Texas has two separate statutes governing resale certificates, and they are not interchangeable. A standard homeowners association runs on Property Code Chapter 207 (covered in our HOA resale certificate guide). A condominium association does not — Chapter 207 explicitly excludes "a condominium council of owners or condominium unit owners' association." Condos instead run on Property Code §82.157, part of the Uniform Condominium Act (Chapter 82). The two statutes cover similar ground — assessments, violations, litigation, insurance — but differ in several ways that change how a TC actually works the file.
Who can request it — this is the biggest practical difference
Under Chapter 207, three parties are authorized to request an HOA resale certificate: the owner or the owner's agent, the purchaser or the purchaser's agent, or a title company acting for either side. §82.157 is narrower. It reads: "Not later than the 10th day after the date of receiving a written request by a unit owner, an association shall furnish to the selling unit owner or the owner's agent a resale certificate signed and dated by an officer or authorized agent of the association." The statutory request-and-deliver cycle runs between the association and the selling unit owner (or the owner's agent) — not the buyer, the buyer's agent, or the title company directly. In practice this means a condo resale certificate has to be ordered through the seller side of the file; the buyer's TC can't independently trigger the association's statutory clock the way Chapter 207 lets a purchaser-side request do on a standard HOA deal.
The deadline is worded differently
§82.157 gives the association until the 10th day after receiving the written request — the statute doesn't say "business days." Chapter 207, by contrast, explicitly measures its clock in 10 business days. That's a meaningful gap on a tight closing timeline, and whether §82.157's "10th day" runs on calendar days is exactly the kind of statutory-construction question worth a licensed Texas attorney's read before you rely on it to plan a deadline — don't assume it behaves like the HOA statute's business-day clock.
How old the certificate can be
Both statutes cap the certificate's age, but at different lengths. §82.157 requires the resale certificate to be "prepared not earlier than three months before the date it is delivered to the purchaser." Chapter 207's HOA certificate has a shorter cap — prepared no earlier than the 60th day before delivery. Three months and 60 days aren't the same number, and a certificate that would be timely on a condo file could already be stale on a standard HOA file's clock.
The fee cap is the same number, structured differently
§82.157 lets the association "charge a reasonable and necessary fee, not to exceed $375, to furnish a resale certificate" — the identical dollar cap Chapter 207 uses for its own certificate. But Chapter 207 also has a separate, cheaper $75 fee cap for requesting an update to an already-issued certificate within 180 days. §82.157 doesn't build in that lower-cost update path — there's no parallel provision letting a unit owner ask for a discounted refresh of a certificate that's still fresh but not quite current.
What happens if the association misses the deadline
Chapter 207's remedy for a late HOA certificate is a multi-step process: a certified-mail second request, then a possible court order, a judgment of up to $5,000, and attorney's fees. §82.157 works differently and, on paper, faster: if the association doesn't furnish the certificate on time, "the unit owner may provide the purchaser with a sworn affidavit stating that the unit owner requested information from the association and the association did not timely provide the certificate or required information." There's also a standing savings clause built directly into the statute: "Failure to provide a resale certificate does not void a deed to a purchaser." A missed condo resale certificate deadline doesn't unwind a closing the way a title defect might — the closing can proceed on the affidavit.
What the certificate protects once it's issued
§82.157 also builds purchaser protection directly into the statute rather than routing it through a separate lien-termination mechanic: if the certificate incorrectly states the total delinquent sums owed by the selling unit owner, the purchaser isn't liable for additional delinquencies, unpaid as of the certificate's preparation date, that exceed the amount the certificate actually states.
Where this connects to the TREC contract
None of this replaces the mechanics on the promulgated condo contract itself. TREC No. 30-18's Paragraph 2C requires the Condominium Resale Certificate (TREC No. 32-5), which is the association's implementation of §82.157's minimum content requirements — see our TREC 30-18 / 32-5 guide for the paragraph-by-paragraph walkthrough of what's on that form. This page covers the underlying statute those contract mechanics are built on, and specifically how it diverges from the Chapter 207 process a TC may already know from standard HOA files.