By: Gonzales (Senate Sponsor - Hinojsa) H.B. No. 3314
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 7, 2009;
May 8, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on
Jurisprudence; May 21, 2009, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 21, 2009, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the transfer of title to a decedent's homestead through
a small estate affidavit.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 137(c), Texas Probate Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(c) Title to a decedent's homestead that is the only real
property in the [a] decedent's estate may be transferred on an
affidavit that meets the requirements of this section only to a
distributee who is the decedent's child or who occupied the
property as the distributee's principal residence on the date of
the decedent's death, provided that the distributee is otherwise
entitled to the property. An affidavit that is used to transfer
title to a homestead under this section must be recorded in the deed
records of a county in which the homestead is located. A bona fide
purchaser for value may rely on a recorded affidavit under this
section. A bona fide purchaser for value without actual or
constructive notice of an heir who is not disclosed in a recorded
affidavit under this section acquires title to a homestead free of
the interests of the undisclosed heir, but the bona fide purchaser
remains subject to any claim a creditor of the decedent has by law.
A purchaser has constructive notice of an heir who is not disclosed
in a recorded affidavit under this section if an affidavit,
judgment of heirship, or title transaction in the chain of title in
the deed records identifies the heir of the decedent who is not
disclosed in the affidavit as an heir of the decedent. An heir who
is not disclosed in a recorded affidavit under this section may
recover from an heir who receives consideration from a purchaser in
a transfer for value of title to a homestead passing under the
affidavit.
SECTION 2. Section 137(c), Texas Probate Code, as amended
by this Act, applies to the estate of a decedent that is pending on
or after the effective date of this Act, regardless of the
decedent's date of death.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.
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