Texas Resale Certificate Guide: Tex. Prop. Code §207.003 and §82.157 Requirements for Title Companies, Realtors, and Boards

When a unit in a Texas community association sells, the association must produce a resale certificate — a point-in-time disclosure document that tells the buyer what they are buying into.

This is not a courtesy. It is a statutory requirement with specific content mandates, fee caps, delivery deadlines, and — for condominiums — a buyer cancellation right that can unwind a closing.

This guide covers both Texas resale certificate statutes, the full disclosure lists, and the operational realities that title companies, real estate agents, escrow officers, and boards need to understand.

What a Resale Certificate Is

A resale certificate is a point-in-time disclosure package that provides a prospective buyer with:

• The financial status of the specific lot or unit (outstanding assessments, fees, unpaid balances)
• The financial health of the association (reserves, budget, balance sheet, capital expenditures)
• The legal status of the association (pending litigation, unsatisfied judgments, insurance coverage)
• Required statutory disclosures specific to Texas law

It is typically requested by the title company or buyer's agent during the transaction process and must be delivered within a statutory deadline.

Texas's Dual-Statute Framework

Texas, like Washington, runs two separate resale certificate statutes that apply to different community types:

Which statute applies to your community?

• A subdivision with restrictive covenants and a property owners' association governs under Tex. Prop. Code §207 (the POAA). Disclosure obligations live in Tex. Prop. Code §207.003.
• A condominium regime created by recording a declaration under Title 7, Chapter 82 governs under TUCA. Disclosure obligations live in Tex. Prop. Code §82.157.

The two statutes have nearly identical fee caps and delivery deadlines but materially different currency windows and buyer rights. Treating them interchangeably is a common board error.

Required Disclosures: Tex. Prop. Code §207.003 (POAA — 10 Core Items)

The Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act requires the following in a resale certificate:

1. Restrictions on transfer of ownership — §207.003(b)(1)
2. Frequency and amount of regular assessments — §207.003(b)(2)
3. Approved special assessments not yet due — §207.003(b)(3)
4. Total of all amounts due and unpaid attributable to the property — §207.003(b)(4)
5. Capital expenditures approved by the association for the current fiscal year — §207.003(b)(5)
6. Amount of reserves for capital expenditures — §207.003(b)(6)
7. Current operating budget and balance sheet — §207.003(b)(7)
8. Total of unsatisfied judgments against the association — §207.003(b)(8)
9. Style and cause number of any pending lawsuit to which the association is a party — §207.003(b)(9)
10. Certificate of insurance for the common areas and facilities — §207.003(b)(10)

The statute enumerates sixteen disclosure items at §207.003(b)(1)-(b)(16). The ten above are the most material for a typical resale transaction.

Required Disclosures: Tex. Prop. Code §82.157 (TUCA — 9 Core Items)

The Texas Uniform Condominium Act requires the following:

1. Right of first refusal or other restraint on transfer — §82.157(a)(1)
2. Periodic common expense assessment and unpaid common expenses currently due — §82.157(a)(2)
3. Other unpaid fees or amounts payable by the selling unit owner — §82.157(a)(3)
4. Capital expenditures approved by the association for the next twelve months — §82.157(a)(4)
5. Amount of reserves for capital expenditures — §82.157(a)(5)
6. Any unsatisfied judgments against the association — §82.157(a)(6)
7. Nature of any pending suits against the association — §82.157(a)(7)
8. Insurance coverage provided for the benefit of unit owners — §82.157(a)(8)
9. Current operating budget and balance sheet — §82.157(a)(13)

The statute enumerates fourteen items at §82.157(a)(1)-(a)(14). The nine above are the most material for resale.

Fee Caps, Deadlines, and the Currency Rule

Two points deserve attention.

The currency rule is not the same as the validity period. Under §82.157(a), a condo resale certificate "must have been prepared not earlier than three months before the date it is delivered." That is a ninety-day shelf life on the document itself, not on the underlying disclosures. A certificate prepared ninety-one days before delivery is non-compliant on its face. For HOAs under §207.003, the analogous window is sixty days.

