Selling a Condominium at 2727 Kirby: The Documents a Seller Owes, and When

What does a seller at 2727 Kirby have to give the buyer?

Section 82.157 of the Texas Property Code puts the duty on a unit owner other than a declarant who intends to sell a unit, and it bites before executing a contract or conveying the unit rather than at closing, subject to one exception in its own subsection (c). Four things go to the purchaser: a current copy of the declaration, a current copy of the bylaws, any association rules, and a resale certificate that must have been prepared not earlier than three months before the date it is delivered.

One of the four is not the seller's to write. The resale certificate must be issued by the association, and it carries the association's current operating budget along with the statements the section lists. That leaves the selling owner one move at the front of the transaction, which is a written request to the association, made early.

While the owner waits, the association is filling in the Condominium Resale Certificate, TREC No. 32-5, and five of its boxes are the ones the selling owner is answerable for, two of them naming the seller in terms. Whether the declaration contains a right of first refusal or other restraint that restricts the right to transfer a unit. What common expense or special assessment is due and unpaid by the seller. What other amounts are payable by the seller to the association. Whether the board has knowledge that any alterations or improvements to the unit or to the limited common elements assigned to that unit violate the declaration, bylaws or association rules. And whether the board has received notice from a governmental authority concerning violations of health or building codes with respect to the unit, the limited common elements assigned to it, or any other portion of the condominium.

That last pair is the argument for reading a draft certificate before the buyer does. The board's answer about alterations, and the board's answer about a notice from a governmental authority, are statements about this home written by somebody else, and a seller meeting them for the first time across a negotiating table is answering under pressure. What a right of first refusal does to a buyer's clocks is set out on our page about timing, parking and the board.

Section 82.151 excuses the certificate in five cases, each written by the type of disposition rather than by who the seller is: a gratuitous disposition of a unit, a disposition pursuant to court order, a disposition by a government or governmental agency, a disposition by foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure, and a disposition that may be canceled at any time, for any reason, and without penalty. A sale for money is none of the five.

How long does the association have, and what happens if it misses?

The clock sits in the same section. Not later than the 10th day after the date of receiving a written request by a unit owner, the association shall furnish the selling owner or the owner's agent a resale certificate signed and dated by an officer or authorized agent of the association. The ten days run from the association's receipt of the request, which is why the date the request went out is worth keeping.

If an association does not furnish a resale certificate or any information required in the certificate within the 10-day period, the unit owner may provide the purchaser with a sworn affidavit signed by the owner in its place. The affidavit must state that the owner requested information from the association concerning its financial condition, as required by the section, and that the association did not timely provide the certificate or the information required in it. Once an owner has furnished that affidavit, the owner and the purchaser may agree in writing to waive the requirement to furnish a resale certificate. TREC's Residential Condominium Contract (Resale) carries that route as one of the boxes in its certificate paragraph.

The section is careful about who answers for what. A selling unit owner or the owner's agent is not liable to the purchaser for erroneous information provided by the association in the certificate. The association is not liable to a selling owner for delay or failure to furnish one, and an officer or agent is not liable either unless that person wilfully refuses to furnish the certificate or is grossly negligent in not furnishing it. Failure to provide a resale certificate does not void a deed to a purchaser.

Subsection (c) is the exception the section opens with, and it works the other way. Where a properly executed resale certificate incorrectly states the total of delinquent sums owed by the selling unit owner to the association, the purchaser is not liable for payment of additional delinquencies that are unpaid on the date the certificate is prepared and that exceed the total sum stated in it. The same subsection repeats that a unit owner or the owner's agent is not liable to a purchaser for the association's failure or delay in providing the certificate in a timely manner.

What a late document does is hand the buyer a way out. Under section 82.156 a purchaser who has not received the declaration, bylaws and association rules before executing a contract of sale, or whose contract contains no underlined or bold-print provision acknowledging receipt of those documents and recommending that they be read, may cancel the contract before the sixth day after the date the purchaser receives them. A purchaser who has not received a resale certificate before executing a contract may cancel before the sixth day after receiving the certificate or executing a waiver, whichever occurs first. The statute writes the same window a second way in the next subsection, where cancellation must be hand-delivered or mailed certified with return receipt requested within the five-day cancellation period. Cancellation is without penalty, and all payments made by the purchaser before cancellation must be refunded.

The contract adds a termination right of its own on top of that. In the box for a buyer who has not received the documents, and again in the box for a buyer who has not received the certificate, the seller delivers within a number of days the parties write in after the effective date, and the buyer may terminate within seven days after receiving each one by giving written notice of termination, with the earnest money refunded. Both boxes say in terms that the buyer retains rights to terminate under section 82.156. And a selling unit owner may not require a purchaser to close until the purchaser is given the declaration, bylaws and any association rules.

Does an owner here fill in the seller's disclosure notice?

Yes, and it is the seller's own document under a different chapter. Section 5.008 requires a seller of residential real property comprising not more than one dwelling unit located in this state to give the purchaser a written notice as the section prescribes, or one substantially similar containing at a minimum all of its items. The section lists the transfers it does not apply to, and none of them is a sale by an owner for money.

