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State Guide · Texas

Texas HOA Rental Compliance: Tenant Registries, Express Covenants, and the Chapter 209 Process

Texas doesn't cap how much of a community may be rented—but it strictly limits what an association may demand when a home is rented, its Supreme Court has twice held that leasing restrictions must be written into the covenants themselves, and Chapter 209 wraps every fine in notice, cure, and hearing machinery, with a mandatory published fine policy since 2024. Texas compliance means collecting exactly what the statute permits, proving your leasing rules trace to explicit covenant text, and documenting every procedural step before a fine will stick.

Last reviewed August 20, 2026. General information, not legal advice—confirm current statutory text with your association's attorney.

The statutes that create tracking duties

Each of these laws requires your association to be able to prove something. That's a record-keeping obligation, whether or not anyone calls it that.

Tex. Prop. Code § 209.016 (HB 2489, 2015; amended SB 1588, eff. Sept. 1, 2021)

Hard limits on tenant information

An association may not require lease approval of tenants, may not require a consumer or credit report, and may not require a copy of the lease or rental application. It may require the resident's name, mailing address, phone number, and email, plus the lease commencement date and term. The statute assumes owners will report their tenancies—the practical enforcement gap is the homes that are leased and never registered at all.

What your association must track:

  • A tenant registry scoped to exactly the permitted fields—over-collection is the most common Texas violation
  • Lease commencement dates and terms per rented property
  • That no intake form, rule, or manager practice demands prohibited documents
  • Which properties appear to be leased with no registration on file—the owners who never report are the ones who break rental caps unnoticed

Tarr v. Timberwood Park Owners Ass'n, 556 S.W.3d 274 (Tex. 2018); JBrice Holdings, L.L.C. v. Wilcrest Walk Townhomes Ass'n, 644 S.W.3d 179 (Tex. 2022)

Rental restrictions must live in the covenants—board rules can't add them

In Tarr, the Texas Supreme Court held that a standard "residential use" covenant does not prohibit short-term rentals. In JBrice, it went further: where the recorded covenants left owners' right to lease unrestricted except as stated in the covenants themselves, board-adopted rules banning short stays were unenforceable—short-term rentals are valid leases. Together the cases mean a Texas association that wants to restrict STRs needs express language in its recorded declaration, adopted through the amendment process, plus a consistent, documented enforcement record.

What your association must track:

  • Whether each leasing restriction you enforce sits in the recorded declaration or only in board rules—JBrice makes that difference dispositive
  • Express short-term rental covenant language and its adoption record
  • Rental term per tenancy wherever a minimum-lease-term covenant applies
  • Consistent enforcement files—selective STR enforcement invites the next Tarr

Tex. Prop. Code §§ 209.006, 209.007 (as amended by SB 1588, 2021); § 209.0061 (HB 614, eff. Jan. 1, 2024)

The notice, hearing, and fine-policy machinery

Before fining or suspending privileges, an association must send written notice that describes the violation, states any amount due, and—for curable violations that don't threaten public health or safety—gives a reasonable period to cure. The owner then has 30 days to request a hearing before the board; the board must hold it within 30 days of the request and give at least 10 days' advance notice. Since SB 1588, the association must also deliver its evidence packet—photos, documents, communications—at least 10 days before the hearing, or the owner is automatically entitled to a 15-day postponement. And since January 1, 2024, HB 614 requires any fining association to adopt an enforcement policy listing the general categories of violations, a fine schedule for each, and hearing information—posted on any public website the association maintains.

What your association must track:

  • A dated §209.006 notice file per violation—the violation described, the amount claimed, and the cure period offered
  • Hearing timers: the owner's 30-day request window, the board's 30-day hearing deadline, and the 10-day advance notice
  • The pre-hearing evidence packet, assembled and delivered on time—undelivered evidence stalls the hearing by statute
  • An adopted enforcement policy and fine schedule, current and posted where HB 614 requires

SB 711 (2025, eff. Sept. 1, 2025)

Governing documents must be posted

Associations with 60 or more lots, or those using a management company, must make current governing documents available online. The act also tightened definitions around management companies.

What your association must track:

  • That posted governing documents—including leasing rules and the HB 614 enforcement policy—are current after every amendment

The test: could your board produce this tomorrow?

If a dispute, an audit, or a new manager asked for the following, a compliant Texas association should be able to hand it over without a scramble:

A tenant registry containing only §209.016-permitted data—and nothing else
Lease start dates and terms for every rented property—including the leases nobody registered
The covenant text behind every leasing restriction you enforce, with its adoption history
For every enforcement action: the dated notice, the cure window, the hearing record, and the evidence packet delivered ten days out
Current governing documents and the fine schedule posted where the statutes require

Watch this space

The Legislature does not reconvene until January 2027; the 2025 session's assessment-cap and rental bills died, leaving a stable statutory window to get registries, covenant language, and HB 614 enforcement policies in order. Watch City of Dallas v. Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance at the Texas Supreme Court—the city is asking to reinstate its 2023 ban on short-term rentals in single-family neighborhoods, which courts have enjoined since it passed. However that lands, it changes only the municipal layer: covenant-based restrictions enforce on their own terms.

Texas HOA rental restrictions: common questions

Short answers drawn from the statutes above. General information, not legal advice.

Can an HOA restrict rentals in Texas?
Yes—but only through the recorded covenants. Texas doesn't cap how much of a community may be rented, and in Tarr v. Timberwood Park (2018) and JBrice Holdings v. Wilcrest Walk (2022) the Texas Supreme Court held that a standard "residential use" covenant does not prohibit short-term rentals and that board-adopted rules cannot add leasing restrictions the declaration doesn't contain. Restricting rentals or STRs requires express language in the recorded declaration.
What can a Texas HOA require from a landlord or tenant?
Under Property Code § 209.016, an association may require the resident's name, mailing address, phone number, and email, plus the lease commencement date and term. It may not require lease approval of tenants, a consumer or credit report, or a copy of the lease or rental application.
What notice must a Texas HOA give before fining a rental violation?
Under § 209.006, written notice that describes the violation, states any amount due, and—for curable violations that don't threaten health or safety—gives a reasonable period to cure. The owner then has 30 days to request a hearing, which the board must hold within 30 days with at least 10 days' advance notice, and the association must deliver its evidence packet at least 10 days before the hearing. Since January 1, 2024, HB 614 also requires an adopted enforcement policy with a fine schedule.

Built for Texas associations

Every record above, kept automatically

RentTrac360 tracks rental status, grandfathering, caps, and enforcement records continuously—onboard in about 15 minutes, and the platform keeps the file current from then on.

Texas is the second-largest HOA market in the country, and its biggest metro regulates short-term rentals in opposite directions: Fort Worth bars STRs from residential zones behind a registration system, while Dallas's parallel ban has been enjoined since 2023 and now sits before the Texas Supreme Court. While the city layer stays unsettled, the recorded covenant is often the only STR restriction a DFW community can actually enforce—RentTrac360's tenant registry is scoped to exactly what §209.016 permits.

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