The Texas Real Estate Commission this week approved changes to the promulgated contracts and adopted a new form to comply with legislation from the regular session of the Texas Legislature. The commission also proposed a change to education rules regarding designations and CE.
New Disclosure for Sales in Public Improvement Districts
Beginning September 1, sellers will be required to provide a new notice to buyers when selling property located in a public improvement district. If sellers fail to provide the required notice, buyers will have the right to terminate the contract, in addition to other penalties. These public improvement district requirements are similar to the current municipal utility district notice requirements.
The new form, Addendum Containing Notice of Obligation to Pay Improvement District Assessment, is a statutory notice required for the sale of all properties located in a public improvement district. This notice is required for the sale of all properties, including condominiums and commercial, not just residential as previously required.
The contract changes update the notice language in Paragraph 6, notifying parties that if the property is in a public improvement district, the seller must attach the new addendum. The contracts were also changed to reflect the new addendum in Paragraph 22, Agreement of Parties.
Use of the new contracts will be mandatory September 1. Although providing the required notice will also be required starting September 1, use of the Addendum Containing Notice of Obligation to Pay Improvement District Assessment to fulfill that requirement will be voluntary. Parties can use a form provided by the public improvement district if it meets the statutory requirements.
Copies of the new form and the contract changes are available on the Adopted Revisions page on rrmbaojie.com, and all forms vendors will have the proper forms in place by September 1.
The Texas REALTORS® Legal staff created a memo that gets into more specifics about:
- Notice requirements
- Penalties for failing to provide notice
- Properly filling out the notice form
- Determining if a property is part of a public improvement district
- Exemptions to the notice requirements
- Limits of liability.
Proposed Education Change
The commission also proposed amendments to the rule that allows license holders to obtain CE credit for courses taken to fulfill a requirement of a professional designation, such as GRI. The amendment includes a list of specific professional designations recognized by the commission for CE credit. Under the changes, license holders can still receive CE credit for these courses if providers have had the course for credit by TREC.
Get More Information
A video replay of the entire meeting along with the full agenda and materials are available at TREC’s website. You can learn more about the legislative changes from the 87th Texas Legislature in this Texas REALTORS® legal webinar.
This would have been more beneficial had the article described how an agent can easily find whether a property is in a PID or is not.
Texas REALTORS® Legal team developed a memo that covers that topic, among other additional specfics: http://y5a.rrmbaojie.com/wp-content/uploads/LegalMemo2021PIDNotice.pdf
My thoughts exactly.
Agree.
I hate to sound dumb, but exactly what is a public improvement district?
Think of a PID as a public infrastructure district… when you look up a propertys taxing authorities it should show if the property is in a PID, I believe only the San Antonio area currently has taxing PIDs. I could be wrong.
PIDs can be found in the DFW and Houston area, also. Examples are Trophy Club (north of Ft. Worth) and the Reserve at Spring Lakes (Tomball)
The memo published by the legal staff is misleading and incorrect. Tax records do NOT reflect if a home is in a PID. It is going to be very hard to properly disclose whether a home is in a PID or not with no way to properly tell if the home is in a PID. Seller may not know or understand. I am disappointed in this memo and at the legal staff’s lack of proper guidance here.
Beth, I think you are correct. To the best of my knowledge and unless the legislature has required that addition to be made to the tax roll, a PID does not show up in tax records.
Yes, they put the cart before the horse. It is included with city taxes under jurisdiction. There is no breakdown of the fees, if there are any.
I concur.
So I have spent the better part of today researching this. There is absolutely no indication if a property is in a PID in any of our surrounding county CAD records. After inquiring with a couple of my title partners, I found out that the PID assessment fees are almost always included with the city taxes on our tax reports. There is no way to single this out. I went to one of the counties websites and though they say they are in a PID, there is no breakdown of bonds, etc. Also, one of my title partners said it… Read more »
Jill, I agree and thank you for your research on this. I’ve been in contact with the folks at the legal hotline and have provided them detailed examples of how a property within a PID does not show to be in that PID or show the PID’s fees on any of the tax records we as Realtors have access to. I am now waiting on their response.
Thank you Beth. It seems to be more common in North Texas and I’m sure developers in the Houston area may be jumping on the bandwagon, but my goodness, let’s make sure we have access to the information. After all, we as brokers, are held responsible for everything under the sun even though many times things are not clear or researchable. UGH!
PID or SUD or PUD- all are one in same and all need to be addressed and info on these need to be provided and given by all owners and listing agents. We need to have access on our MLS systems to find the info out immediately.
Thank Missy, I TOTALLY AGREE! I’ve read so many articles, where the homeowners are not, or were not aware that they were in a PID. And because builders and developers have no accountability by a board association, they are not held accountable, we are!
My sellers home is in a PID and we executed on August 29th. Are they still required to provide the notice?
Just for more info, I called the City of Schertz and City of Cibolo and neither one of them had an idea what a PID is ?