There are several changes to Texas Laws that affect real estate professionals, property owners, and tenants that will go into effect January 1, 2012. One of the changes affects how buyers can get an HOA resale certificate (discussed in yesterday’s Part I.) Another makes changes to owner’s and lender’s title policies (Part II Below.) There are going to be changes for property owners and tenants and even changes for appealing property taxes. Below is Part II in a series that discusses the new changes. Come back to the RREA blog tomorrow for Part III.
As of January 1, 2012 there will be changes to owner’s and lender’s title policies. Title policies have always been able to exclude coverage of the ownership of minerals, but now title companies are no longer required to provide a 2% credit on the cost of the owner’s policy for this exclusion. Also on January 1, title companies are no longer required to insure a loss from damage to property resulting from the use of the surface of the land to extract minerals. Prior to this, if title companies excluded minerals from coverage, they were required, upon request, to insure against such damage. This insurance was provided through an endorsement to the policy, which cost $50. The endorsement is still available for the lender’s policy and the owner’s policy, but there will be no charge for the endorsement to the lender’s policy. For an endorsement to the owner’s policy, the charge remains $50.
