Texas Local Government Code 212.153 – Suit to Enforce Restrictions
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(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), the municipality may sue in any court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin or abate a violation of a restriction contained or incorporated by reference in a properly recorded plan, plat, or other instrument that affects a subdivision located inside the boundaries of the municipality.
(b) The municipality may not initiate or maintain a suit to enjoin or abate a violation of a restriction if a property owners’ association with the authority to enforce the restriction files suit to enforce the restriction.
Terms Used In Texas Local Government Code 212.153
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Municipality: means a general-law municipality, home-rule municipality, or special-law municipality. See Texas Local Government Code 1.005
- Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(c) In a suit by a property owners’ association to enforce a restriction, the association may not submit into evidence or otherwise use the work product of the municipality’s legal counsel.
(d) In a suit filed under this section alleging that any of the following activities violates a restriction limiting property to residential use, it is not a defense that the activity is incidental to the residential use of the property:
(1) storing a tow truck, crane, moving van or truck, dump truck, cement mixer, earth-moving device, or trailer longer than 20 feet; or
(2) repairing or offering for sale more than two motor vehicles in a 12-month period.
(e) A municipality may not enforce a deed restriction which purports to regulate or restrict the rights granted to public utilities to install, operate, maintain, replace, and remove facilities within easements and private or public rights-of-way.