One of those exemptions is worth naming here because it changes the whole answer for a different seller: a transfer by a fiduciary in the course of the administration of a decedent's estate, guardianship, conservatorship, or trust. The statute lists ten others beside it, and the estate case is worked through on our page on selling a unit here from an estate.

An owner of one home in a thirty-storey tower cannot speak for the roof, the foundation, the garage or the facade, and the statute answers that rather than leaving it to nerve. The notice shall be completed to the best of seller's belief and knowledge as of the date the notice is completed and signed by the seller, and where the information required by the notice is unknown to the seller, the seller shall indicate that fact on the notice, and by that act is in compliance.

The items a condominium owner does have to answer are specific. Among them are homeowners' association or maintenance fees or assessments, any common area such as pools, tennis courts or walkways co-owned in undivided interest with others, any notices of violations of deed restrictions or governmental ordinances affecting the condition or use of the property, any lawsuits directly or indirectly affecting the property, and any room additions, structural modifications or other alterations or repairs made without necessary permits. The form also asks whether the seller is aware of any item, equipment, or system in or on the property that is in need of repair.

The alterations and repairs question has a published history at this address, in the guardrail and podium cladding replacement and the dates the consultant records for it. The account and its source sit in the buyer's guide to this building.

One document a seller in a subdivision owes is not this seller's to produce. Section 5.012 requires a notice of obligations related to membership in a property owners' association from a seller of residential real property subject to that membership, and the tenth exemption in its subsection (c) is a transfer of a real property interest in a condominium. The buyer's remedy there, termination within the earlier of seven days after receiving the notice or the date the transfer occurs, which is the purchaser's exclusive remedy for the failure, is a clock a condominium seller never reaches.

Delivery of the disclosure notice has its own timing. It shall be delivered by the seller to the purchaser on or before the effective date of an executory contract binding the purchaser to purchase the property, and if a contract is entered without the seller providing it, the purchaser may terminate the contract for any reason within seven days after receiving the notice.

What can the association charge when the home changes hands?

The board's power to charge opens with a condition. Unless otherwise provided by the declaration, the association, acting through its board, may impose reasonable charges for preparing, recording, or copying declaration amendments, resale certificates, or statements of unpaid assessments. The power sits in section 82.102, and a declaration that provides otherwise has already narrowed it.

The certificate itself has a ceiling. An association may charge a reasonable and necessary fee, not to exceed $375, to furnish a resale certificate, a cap that section 4 of S.B. 711 added with effect from 1 September 2025. Under the contract that certificate is prepared at the seller's expense.

Everything else the association takes out of the transfer has to be written into the certificate. Section 82.157 requires it to state all fees payable to the association or an agent of the association that are associated with the transfer of ownership, including a description of each fee, to whom the fee is paid, and the amount of the fee, and the promulgated form gives that a table of its own.

Since the same 2025 act there is a place to read those charges before anybody is asked anything. A recorded management certificate must state the amount and description of a fee or fees charged to a unit seller or buyer relating to a transfer of a property interest in a unit of the condominium. The county clerk records it in the real property records and indexes it as a Condominium Association Management Certificate, and the association must also file it electronically with the Texas Real Estate Commission. An amended certificate is due not later than the 30th day after the date the association has notice of a change in any information the recorded certificate is required to state.

The contract turns all of it into a blank. The buyer shall pay any and all association fees, deposits, reserves and other charges resulting from the transfer of the property not to exceed a figure the parties write in, and the seller shall pay any excess. That paragraph does not reach two things: the regular periodic maintenance fees, assessments, or dues, including prepaid items, that the prorations paragraph handles, and the costs and fees a separate paragraph of the same contract provides for.

One charge is off the table wherever a declaration carries a right of first refusal. Under section 5.015, a person who has a right of first refusal in real property that is a condominium subject to Chapter 81 or Chapter 82 may not charge a fee for declining to exercise that right, such as a fee for providing written evidence of the declination.

The management certificate carries a consequence for the association as well. A unit owner is not liable for attorney's fees incurred by an association relating to the collection of a delinquent assessment against that owner, or for interest on the delinquent assessment, where those fees are incurred or that interest accrues during a period when the certificate is not recorded with a county clerk or electronically filed with the Texas Real Estate Commission.

What happens to unpaid assessments at closing?

An assessment levied by the association against a unit or unit owner is a personal obligation of the unit owner and is secured by a continuing lien on the unit and on rents and insurance proceeds received by the owner and relating to that unit. Section 82.113 reads assessments wide: regular and special assessments, dues, fees, charges, interest, late fees, fines, collection costs, attorney's fees and any other amount due to the association or levied against the unit, all of which are enforceable as assessments unless the declaration provides otherwise.

The lien is created by recordation of the declaration, which constitutes record notice and perfection of the lien, and unless the declaration provides otherwise, no other recordation of a lien or notice of lien is required.