Only condos give the buyer a cancellation right. Tex. Prop. Code §82.156(c) explicitly identifies "the five-day cancellation period" — the buyer may cancel before the sixth day after receiving the required documents. Property owners' associations under Chapter 207 have no equivalent statutory rescission. This is a real risk allocation difference that title companies should understand: a late or incomplete TUCA certificate can unwind a condo sale; the same defect on an HOA sale typically cannot.

Common Errors in Texas Resale Certificate Preparation

Based on patterns observed across Texas associations and title transactions:

1. Stale financial data.

The most frequent error. Boards produce certificates from financial exports that are days or weeks old. By the time the certificate reaches the buyer, the balance sheet and assessment status no longer reflect reality. Under §207.003(b)(4) and §82.157(a)(2), the unpaid balance must be current — a stale figure is a defective disclosure.

2. Currency-window violations.

Boards reissue a months-old certificate without recomputing or re-dating it. Under §82.157(a), a condo cert delivered more than ninety days after preparation is non-compliant regardless of whether the underlying facts changed. Same problem at sixty days for HOAs under §207.003.

3. Confusing §207 with §82.

A board operating a planned community under Chapter 207 produces a certificate using the §82.157 disclosure list (or vice versa). The disclosure items overlap but are not identical — every omission is a buyer challenge.

4. Charging more than the statutory cap.

The $375 preparation cap and $75 update cap apply to both statutes. Charging $400 or $500 — common in markets where boards delegate to third-party providers — is a fee-cap violation that creates legal exposure.

5. Pending litigation incomplete.

Both §207.003(b)(9) and §82.157(a)(7) require specifics on pending suits — style and cause number for HOAs, nature of the suit for condos. "We have one lawsuit" is not compliant. The board must affirmatively investigate and disclose.

For Title Companies and Escrow Officers

If you are waiting more than the statutory ten-day window for Texas resale certificates, the bottleneck is almost always the association's data infrastructure — not board unwillingness.

When financial data lives in QuickBooks exports or spreadsheets, manual reconciliation precedes every certificate. When transfer restrictions and litigation status are tracked informally, someone researches them from scratch each time. When the same certificate is reissued past its sixty- or ninety-day window without regeneration, the document is technically non-compliant at delivery.

The associations that deliver certificates within hours rather than days operate a system of record that:

1. Maintains current unit balances at all times
2. Tracks all required disclosure items with board-confirmed defaults
3. Generates the certificate from live data with a single action
4. Enforces the statutory currency window at issuance

CommunityPay was built to be that system. Learn about the Title Company API or request a demo.

For Boards

Texas resale certificate compliance is a statutory obligation that creates legal exposure for the association when done incorrectly. For condos under TUCA, a defective certificate can give the buyer a five-day cancellation right that unwinds the sale.

The checklist:

1. Know which statute applies — Chapter 207 for property owners' associations, Chapter 82 for condominium regimes
2. Maintain current financial records so certificates reflect reality at the moment of issuance
3. Document board-confirmed answers for non-financial disclosures — transfer restrictions, pending litigation, insurance, judgments
4. Respect the $375 prep cap and $75 update cap under both statutes
5. Deliver within 10 business days of request
6. Enforce the currency window — 60 days under §207.003, 90 days under §82.157 — by regenerating rather than reissuing stale certificates

For Texas condo boards that also receive Fannie Mae 1076 questionnaires, see Fannie Mae 1076 Condo Questionnaire: Why Manual Completion Fails — the same live-ledger infrastructure that generates §82.157 certificates auto-fills the 1076.

This guide covers Texas resale certificate requirements under Tex. Prop. Code §207.003 and Tex. Prop. Code §82.157. For legal advice specific to your community or transaction, consult a licensed Texas real estate attorney. For a walkthrough of CommunityPay's resale certificate capabilities, contact us.