HAR has been doing our best to keep our members informed about the changes to the MUD notice process, even though this was a state-level issue that occurred in the Texas Legislature, and HAR was not involved.
According to Texas House Bill 2815 which became effective on June 18, 2023, the law covering notice required to a purchaser of property in a MUD changed. This change to the law made form HAR 400 obsolete and no longer useable under the new law and its notice provision. There is a separate law, Texas House Bill 2816, which contained similar language to HB2815 and has an effective date of September 1, 2023. This is the date the MUDs seem to be following as the water district industry is finalizing its process to ensure compliance with both laws, even though HB2815 is undeniably already in effect. The conflict in the effective date of the laws is what is causing the confusion.
In light of this confusion but the ongoing need to provide notice, we have made the HAR 400 form available again in Forms Manager, ZipForms, Transaction Desk, and dotloop, but note that it is scheduled to be removed on September 1, 2023. Please know that use of HAR 400 could subject its user to liability and damages. If you still choose to use HAR 400, then you do so at your own legal risk. Further, you should only use HAR 400 after consulting with your broker and your own legal counsel and they advise you to use it.
The HAR Governmental Affairs Team is in contact with the bills’ sponsor to try to get clarification, and we will continue to communicate anything we learn as soon as we hear back from Texas REALTORS®, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to which the MUDs report, or the sponsor of the legislation.
We understand what difficulty this has caused and are doing everything we can to find out more information and help our members in a matter that was not of our making.
Thank you for your continued membership in the Houston Association of REALTORS®.
