jimlongley wrote:OK, here's a twist.
When my bride and I bought our first house in TX, I, as a ham, specified to the real estate agent that, among other things, there would be NO HOA or CC&Rs attached to the property. On closing day, as we were signing papers, we were presented with the HOA membership to sign, and I refused. This led to a "sidebar" conversation between real estate agents and the person running the closing, and I was not asked to sign it a second time....
Interesting, Jim. When the wife and I relocated to Texas (I had been born here many years ago) we first lived in the country where the residents had probably never heard of HOAs. When we moved to another home in the suburbs of a city the subject of deed restrictions or HOA never came up in the process, not even at the closing. Some months later (much too late) when casually reading our deed for another reason I saw a reference to deed restrictions, and where they were recorded, by reference to book and page number in the deed book at the courthouse. I went down to the courthouse to see what the restrictions said, finding the records to be microfilmed. After some kind help by a clerk I did indeed find the restrictions, which ran with the land.
These restrictions, as noted above by others, typically are the basic foundation of a HOA, if any.
Having bought homes in other states during my employment travels I had been accustomed to being given a copy of any such restrictions by either the seller or his agent no later than at the closing. Like the plumber whose faucet always leaks, at this late date I then contacted my real estate agent for the purchase of the home, asking why I had to go down to the courthouse to learn what deed restrictions applied to my property. Her response was that while some states require notice of restrictions to be given to a buyer, in Texas this was not required unless the buyer explicitly requested same from the seller before the sale, and that the buyer was put on notice that there were restrictions by their citation in his deed, so it was his responsibility to inquire further if he chose. She explained that this was not a matter of state law, but rather was a "rule" established by a body overseeing the ethical requirements applicable to realtors.
As the ancient restrictions in our case were quite acceptable, other than for one which limited ownership to only members of the white race (which I of course knew to be unenforceable), to me the issue was moot (other than for my personal embarrassment for having, in effect, agreed to the unenforceable restriction), and I never bothered to look further into what I considered to be a weird situation, so to this day I cannot say with assurance whether or not I was correctly advised by my agent.
However, her advice (some 30 years ago) may have received a bit of confirmation when we purchased our current home some 7 years ago, when the agent for the seller had to herself go down to the courthouse to obtain a copy of the applicable deed restrictions, which, in this case, also set up an HOA and enumerated its powers, and, shocking to me, she had sold several homes in our subdivision in the past, never being required to provide a copy of the restrictions to prospective buyers.
In any event, as usual I have used a bunch of words simply to suggest that, regardless of whether or not there is such a requirement, prospective home-buyers raise the question of deed restrictions and HOAs prior to but no later than closing.
(In view of the unenforceable deed restriction I am sure you can guess that that home was, and is, located in deep East Texas).
Jim
