Deed restrictions, and why there is no HOA

Timberwood has no homeowners association. No dues, no board, no architectural review committee, and nobody to send a violation letter.

That is genuinely pleasant. It also produces a misunderstanding that costs people money.

Deed restrictions still apply

Deed restrictions run with the property. They are a covenant that "runs with the property" and "limits use of properties within the subdivision", and buying the house makes you a party to them.¹ Not forming an association does not undo that.

Three things follow, and the second and third are the ones people get wrong.

Any neighbor bound by the same restrictions can enforce them. No association is required. Houston's legal department lists the people who may sue as "a property owner within the subdivision", a homeowners association or civic club, and the city attorney.¹ Texas also awards attorney's fees to a prevailing party who brought a restrictive covenant action, under Property Code 5.006.²

They can lapse, in two different ways. Most restrictions carry a term: "Most deed restrictions have an average life span of 25 to 30 years. Some are in effect in perpetuity," and many renew automatically unless owners act to stop it.³ Timberwood's were filed in 1977, so whether they are still live depends on what the actual instruments say, and nobody here has read them. Separately, a restriction nobody enforces can be abandoned: "If an association has become so lax in enforcing a particular restriction that it appears to be no longer valid, a court may find that the restriction has been abandoned," weighed on the severity of past unenforced violations, how much the person enforcing relied on it when buying, and the ratio of unenforced violations to lots.⁴ A subdivision with no association and forty-odd years of nobody enforcing anything is the fact pattern that doctrine was written for.

A city can sometimes enforce them, and Humble probably cannot. Subchapter F of Chapter 212 of the Texas Local Government Code lets a municipality "sue in any court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin or abate a violation of a restriction" recorded against a subdivision inside its limits.⁵ Houston does this through its legal department and cites that chapter for the authority.⁶ But section 212.151 says the subchapter applies only to a municipality of 1.5 million or more that has passed an ordinance requiring uniform enforcement, one small lakeside city, or a municipality with no zoning ordinances that has passed that same ordinance.⁵ Houston qualifies on population. Humble has around 16,000 people, so it would have to be the third case, and no adopting ordinance turns up in its code. Treat city enforcement here as unlikely until somebody finds that ordinance.

So the practical position is that there is nobody to ask permission from, and it is genuinely unclear what is still enforceable and by whom. The work gets done and the money gets spent before anyone finds out.

Getting a copy

Timberwood's recorded restrictions are public but are not online in any convenient form. They are held by the Harris County Clerk and can be researched through the Real Property search, which takes a "Subdivision or Description" and an instrument type.⁷ Search all four restriction codes, not one: RESTR (Restrictions), DREST (Deed Restriction), NOTICE (Notice of Restrictions) and AMEND (Amendment).⁸

Images go back to November 1, 1960, so the 1977 filings are online.⁷ Viewing them costs nothing and the copy carries a watermark; an account is what lets you buy a clean one.⁷ In person the Clerk is at 201 Caroline, Suite 320, Houston, and plain paper copies are $1.00 a page.⁹

The fastest route is a closing packet. Most owners received a copy of the restrictions at closing and have never opened it since.

Putting the recorded restrictions for each Timberwood section here, in plain language, would be the single most useful thing this site could carry. It does not exist anywhere else.

Still open

• What the instruments actually say, starting with the term and whether they renew. That one answer decides whether any of this still binds.
• Whether the City of Humble has ever passed the ordinance section 212.151 requires, which is what would let it enforce anything here⁵
• Whether there was ever a volunteer civic club here
• Which restrictions apply to which section, and whether any have been amended

See also

• Permits, which is a separate question from restrictions
• How Timberwood got here