Who Signs for the HOA Resale Certificate When a Westchase Condo Owner Dies?

The Westchase and Briar Forest corridor is not like the all-single-family neighborhoods north of the Katy Freeway. The Woodlake and Briarmeadow area in 77063 especially carries a high share of townhomes, condominiums, and patio homes, much of it the low-maintenance product that downsizing and older owners favor. When one of those owners dies, the family inherits something a detached house does not come with: an association standing between the estate and a closing. Houston Probate Attorney Kyle Robbins walks through the document that sits at the center of that problem, the resale certificate, and the question that stalls more Westchase estates than any other: after the owner has died, who is legally able to ask for it.

Key Takeaways

• Only an owner can start the clock: both resale certificate statutes key the association’s deadline to a written request from the owner, which after a death means the estate’s representative or a devisee whose title has been vested by the court.
• Two different statutes, two different deadlines: a condominium unit runs on Texas Property Code Section 82.157, a subdivision lot on Section 207.003, and the deadlines are ten days and ten business days respectively.
• The certificate is where a right of first refusal surfaces: both statutes require the association to disclose any restraint on the owner’s right to transfer.
• Pre-1994 condominiums are still covered: Section 82.002(c) reaches the resale certificate and assessment lien provisions back to older declarations, which is common in this part of west Houston.
• Order it at the right moment: the certificate has a statutory freshness window, so ordering it before the estate can actually sell often means buying it a second time.

First, Find Out Which Statute Governs Your Unit

Families often use “HOA” for every association, but Texas law splits them into two regimes, and a Westchase estate can land in either one. The answer changes the deadlines, the paperwork, and later the association’s collection powers.

A condominium is governed by Chapter 82 of the Texas Property Code, the Uniform Condominium Act. You own a unit plus an undivided interest in the common elements, and the arrangement is created by a declaration recorded in the Harris County real property records.

A lot in a subdivision with a mandatory association is governed by Chapter 207 for resale disclosure and Chapter 209 for assessments and enforcement. Many of the townhome developments in this corridor are platted this way rather than as condominiums, even though they look similar from the street.

The reliable way to tell them apart is the recorded instrument, not the architecture. A condominium declaration will say so on its face. Pulling the governing documents for the exact address from the Harris County Clerk’s real property records is the first thing to do, because everything downstream depends on the answer.

Why the Request Has to Come From an Owner

Here is the sentence that stops Westchase estates. Texas Property Code Section 82.157(b) says that the association must furnish the certificate “not later than the 10th day after the date of receiving a written request by a unit owner.” Section 207.003(a) frames it the same way for a subdivision association, running its clock from a request by “an owner or the owner’s agent,” a purchaser or the purchaser’s agent, or a title company acting on behalf of either.

A deceased owner cannot make that request. An adult child who has not been to court is not the owner of record and is not the owner’s agent. So the association has no one whose request starts its deadline, and the family experiences this as the management company simply not responding, or responding that it needs documentation it never quite specifies.

Chapter 207 makes the gatekeeping explicit in two places. Section 207.003(a) starts the clock only after “the evidence of the requestor’s authority to order a resale certificate” is received and verified. Section 207.003(a-1) lets the association require reasonable evidence of the right to acquire before it will even begin preparing the documents. And Section 207.003(d) adds a trap worth knowing: a written request that does not specify the name and location to which the information is to be sent is not effective at all.

What satisfies the authority requirement comes out of the Harris County Probate Courts, and which path fits depends on the estate:

• Letters testamentary or letters of administration. In an independent administration, the court appoints a personal representative and issues letters. Those letters are the document a management company and a title company will both want to see, and they carry the authority to sell.
• A muniment of title order. Where there is a valid will and no unpaid debts other than one secured by real estate, a muniment of title can vest title directly in the devisee without appointing a representative at all. The devisee then is the owner, and makes the request in that capacity.
• An affidavit of heirship, in some no-will situations where the heirs agree. An affidavit of heirship is a record-title tool rather than a court appointment, and whether a given association and title company will accept it varies, so it is worth confirming before relying on it.

The Two Clocks: Ten Days Versus Ten Business Days

The two statutes read similarly and run differently. The gap matters when an estate is carrying assessments, insurance, and taxes every month the unit sits.

	Condominium (Sec. 82.157)	Subdivision POA (Sec. 207.003)
Deadline to furnish	10 days	10 business days
Certificate freshness	prepared not earlier than 3 months before delivery	prepared not earlier than the 60th day before delivery
Fee cap	$375	$375, plus up to $75 for an update
Update turnaround	not specified by the section	7 business days, requestable within 180 days
If the association is late	owner may furnish a sworn affidavit in lieu of the certificate	association may not charge a fee for the certificate

Ten business days spanning a holiday week can stretch past two calendar weeks. Building that into the sale timeline, rather than discovering it after a buyer is under contract, is the practical reason to start the probate authority question early.