Priority is the closing question, and it comes with four exceptions written into it. The association's lien has priority over any other lien except a lien for real property taxes and other governmental assessments or charges against the unit unless otherwise provided by section 32.05 of the Tax Code; a lien or encumbrance recorded before the declaration is recorded; a first vendor's lien or first deed of trust lien recorded before the date on which the assessment sought to be enforced becomes delinquent under the declaration, bylaws, or rules; and, unless the declaration provides otherwise, a lien for construction of improvements to the unit or an assignment of the right to insurance proceeds on the unit recorded or duly perfected before that same delinquency date.

The association has the right to foreclose its lien judicially or by nonjudicial foreclosure under the power of sale created by the chapter or the declaration, except that it may not foreclose a lien for assessments consisting solely of fines. It may instead file suit to recover a money judgment for sums that may be secured by the lien. And at any time before a nonjudicial foreclosure sale, a unit owner may avoid foreclosure by paying all amounts due the association.

At the table the contract does the arithmetic in three lines. Regular periodic maintenance fees, assessments, and dues, including prepaid items, will be prorated through the Closing Date. Cash reserves from regular condominium assessments for deferred maintenance or capital improvements established by the association will not be credited to the seller. Any special condominium assessment due and unpaid at closing will be the obligation of the seller.

The monthly figure underneath that can move, because after an initial assessment by an association, assessments must be made at least annually and must be based on a budget adopted at least annually. The ten-year series of median fees and the published per-square-foot rate sit on the HOA fees page.

What can a buyer's lender do about the building?

One line in Fannie Mae's Selling Guide explains why the documents above matter before a listing rather than after a contract: the project review is in addition to the review the lender completes for underwriting the borrower, the transaction terms, and the individual unit appraisal. A buyer can be entirely qualified and still be stopped by the building.

Three of the guide's rules reach a tower like this one, and each carries its condition. Projects in which the association is named as a party to pending litigation are ineligible for sale to Fannie Mae where that litigation relates to the safety, structural soundness, habitability, or functional use of the project. Where the lender determines that the pending litigation involves minor matters with no impact on those same four things, a list in the guide keeps the project eligible, and construction defect litigation in which the association is the plaintiff is not treated as a minor matter unless the association is seeking recovery of funds for issues that have already been remediated, repaired, or replaced, with no anticipated material adverse impact if the funds are not recovered.

Where a special assessment is associated with a critical repair and the issue is not remediated, the project is ineligible. Where an inspection report indicates unaddressed critical repairs, the project is ineligible until the required repairs have been completed and documented, and the lender must review an engineer's report or substantially similar document to decide whether the completed repairs resolved the concerns. The carve-out matters as much as the rules: if damage or deferred maintenance is isolated to one or a few units and does not affect the overall safety, soundness, structural integrity, or habitability of the project, those requirements do not apply.

All of that is a lender's guide rather than Texas law, dated 5 August 2026 on its own topic page, and it reaches a buyer only through a loan Fannie Mae would buy. The reserve standard, the critical-repair threshold and the records route a buyer uses to test them are set out on the reserves and assessments page.

One rule in the same guide pairs with the lien above. Fannie Mae allows a limited amount of regular common expense assessments to have priority over its mortgage lien where the project sits in a jurisdiction that has enacted the Uniform Condominium Act, the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, or a similar statute providing for unpaid assessments to have priority over first mortgage liens, and Texas enacted the Uniform Condominium Act as chapter 82. The guide also requires the project legal documents to evidence compliance with that priority requirement.

What can this page not tell you?

Four answers a seller will be asked for live in documents nobody opened here: the assessment on a specific home, what the association holds in reserve, whether any special assessment is approved or planned, and what this association charges at transfer. They sit on a certificate the association issues and on a management certificate recorded for this condominium.

Three more wait on the declaration, and no copy of this declaration was read here. A right of first refusal or other restraint on transfer exists only where the declaration creates one. The board's power to impose charges and the reach of the association's lien are each written with an unless-the-declaration-provides-otherwise condition in the statute, so the declaration can narrow either.

Whether any lender has reviewed this project, and what such a review found, is a finding in that lender's own file rather than a published fact.

A national figure for how long condominiums take to sell is not something the body publishing the national series produces. The National Association of Realtors says its existing-home sales data measure sales and prices of existing single-family homes for the nation overall, and that those figures include condos and co-ops in addition to single-family homes. That series publishes no split of time on market between the two. The same association warns that the national median condo and co-op price is often higher because condos are concentrated in higher-cost housing markets, while in a given area single-family homes typically sell for more than condos. The measure that belongs to this building is its own: the median home went under contract in 70 days as of September 2026, and the current figures with the window they cover sit on the market update page.

Nothing above values a home or promises a timetable, and where a question turns on what a statute means for one particular sale, that is a question for a Texas real estate lawyer.

Bring your unit number, the documents you already hold and the date you plan to list, and we will say which of these the association issues, which one you complete yourself, and what each will be asked to state. Paige Martin of Real Broker, LLC works this building: 18 closings at 2727 Kirby, most recently April 2026. Choosing a listing agent for a sale here is a separate question, answered on our listing agent page.