The Texas Uniform Condominium Act is Chapter 82 of the Texas Property Code, and it sets the ground rules for how condominiums in Texas are created, governed, financed, sold, and dissolved. It applies in full to every condominium whose declaration was recorded on or after January 1, 1994, and parts of it reach back to older condos as well. If you own, buy, or sit on the board of a Texas condo, this is the statute that defines what the association can do, what you owe, and what disclosures you’re entitled to.1State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.002 – Applicability
Which Condominiums the Act Covers
The January 1, 1994 recording date is the dividing line. Any condominium declared on or after that date is governed entirely by Chapter 82. Condos declared before 1994 generally remain under the older Chapter 81, but several Chapter 82 provisions still apply to them for events happening after 1994. Those retroactive sections cover association powers, assessment liens, management certificates, insurance, and resale disclosures.1State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.002 – Applicability The definitions in Section 82.003 also apply to pre-1994 condos where they don’t conflict with the existing declaration.
The Act covers residential, commercial, and industrial condominiums alike. Chapter 81 has no authority over anything recorded on or after January 1, 1994.
What the Association Can Do
Every Texas condo is run by a unit owners association, and Section 82.102 gives that association broad authority. Unless the declaration says otherwise, the board can adopt and amend bylaws and community rules, set budgets, hire management companies and contractors, acquire and sell property in the association’s name, grant easements over common elements, impose fees for common-element use, and sue or be sued on the condominium’s behalf.2State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.102 – Powers of Unit Owners Association
Enforcement powers run further than many owners expect. The board can:
- Charge late fees and interest on overdue assessments.
- Impose fines for rule violations after providing notice and a hearing.
- Suspend an owner’s voting rights or access to general common elements if the owner is more than 30 days behind on assessments.
- Cut off utility service to a delinquent unit when assessments pay for that utility.
Board members have to act in the association’s best interests, not their own. And the association’s rulemaking power is not unlimited. The FCC’s Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule prevents any restriction that impairs a unit owner’s ability to install a satellite dish of one meter or less, or a television antenna, on property within the owner’s exclusive use, like a balcony or patio. The association cannot require prior approval, charge installation fees, or impose rules that delay installation, raise its cost, or degrade signal quality. The rule doesn’t cover true common elements like the building roof or shared hallways, where safety-based limits are permitted.3eCFR. 47 CFR 1.4000 – Restrictions Impairing Reception of Television Broadcast Signals, Direct Broadcast Satellite Services, or Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services
Assessments, Liens, and Foreclosure
The association pays for everything it does by assessing owners based on each unit’s allocated share of common expenses as set in the declaration. Assessments cover regular dues, special assessments, late fees, fines, interest, collection costs, and attorney’s fees. Each of those charges is a personal debt of the unit owner and is automatically secured by a continuing lien on the unit. The lien is created when the declaration is recorded, so no separate filing is required.4State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.113 – Association Expenses and Lien for Assessments
Where the Lien Stands in Priority
The association’s lien outranks most other claims against a unit, with four exceptions. It falls behind property tax liens, any lien or encumbrance recorded before the declaration, a first mortgage or first vendor’s lien recorded before the assessment went delinquent, and (unless the declaration says otherwise) a construction lien or insurance proceeds assignment recorded before delinquency.4State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.113 – Association Expenses and Lien for Assessments In practice, this puts the association ahead of second mortgages, judgment liens, and most other creditors.
How Foreclosure Works
By buying a unit, every owner grants the association a power of sale over the unit to enforce the assessment lien. The association can foreclose either through the courts or nonjudicially under Section 51.002 of the Property Code, the same power-of-sale process mortgage lenders use. There is one hard limit: the association cannot foreclose a lien that consists entirely of fines. An owner can stop a foreclosure at any point before the sale by paying the full amount owed, and after a foreclosure sale an owner cannot challenge it solely because the price was too low to cover the debt.4State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.113 – Association Expenses and Lien for Assessments
Active-duty military members have additional protection under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which can require a court order before a forced sale and may cap interest on delinquent assessments at 6 percent per year during the service period.
Who Maintains What
Section 82.107 splits maintenance along a straightforward line: the association handles common elements, and each owner handles their own unit. Three statutory rules fill in the gaps where the line gets blurry.5State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.107 – Upkeep of Condominium
First, utility equipment and installations serving only your unit are yours to maintain even if part of the equipment sits outside your unit’s boundaries. That includes your water heater, HVAC, and dedicated plumbing and electrical lines. Second, unless the declaration says otherwise, you pay to maintain and replace your own windows and doors. Third, you have to grant access through your unit when the association or another owner needs it for repairs; whoever causes damage during that access pays to fix it.
