The Texas Resale Certificate, Explained for Self-Managed Boards

What a resale certificate is, what fees you can charge, and what will get the title company to call you angry.

If you sit on a Texas HOA board, the single most common request you will field from outside the membership is the resale certificate. A homeowner is selling. The title company needs the packet. The closing date is locked. You have a deadline. This post is the playbook.

What it actually is

Under Texas Property Code Chapter 207, when a Texas home inside an HOA is sold, the seller must provide the buyer with a resale certificate. The HOA is the only entity that can produce it.

The certificate exists for one reason: to make sure the buyer cannot be ambushed by HOA-related obligations the seller forgot to mention. Unpaid dues. Pending special assessments. An open architectural-review violation on the property. Active litigation involving the association.

The buyer gets a 7-day window after receiving the certificate to terminate the sale if the contents are unfavorable. That window is the buyer's leverage. Which means the certificate is the single most important document your HOA produces all year.

What has to be in it

Section 207.003 lays out the minimum disclosure. In plain English:

• Current dues amount and payment frequency.

• Whether the owner's account is current or delinquent, and by how much.

• Pending or recently passed special assessments.

• Capital improvement plans for the coming 12 months.

• Reserve fund status.

• Active litigation involving the association.

• Insurance held by the HOA.

• Open rule violations on record for the property.

• Transfer fees, capital contributions, and resale processing fees due at closing.

• The governing documents themselves: CC&Rs, bylaws, rules and regulations.

Two items new self-managed boards often forget and then get a phone call about:

• Governing-document amendments not yet recorded. If the membership has voted to amend the CC&Rs but the amendment is not yet recorded with the county, the title company needs to know.

• Pending board action. If the board has scheduled a vote on a special assessment for next month, you say so. "Pending" disclosures are not optional just because the vote has not happened yet.

The fees you can charge

Texas Property Code Section 207.003 caps what an HOA can charge for the resale certificate. The cap was tightened in the 2025 legislative session. Always cross-reference the current statute on the Texas Legislature website (statutes.capitol.texas.gov) before issuing, because this number changes when the legislature meets.

The fee covers labor and reasonable copying expense. It does not cover transfer fees, statement-of-account fees, or working-capital contributions. Those are separate line items at closing.

Self-managed boards have a real cost advantage here because the work is yours, not a vendor's.

The delivery deadline

This is the rule that catches new boards by surprise. Once a written request and payment are in hand, you have a fixed delivery window under Section 207.003. Treat it as a hard wall.

Miss the deadline and three things happen, fast:

1. The title company calls. They are not happy. The closing is at risk.

2. The HOA is exposed to actual damages caused by the late delivery. If the closing falls apart and the seller loses the buyer, that is a number with a dollar sign in front of it.

3. Undisclosed amounts can be extinguished. Section 207.004 says debts not disclosed on the certificate do not transfer to the new owner. The lien that secured them dies. This is a homeowner-friendly rule that exists precisely because boards used to "forget" to mention things.

The five things new self-managed boards forget

After a few years on a board and looking at certificates from other DFW HOAs, I can tell you the five recurring gaps. Check all of these and the title company stops calling.

1. Delinquency status as of the date of issue. Not the last invoice date. The actual balance today.

2. The fine schedule and any open violations. Not just unpaid fines. Open violations the buyer would inherit.

3. Pending litigation, even if the HOA is not directly named. If the HOA has been served or is a co-defendant, that is a disclosure. Buyers' lenders will not fund into an unresolved-litigation community.

4. Capital improvement plans the board has discussed but not voted on. If next month's agenda includes a vote on a $30,000 fence project, that is a pending capital improvement plan. Disclose it.

5. The resale processing fee itself. The certificate has to disclose that the HOA charges a fee to produce it. Yes, the very fee the buyer just paid for the certificate must be on the certificate.

What happens if you mess it up

Worst case: the title company files a demand letter, the closing delays, the seller loses the buyer, the seller's attorney sends a damages demand. Your HOA's general liability insurance may or may not cover this. Most do not.

Most probable case: the title company calls, you correct the certificate the same day, the closing slides by a week, and nobody sues. Embarrassing but survivable.

Best case: you ran the playbook above, the certificate was complete on day one, the closing went smooth, the buyer's agent recommends your community for the next listing because the HOA was easy to work with. Realtors talk to each other.

The standing process every self-managed board should have

Most small HOAs handle two to five resale certificates a year. The board member who handles the first one is usually figuring it out from scratch and gets bitten by the deadline. By the time they have done five, they have moved off the board and the next person starts the cycle over.

The fix is a written procedure, kept in the HOA's document repository, that any new treasurer or secretary can pick up cold:

1. Request received: log date, time, and who is paying.

2. Confirm payment: do not start drafting before the fee clears. The clock starts when payment lands.

3. Pull the inputs: ledger balance, fine schedule, ARC violations log, board minutes, current insurance certificate, pending board agenda items, governing documents.

4. Draft using a template: every certificate gets generated from a Word or Google Docs template. Do not start from scratch.

5. Two-person review: treasurer drafts, president signs. Two sets of eyes catch the omissions.

6. Deliver, log the delivery date, retain a copy in the HOA's records.

7. 30-day audit: at the next board meeting, review the certificate against any post-closing complaints. If something was missed, fix the template.

This whole process should take two hours per certificate once it is set up. Less, with practice.

This post is informational, not legal advice. Texas HOA law is dense and changes every legislative session. For any resale that involves an unusual circumstance (lien dispute, foreclosure-adjacent, contested fines), pay an attorney for an hour. Cross-reference your governing documents and the current statute on the Texas Legislature website before issuing, because laws update.

For a deeper read on Texas HOA law generally, see the Texas state guide on this site. It walks through Chapter 209 in plain English and is the companion piece to this post.