Texas Property Code 201.010 – Action and Limitations of Remedies
(a) If an owner and the owner’s predecessors in interest neither signed the petition nor filed the statement described in the fourth listed category in § 201.009(b), the owner may file a suit for declaratory judgment in a court of competent jurisdiction:
(1) to challenge the completeness or regularity of the procedures leading to the recordation of a certificate, if the suit is filed before the 181st day after the date on which the certificate is filed with the county clerk; or
(2) to exclude the owner’s property from the operation of the extended, modified, added to, or created restriction.
(b) A suit for a declaratory judgment must name as defendants the final members of the petition committee who are owners of property in the subdivision at the time of the filing of the suit. In addition, a suit for a declaratory judgment must name all other owners of property in the subdivision as defendants, either as individuals or as members of a class.
Terms Used In Texas Property Code 201.010
- 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.
- Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Signed: includes any symbol executed or adopted by a person with present intention to authenticate a writing. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(c) An owner who files a suit for the second listed purpose in Subsection (a) is entitled to relief only if the owner pleads and establishes that the conditions of land use within the subdivision at the time the certificate was filed were incompatible with the restriction. As an alternative to excluding a specific parcel of land from the operation of the restriction, a court may alter the restriction as it applies to the parcel to better conform to the incompatible conditions.
(d) The remedies in this section are exclusive of all others in actions brought to challenge a restriction extended, modified, added to, or created under this chapter. The filing of an action for the first listed purpose in Subsection (a) does not prevent the restriction from taking effect in accordance with its terms pending a final judgment.