Limited common elements like balconies or assigned parking spaces sit in a middle zone. They are technically part of the common elements, so the association often handles them, but the declaration can shift repair responsibility onto the owner who has exclusive use. The association can also enter a unit after notice to stop water waste or to perform maintenance that would prevent water damage elsewhere in the building.
Insurance the Association Has to Carry
Starting no later than the first sale to a non-declarant buyer, the association must maintain two policies. Property insurance has to cover all insurable common elements against fire and other common risks at a minimum of 80 percent of replacement cost or actual cash value. Commercial general liability insurance, including medical payments coverage, has to cover death, injury, and property damage from use or maintenance of common elements in at least the amount the declaration specifies.6State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.111 – Insurance
In buildings with stacked units sharing horizontal boundaries, the property insurance also has to cover the units themselves, though not individual owner upgrades and improvements. Every unit owner must be treated as an insured for liability related to their common-element ownership, and the insurer has to waive subrogation against individual owners. The association’s policy is primary over any individual owner’s coverage. When adequate coverage simply isn’t available, the association must notify all owners and lienholders. Mortgage lenders can still require individual owners to carry supplemental coverage beyond what the association provides.
Buying a Condo: What You’re Entitled to See
Resale Certificates From the Current Owner
When someone other than the original developer sells a unit, the buyer has to receive a resale certificate before signing a contract or taking title. The association must produce the certificate within 10 days of a written request, and it must be prepared no more than three months before delivery to the buyer.7State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.157 – Resale of Unit
The certificate includes the association’s current operating budget and balance sheet, plus statements covering the amount of regular assessments and any unpaid amounts owed by the seller, capital expenditures approved for the next 12 months, reserve fund balances and any earmarks, unsatisfied judgments and pending lawsuits against the association, insurance coverage provided for unit owners, known building or health code violations affecting the unit or common elements, any right of first refusal or transfer restrictions, and every fee the buyer will owe the association on the ownership transfer.
The association can charge a reasonable fee to prepare the certificate. If it misses the 10-day deadline, the selling owner can instead give the buyer a sworn affidavit containing the same information. A seller is not liable for errors in a certificate the association prepared.
Buying Directly From the Developer
Buyers purchasing from a declarant have a separate cancellation right. If you didn’t receive a condominium information statement before signing the contract, or the contract lacks a bold-print acknowledgment of receipt, you can cancel within six days of finally receiving the statement. Cancellation requires hand delivery or certified mail within that window, carries no penalty, and entitles you to a full refund. A declarant cannot force a closing until the information statement has been delivered.8State of Texas. Texas Property Code PROP 82.156 – Purchasers Right to Cancel
How Control Shifts From the Developer to the Owners
During a condo’s early years, the developer typically appoints and removes the board. That arrangement is temporary by statute, and two mandatory milestones force the handoff:
- Within 120 days after 50 percent of the units that may be created have been conveyed to non-declarant buyers, at least one-third of the board must be elected by those owners.
- The declarant’s control ends no later than 120 days after 75 percent of the units have been conveyed to non-declarant buyers, regardless of any longer timeframe in the declaration.
Once declarant control ends, owners must elect a board of at least three members, and that board must elect officers within 30 days. A declarant can give up control earlier but may still require declarant approval of certain actions for the remainder of the original control period. Transferring the declarant’s special rights to a new party does not reset or extend the clock.9State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.103 – Board Members and Officers
Ending a Condominium Regime
Shutting down a condo is deliberately hard. Unless the declaration sets a lower threshold, termination requires 100 percent of the association votes plus every mortgage or vendor’s lien holder on any unit. Even where the declaration lowers the threshold, it cannot go below 80 percent if any unit is restricted to residential use. Government condemnation that takes every unit is the only exception to the voting requirement.10State of Texas. Texas Property Code 82.068 – Termination of Condominium
A termination agreement has to be signed or ratified by the required number of owners and recorded in the county real property records. If the plan calls for selling the underlying real property, the agreement must spell out the sale terms. Once recorded, individual unit ownership ends and the former owners hold the property as tenants in common in proportion to their prior allocated interests. Getting every mortgage lender on board is usually the hardest part, since lenders have little reason to consent to dissolving the security structure behind their loans.