As the 85th Texas Legislature comes to a close on May 29, several bills that will enhance protections for real estate consumers are taking the final steps of the legislative process.
Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law TAR-supported House Bill 890, which was authored by Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) and sponsored by Sen. Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls).
How the bill protects consumers
This bill will put a mechanism in place to provide disclosure to real estate buyers about the impact of potential aircraft noise and other activities from nearby military installations.
The bill will add this paragraph to the required seller’s disclosure notice, effective Sept. 1, 2017:
This property may be located near a military installation and may be affected by high noise or air installation compatible use zones or other operations. Information relating to high noise and compatible use zones is available in the most recent Air Installation Compatible Use Zone Study or Joint Land Use Study prepared for a military installation and may be accessed on the Internet website of the military installation and of the county and any municipality in which the military installation is located.
The Texas Real Estate Commission and TAR will be updating the Seller’s Disclosure Notice.
Your advocates at the Capitol
Texas REALTORS® testified in support of HB 890 and its Senate companion, Senate Bill 775, by Sen. Craig Estes, during committee hearings. TAR supported the bills because they will provide potential buyers with information about military installations without putting a burden on sellers to investigate whether such disclosure may be required for a particular property.
More to come
TAR will share more legislative successes for Texas real estate consumers in the coming weeks.
That’s it? Out of all the things that should be required to be disclosed, that was not even on my list!