Texas deed restrictions are private rules recorded against your property that limit what you can build, how you can use your home, and sometimes even what color you can paint the front door. They travel with the land, so every future owner is bound whether or not they read them at closing. Your homeowners’ association enforces them through written notices, fines, and lawsuits, and civil damages can reach $200 per day of violation. Federal and state law override some of the most restrictive clauses, and owners can change or remove restrictions through a recorded amendment or, in narrow cases, a court ruling.
What Deed Restrictions Usually Control
Restrictions vary from one subdivision to the next, but the categories repeat because developers work from similar templates.
The most fundamental clause limits property to residential use. That single line increasingly reaches short-term rentals: courts in multiple states have found that purely transient rentals fall outside “residential use” even when the restriction never mentions Airbnb or VRBO by name. If your declaration says “residential purposes only,” a short-term rental ban may already be baked in.
Architectural controls are the next big category. Roof materials, paint colors, fence styles, building height, mailbox design, and exterior modifications generally require approval from the HOA or an architectural review committee. These provisions hold up in court when the language is clear and the committee applies the rules consistently.
Minimum square footage clauses set a floor for home size, often 1,800 or 2,000 square feet for new construction. Texas courts enforce them as long as they are not arbitrary or discriminatory. Setback requirements dictate how far structures must sit from property lines, streets, or other buildings, keeping spacing uniform across the neighborhood.
How They Become Binding on You
A deed restriction carries legal weight in Texas only if it is recorded in the real property records of the county where the land sits. Recording puts every future buyer on constructive notice, meaning you are bound whether or not you actually read the documents before closing. Unrecorded restrictions are much harder to enforce; a court may refuse to apply them against a buyer who had no way to know they existed.
During a typical home purchase, the title company pulls these records and includes them in the title commitment. Restrictions usually live in a document called a Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions, filed by the original developer. That declaration is the master document, and everything else — the HOA’s authority, the architectural standards, the assessment obligations — flows from it.
Amendments must also be recorded. If your neighborhood votes to change a rule but nobody files the amendment with the county, a court can treat the change as if it never happened. Texas Property Code requires that amendments take effect only once they are filed along with the petition or ballots showing the required number of owners consented.1State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 216.014 Construction of Chapter and Restrictions
Who Enforces Them
Homeowners’ associations and property owners’ associations police deed restrictions day to day. The developer creates the association when it files the original declaration, and control eventually transfers to a board elected by homeowners once enough lots are sold.
The board interprets the restrictions, approves or denies modification requests, and can adopt supplemental rules that fill gaps the original declaration left open. Many associations appoint an architectural review committee to handle design approvals. Texas law presumes that an association’s exercise of discretionary authority over a restriction is reasonable unless a court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the decision was arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory.2State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 202.004 Enforcement of Restrictive Covenant
Associations collect dues and assessments to fund maintenance, landscaping, and amenities. Those obligations attach to the property itself. Under Texas condominium law, an unpaid assessment creates a lien secured by the unit and any rents or insurance proceeds the owner receives.3State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 82.113 Associations Lien for Assessments
Rules Your HOA Cannot Enforce
Deed restrictions are private contracts, but they cannot override federal or state law. Several protections effectively make certain clauses unenforceable, even if they still appear word-for-word in your recorded CC&Rs.
Satellite Dishes and Antennas
The FCC’s Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule prohibits any private restriction that impairs your ability to install, maintain, or use certain antennas and satellite dishes on property you exclusively control. The rule covers satellite dishes one meter or smaller, TV antennas designed for local broadcast signals, and certain fixed wireless antennas of the same size.4Federal Communications Commission. Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule Your HOA can impose safety-related requirements but cannot ban these devices or unreasonably delay installation. AM/FM radio, ham radio, and CB antennas are not covered.
Flag Display
Federal law prevents any residential association from stopping you from displaying the U.S. flag on property you own or have exclusive use of. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act allows reasonable time, place, and manner rules — a standard size, safe mounting — but not an outright ban.5GovInfo. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 Texas law extends similar protection to the Texas state flag and the flag of the U.S. armed forces.6State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 202.007 Certain Restrictive Covenants Prohibited
Solar Panels
Texas Property Code Section 202.010 prohibits a property owners’ association from enforcing a provision that bans solar energy devices. An HOA or its architectural review committee may impose reasonable placement requirements but cannot withhold approval if you meet them, unless the proposed placement would substantially interfere with neighbors’ use and enjoyment in a way that would bother a person of ordinary sensibilities. During a development period for communities with fewer than 51 planned homes, the developer retains the right to prohibit solar installation.7State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 202.010 Solar Energy Device
Disability Accommodations
The federal Fair Housing Act requires reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, and deed restrictions cannot override that obligation. If a restriction bans fences but you need one to safely contain a service animal, or if architectural standards prohibit ramps but you need wheelchair access, the association must make a reasonable accommodation. The analysis is case by case, but a restriction cannot be enforced when doing so would deny a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy their home.8Department of Justice. The Fair Housing Act
Discriminatory Clauses
Deed restrictions that impose racial, religious, or ethnic limitations are void under both the Fair Housing Act and Texas law. Some older subdivisions still have these clauses in their recorded declarations. They have no legal effect and cannot be enforced, and Texas law provides a statutory process for striking them from the record.