The condominium fallback in Section 82.157(b) is genuinely useful and underused. If the association does not deliver within ten days, the unit owner may give the purchaser a sworn affidavit stating that the information was requested and the association did not timely provide it, and the owner and purchaser may then agree in writing to waive the certificate requirement. The same subsection also makes clear that failure to provide a resale certificate does not void a deed to a purchaser. An unresponsive management company is a problem to route around, not a wall.

What the Certificate Will Tell You About the Estate

The resale certificate is not a formality. For an estate it functions as a financial disclosure about an asset the family may know very little about, and it is often the first honest picture of what the unit is actually worth net of what it owes.

For a condominium, Section 82.157(a) requires the certificate to state, among other things, any right of first refusal or other restraint on transfer, the periodic assessment amount, unpaid common expenses and special assessments currently due from the selling owner, other unpaid amounts owed to the association, approved capital expenditures for the next twelve months, any unsatisfied judgments against the association, pending suits against the association, and, under subsection (a)(14), every fee associated with the transfer of ownership including who each fee is paid to.

For a subdivision lot, Section 207.003(b) covers much of the same ground and adds two disclosures that matter to an estate in particular: subsection (b)(4), the total of all amounts due and unpaid attributable to the owner’s property, and subsection (b)(15), a statement indicating whether the restrictions allow the association to foreclose its lien for failure to pay assessments.

Two protections are worth knowing once you have the certificate in hand. Under Section 82.157(c), if a properly executed condominium certificate understates the delinquent sums owed, the purchaser is not liable for the additional unpaid delinquencies above the stated total. And under Section 82.157(e), a purchaser, lender, or title insurer who relies on the certificate is not liable for a debt that was not disclosed in it, and the association may not deny the validity of any statement in the certificate.

What the certificate does not do is close the door on the future. Section 82.157(d) states that the certificate does not affect the association’s right to recover debts that arise after the date it was prepared, or its lien securing payment of future assessments. Assessments keep running on an inherited unit for every month the estate holds it, and those new amounts sit outside whatever the certificate reported.

Older Westchase Buildings and the 1994 Line

A reasonable assumption about a 1970s Westchase condominium is that a 1993 statute does not apply to it. That assumption is half right and the half that is wrong is the half that matters.

Texas Property Code Section 82.002(a) applies Chapter 82 to condominiums whose declaration was recorded on or after January 1, 1994. Older condominiums can opt in by amending the declaration, but most never did. Section 82.002(c), however, lists a set of sections that apply to pre-1994 condominiums regardless, and that list includes Section 82.157, the resale certificate, and Section 82.113, the association’s lien for assessments. The subsection limits itself to events and circumstances occurring on or after January 1, 1994, and does not invalidate existing provisions of the older declaration, but the resale certificate obligation and the assessment lien reach the older buildings.

The practical consequence for an estate in this corridor is that the age of the building does not get you out of the resale certificate process, and it does not get the unit out from under the association’s lien. The declaration still has to be read, because it governs alongside these sections, but the two provisions that most affect a sale apply either way.

Sequencing the Probate and the Certificate

Put together, the order of operations for a Westchase or Briar Forest unit looks like this.

Pull the governing documents first. Get the recorded declaration or subdivision restrictions for the exact address from the Harris County Clerk. This answers the condominium-or-subdivision question that drives everything else, and it reveals a right of first refusal before it becomes a surprise.

Establish authority second. File in the Harris County Probate Courts and obtain letters, or a muniment of title order, depending on the estate. This is the step that makes someone an owner who can make an effective request. Harris County probate is handled largely by Zoom and electronic filing, so this does not require repeated trips downtown, and our office sits minutes north of Briar Forest on the Katy Freeway if you would rather come in.

Order the certificate third, timed to the sale. Both statutes impose a freshness window, three months for a condominium and sixty days for a subdivision lot. Ordering before the estate can actually transact risks paying the fee twice.

Watch the assessments the whole time. They do not pause during probate, they are a personal obligation of the owner and a lien on the unit, and the certificate you ordered says nothing about the ones that accrue after it was prepared. For an empty lock-and-leave unit this is the quiet cost of delay, and it is the reason a Westchase estate is usually better served by moving than by waiting.

When the estate includes real property, the firm can advance legal fees and be repaid from the sale proceeds at closing, so an heir carrying assessments on an empty unit is not also paying legal fees out of pocket. Call for case-specific details, because pricing depends on the facts of the estate.

A Westchase condominium or Briar Forest townhome is a more procedural estate asset than a detached house, but it is a well-mapped procedure. At Houston Probate Attorney, Harris County probate is all we do. The association is not the obstacle most families take it for. The authority to speak to the association as the owner is what has to come first, and that comes from the probate court.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every probate case is unique. Consult a licensed Texas attorney for advice specific to your situation.

Pricing Note: Any fees and price ranges shown are estimates based on typical cases. Actual costs vary depending on your unique circumstances, asset complexity, and family situation. Contact Kyle Robbins at the Houston Probate Attorney office for an exact quote.