HoustonChronicle.com - Bills aim to ease problems facing neighborhoods
A bill sponsored by Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, regulating the proliferation of neighborhood bars, passed the Senate on Friday...The legislation, prompted by publicized cases in which homeowners were threatened with loss of their houses because they didn't pay association fees, would curb associations' use of foreclosure sales to collect fees.Bailey's bill, which passed out of committee Thursday, would require homeowners associations to give clear notice to homeowners that delinquent fees could result in foreclosures, prevent the associations from foreclosing on a home without a proper hearing, require that a judge approve foreclosures and allow homeowners up to two years to redeem homes after foreclosure. Lindsay introduced a similar bill on Friday."A home is the largest and most expensive possession most citizens will ever own in their lives," he said. "For a nongovernmental entity to foreclose and sell a home without the benefit of an impartial court considering both sides of the issue is contrary to everything most Texans and Americans hold as reasonable and fair."