A homeowners association is not a government, but the state lends it something close to governmental power over your property. It can fine you, restrict what you build, place a lien on your home, and in some circumstances foreclose on it.
Because that power comes from state law, state law also limits it. What follows is what the Texas Property Code forces — each entry with a locator to the statute. Turn on show sources to see them.
You get notice, and a chance to fix it, before a fine.
Before assessing a fine or suspending a privilege, the association must send notice by verified mail describing the violation and any amount due, telling you that you have a reasonable period to cure it where the violation is curable and poses no health or safety threat, that you may request a hearing within 30 days, and that you may have rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. If you cure the violation in time, no fine may be assessed.
If you ask for a hearing, the board must hold one — and show you its file first.
On request the board must hold a hearing within 30 days, and must give you a full packet of all documents, photographs and communications it is relying on at least 10 days beforehand. Alternative dispute resolution is available.
You may inspect and copy the association's books and records.
Request in writing by certified mail, describing the records with sufficient detail. If you elect inspection, the association has 10 business days to send you notice of the dates. The board must adopt and record a records cost policy as a dedicatory instrument, and may not charge you unless that policy is recorded.
Not fines. Not the lawyers' fees for chasing those fines.
An association may not foreclose its assessment lien where the debt securing that lien consists solely of fines, of attorney's fees incurred solely in connection with those fines, or of certain amounts added under §209.005(i) or §209.0057(b-4). In plain terms: unpaid regular or special assessments can support a foreclosure — fines alone cannot.
If it does foreclose, you have 180 days to buy it back.
After an association assessment-lien foreclosure sale, the owner may redeem within 180 days of the association mailing notice of the sale, by paying the amounts owed plus costs. A lienholder cannot redeem in the first 90 days. During the redemption period the purchaser may not transfer the property to anyone but a redeeming owner, and must bring a forcible-entry-and-detainer action to take possession. That window is far longer than a typical Texas mortgage foreclosure, by legislative design.
For each of these the pattern is the same and it is worth learning once: the association may not prohibit the thing, but it may regulate it through reasonable written rules. Where it has adopted no rule, it generally has no lever.
Solar energy devices, including solar roof tiles.
A restriction purporting to prohibit or restrict installation of a solar energy device is void. An association may still prohibit a device that threatens public safety, violates law, sits on common or association property, or extends beyond the roofline, and may require approval — but approval cannot be unreasonably withheld where the conditions are met. A development-period exception applies to developments under 51 units.
The U.S. flag, the Texas flag, and the flag of a branch of the U.S. armed forces.
Display of those flags may not be prohibited or restricted. The association may adopt reasonable rules on size, placement, flagpole materials, and compliance with zoning and setbacks.
A religious item on your own doorframe.
An association may not prohibit an owner from displaying a religious item motivated by sincerely held religious belief on the owner's entry door or doorframe. It may still act where the display's combined size exceeds 25 square inches, where it is offensive or threatens safety, where it blocks required access, or where it is placed on common or association property.
Four water-conservation practices, xeriscaping among them.
An association may not prohibit composting or the use of clippings, rain barrels or rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation, or drought-resistant landscaping. It may regulate rather than prohibit through eight carve-outs, including plan review for xeriscape — where approval may not be unreasonably withheld.
Chapter 204 is county-bracketed, and Deer Park is inside the bracket.
Some of the Property Code's association provisions apply only in named counties rather than statewide. Chapter 204 is one of them, and it reaches Deer Park through Harris County. This is easy to miss: reading the chapter without noticing the bracket tells you nothing about whether it applies where you live.
The exact current population-threshold wording is being confirmed against one clean codified read before this entry is stated more precisely.
The entries above are verified against the primary statute. These are on the list and are deliberately not stated here until they are:
This page records the statute, not anyone's summary of it. Legal information, not legal advice — your own governing documents and your own facts matter, and this page cannot know them.
The Council on Local Relations does one thing: it establishes the record and keeps it honest. We do not organize, campaign, or tell you what to do about any of it — the moment we did, every fact above would be worth less.
Want to do something about it? That is Think and Act Locally — a separate organization, where residents meet about what the record shows.