Texas House passes bill restricting HOA fines for brown lawns

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas House passed a bill on Thursday to restrict HOAs from issuing fines when lawns turn brown.

If the bill becomes law, it could impact almost every major city in Texas.

RELATED: Texas bill aims to protect homeowners from getting fined for brown lawns during water restrictions

What is House Bill 517?

The backstory:

The bill, filed by Round Rock State Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, would prevent HOAs from fining homeowners for brown grass or vegetation when their water supplier asks them to cut back on usage during a drought.

"I’m so excited, and the whole time I’ve been working on this, I’ve received nothing but overwhelming support," said Harris Davila. "I think that many members have heard about these concerns from their constituents who, you know, again, are stuck between either watering their lawn during a watering restriction and getting a fine from the local municipality or water provider or letting their yard get brown and the being fined by the HOA for not having a green yard."

Lawmakers made two changes, including an amendment by Austin Representative Ellen Troxclair, which gives homeowners 60 days to get their lawns back up to code after a water restriction is lifted.

"It takes an average of six weeks to restore grass," said Troxclair on Wednesday during the second reading of the bill. "This is a reasonable time frame."

Another amendment prevents HOAs from requiring homeowners to install grass or turf during a drought.

"In the original bill, we were talking about maintaining a green yard, but they wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t also be required to plant new grass during a drought, which is pretty straightforward and common sense to me," said Harris Davila.

Local perspective:

"I think that when we live in a state where, I would argue probably seven to eight months out the year, we seem to be in some form of drought condition that it seems a little bit short-sighted to demand that people have green grass when there are arguably more important things that we could be using our resources on," said Megan McGuffee.

Back in Round Rock, homeowner Isha Kanini said she hasn't heard of HOA fining residents for brown lawns during a drought, but she’s glad it’s one less thing she has to worry about.

"They haven’t sent me any of those notices, but if anything stops them from doing any of that, that would be really nice," said Kanini.

In written public house comments, one homeowner called it a "waste of time."

What they're saying:

The Community Associations Institute released a statement on HB 517:

What's next:

Next up, the bill is headed to a senate committee. If it passes through that, it will move to the Senate floor.