable, a real estate attorney can translate what the restrictions mean for what you actually want to do with the property.
Get the HOA’s Governing Documents
In a subdivision with a homeowners association, the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions is usually the most detailed source of deed restrictions. The CC&Rs cover architectural guidelines, maintenance requirements, use restrictions, and enforcement procedures. Under Texas law, these documents, along with properly adopted bylaws and rules, qualify as “dedicatory instruments” that bind every property owner in the subdivision.3State of Texas. Texas Property Code Chapter 202 – Construction and Enforcement of Restrictive Covenants
The original CC&Rs are recorded with the county clerk, so the records search above will pull them. But the original filing may be decades old, and HOAs regularly adopt amendments, new rules, and architectural standards after the original recording. Contact the HOA directly and ask for a current copy of all governing documents, including amendments. Many HOAs also run owner portals where these documents are posted.
Don’t stop at the CC&Rs. Ask for current rules and regulations, architectural review committee guidelines, and recent meeting minutes where rule changes were adopted. A restriction that wasn’t in the original CC&Rs may have been layered on by amendment years later.
Pull the Subdivision Plat
The recorded subdivision plat gets overlooked, and it shouldn’t be. A plat is the map filed with the county when a developer divides land into lots. Beyond lot boundaries and street layouts, plats often show building setback lines, utility easements, drainage easements, and notes about common areas or dedicated parkland. Some plats also cite the restrictive covenants by recording information, giving you a direct pointer to the right document in the clerk’s records.
Setback lines on a plat function like deed restrictions in practice. They dictate how close to the property line you can build. If you’re planning construction or an addition, read the plat. You can pull recorded plats through the county clerk’s office, and many county appraisal districts publish plat maps online.
Confirm What You Find Is Still Enforceable
Not every restriction sitting in the county records is still live. Some covenants include their own expiration date, often a 25- or 30-year initial term with automatic renewal provisions. If restrictions have expired and no one filed a renewal, they may no longer bind the property. Texas Property Code Chapter 201 provides a mechanism for owners to extend or renew restrictions by petition, with extension periods of up to 10 years at a time.4State of Texas. Texas Property Code Chapter 201 – Restrictive Covenants Applicable to Certain Subdivisions If a restriction looks lapsed, check whether a renewal was recorded before assuming it’s gone.
Racially and religiously discriminatory restrictions are void and unenforceable under federal law no matter what the recorded documents say. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to refuse to sell or rent a dwelling, or otherwise make housing unavailable, based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC Chapter 45 – Fair Housing You will still see these clauses in older deed records, particularly in subdivisions platted before the 1960s. They have no legal effect. They remain in the recorded documents because county clerks don’t edit historical records.
Deed Restrictions Are Not Zoning
People sometimes assume city zoning covers what deed restrictions cover, but the two are separate. Zoning is a government action, a city or county ordinance that dictates how land in certain areas can be used. Deed restrictions are private agreements between property owners, recorded in the deed records and enforceable by the parties to the restriction and their successors. A city has no role in enforcing a private deed restriction.
This distinction matters most in Houston, which is the largest city in the United States without a traditional zoning ordinance. In Houston, deed restrictions are the primary tool separating residential neighborhoods from commercial uses.6City of Houston. About Deed Restrictions If you’re buying property in Houston or nearby, checking for deed restrictions isn’t optional; it may be the only thing keeping a business from opening next door.
When a deed restriction and a zoning ordinance both apply to the same property, the more restrictive rule controls. If zoning allows commercial use but the deed restrictions limit the lot to single-family residential, the deed restriction wins. Check both sources. A property that looks permissible under zoning may still be locked down by private covenants.
Don’t Rely on the Seller’s Disclosure
If you’re buying, the seller has some obligation to flag deed restriction issues, but it’s narrower than you might expect. The statutory seller’s disclosure notice under Property Code Section 5.008 asks whether the seller is aware of homeowners association fees or assessments, and whether the seller has received any notices of deed restriction violations affecting the property.7State of Texas. Texas Property Code Chapter 5 The notice does not require the seller to list every restriction that applies. It only covers what the seller knows, and it only asks about violations and HOA fees, not the restrictions themselves.
A separate provision, Section 5.012, requires written notice when a property is subject to mandatory membership in a property owners’ association. That helps you understand you’ll be joining an HOA. It still doesn’t substitute for reading the actual restrictions. Do your own search through the county clerk’s records and the title commitment. The seller’s legal duty to tell you about restrictions is limited to what they already know.