Rainwater Harvesting
Texas law also prevents associations from prohibiting rain barrels and rainwater harvesting systems on residential property, part of a broader legislative trend protecting water-conservation practices even when deed restrictions would otherwise control landscaping choices.
How Enforcement Actually Works
Enforcement almost always starts with a written notice. Under the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, an association cannot suspend your right to use common areas, file a lawsuit, charge you for property damage, or levy a fine without first giving you written notice and an opportunity to appear before the board.9State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 209.0051 Open Board Meetings An association that skips this step risks having the entire enforcement action thrown out.
If you do not correct the violation, the association can fine you according to the schedule in its governing documents, suspend your access to amenities, or file suit. Fines must be clearly established in the association’s rules before they are imposed. Making up a fine amount on the spot, or applying fines inconsistently across homeowners, invites a legal challenge.
One number catches homeowners off guard: Texas law caps civil damages for a deed restriction violation at $200 per day.2State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 202.004 Enforcement of Restrictive Covenant A violation that lingers for six months can generate more than $36,000 in civil damages alone, before attorney’s fees. Many declarations also include a prevailing-party fee clause, which means losing an enforcement lawsuit can mean paying the association’s legal bills on top of your own.
An association can foreclose on a home to collect unpaid assessments, but Texas law draws a firm line. An association may not foreclose if the debt consists solely of fines, attorney’s fees tied to those fines, or certain charges added under specific statutory provisions.10State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 209.009 Foreclosure Sale Prohibited in Certain Circumstances An HOA cannot take your house because you painted your door the wrong color and refused to pay the fine. If you stop paying regular assessments and those debts accumulate with a recorded lien, foreclosure becomes a real possibility, and you have the right to challenge it in court.11Texas State Law Library. Property Owners Associations – Assessments and Foreclosure
Enforcement does not stay available forever. The general residual statute of limitations for a deed restriction claim in Texas is four years from the date of the breach. If an association or neighbor sits on a known violation, a court may refuse to allow enforcement. The equitable defense of laches can apply too: if the delay was unreasonable and you relied on the silence to your detriment, say by spending $50,000 on a structure nobody objected to for three years, a court may find it unjust to order removal.
Changing or Removing a Restriction
Deed restrictions are not permanent in practice, though they can feel that way. Texas law offers several paths to change or eliminate them.
Amendment by Owner Vote
Most declarations include an amendment clause specifying how many owners must agree to a change. Some require a simple majority; others demand 67% or 75%. Whatever the original declaration requires, follow that procedure exactly. Once approved, the amendment must be filed in the county property records along with the petition or ballots showing the required consent.1State of Texas. Texas Code Property Code – Section 216.014 Construction of Chapter and Restrictions Courts have invalidated amendments where the procedure was not followed to the letter.
Changed Conditions
When a neighborhood has changed so drastically that a restriction no longer serves its original purpose, Texas courts can refuse to enforce it under the changed-conditions doctrine. In 2025, the Texas Supreme Court held in EIS Development II, LLC v. Buena Vista Area Association that a factfinder must consider all changes since the restriction was created, not just changes after the current owner bought the property. The standard is whether “there has been such a change of conditions in the restricted area or surrounding it that it is no longer possible to secure in a substantial degree the benefits sought to be realized through the restriction.”12Justia. EIS Development II LLC v Buena Vista Area Association This is a high bar. A handful of new businesses along a subdivision’s edge will not clear it. Wholesale commercial development of the surrounding area might.
Older Subdivisions
Texas Property Code Chapter 216 provides a specific process for extending or amending restrictions in subdivisions platted before 1947. Many of these neighborhoods lack a functioning HOA and carry restrictions so outdated they discourage investment and maintenance, and the chapter also gives owners a way to remove racially restrictive covenants that still appear in some older declarations.
Before You Buy or Sell
Read the full declaration before closing on a home in a deed-restricted subdivision. Most buyers skim the CC&Rs or skip them, then find out months later that they cannot build the workshop, park the RV, or list the home on Airbnb. The title company will provide these documents during the transaction, so ask for them early and read them carefully.
Pay attention to the amendment clause. A restriction you can live with today might be tightened by a future vote, and the threshold for that vote is set in the declaration itself. Check whether the board can adopt supplemental rules without a full owner vote. Look hard at assessment obligations: your dues are not just a monthly number, they are a potential lien if you fall behind.
When selling, expect the association to charge a fee for a resale certificate or disclosure packet. Texas law caps this fee, but additional charges for copies and expedited processing can push the total higher. Plan on a few hundred dollars and build it into your closing costs.