By: West S.B. No. 1120
(Anchia)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a residential tenant's lease obligation after the loss
of the leased premises resulting from a natural disaster.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 92, Property Code, is
amended by adding Section 92.062 to read as follows:
Sec. 92.062. LEASE TERM AFTER NATURAL DISASTER. If a rental
premises is, as a practical matter, totally unusable for
residential purposes as a result of a natural disaster such as a
hurricane, tornado, flood, extended freeze, or widespread
windstorm, a landlord that allows a tenant to move to another rental
unit owned by the landlord may not require the tenant to execute a
lease for a term longer than the term remaining on the tenant's
lease on the date the premises was rendered unusable as a result of
the natural disaster.
SECTION 2. Section 92.062, Property Code, as added by this
Act, applies only to a lease that is executed or renewed on or after
January 1, 2014. A lease that is executed or renewed before January
1, 2014, is governed by the law in effect at the time the lease was
executed or renewed, and that law is continued in effect for that
purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect January 1, 2014.