Two New Texas HOA Laws Take Effect Now — Here's What San Antonio Homeowners Need to Know

If you live in a neighborhood governed by a homeowners association anywhere in the San Antonio area — from Alamo Ranch and Helotes in the northwest to Converse and Universal City in the northeast, or communities in Schertz, New Braunfels, or the booming subdivisions along Highway 90 and Loop 1604 — two new Texas laws that took effect just yesterday are worth your full attention.

House Bill 517 and House Bill 621 both became law on September 1, 2025. Together, they push back against two of the most common complaints HOA residents bring up: unfair fines during drought conditions and restrictions on who can speak in shared spaces. Here is what each law actually does and what it means for your life as a homeowner.

HB 517 addresses a frustration that is especially real in San Antonio's climate. When local authorities impose residential watering restrictions — which San Antonio Water System and other area utilities do regularly during hot, dry stretches — your grass can turn brown through absolutely no fault of your own. Under the old rules, your HOA could still cite you and fine you for a lawn that failed to meet community appearance standards, even if watering it would have violated city or utility rules. That left homeowners stuck between two sets of demands with no good way out.

HB 517 closes that trap. The law now requires associations to suspend enforcement of grass and turf maintenance standards during any period of residential watering restrictions, and that suspension extends for 60 days after the restrictions are lifted. This matters enormously right now. We are just coming out of a San Antonio summer, and if any watering restrictions were in place in your area in recent weeks, your HOA cannot fine you for brown turf today and may not be able to do so for some time yet, depending on when those restrictions ended.

For homeowners in communities throughout Bexar County and the surrounding Hill Country, this is a meaningful shift. If your HOA sends you a violation notice about your lawn appearance and you were under watering restrictions at any point during the relevant period, you now have a legal basis to push back. Keep records. Save any communications from SAWS or your local utility about restriction periods. Those dates are your documentation.

For people currently buying a home in an HOA community — and there are thousands of HOA-governed properties across San Antonio's growing suburbs, from Cibolo to Boerne to Converse — this law is a reasonable comfort to factor into your decision. It will not eliminate all HOA oversight of your yard, but it does mean you are legally protected from fines during conditions outside your control.

HB 621 addresses a different but equally important issue. Before this law, a property owners' association could effectively block homeowners and residents from inviting government officials or candidates for public office into common areas. Think about what that meant in practice: a neighborhood that wanted to host a candidate forum, a meet-and-greet with a city council member, or an informational session with a school board candidate could be shut down by HOA rules before it ever happened.

HB 621 bars associations from prohibiting owners or residents from extending those invitations. If you or your neighbors want to invite a candidate or an elected official into a community clubhouse, a shared green space, or another common area, your HOA cannot tell you no based on a blanket ban.

This has practical relevance across every San Antonio-area community. Residents in ZIP codes like 78023, 78245, 78253, and 78259 — areas that have seen tremendous residential growth and where HOA-governed subdivisions are the norm rather than the exception — have active civic lives and care about who represents them on city council, county commissioners court, the state legislature, and local school boards such as those in Northside ISD, North East ISD, Judson ISD, and Comal ISD. This law strengthens the ability of those communities to engage directly with the people who make decisions that affect them.

For sellers, both laws add a modest but real talking point. An HOA community that cannot fine you for a drought-brown lawn and cannot silence your civic voice is a more attractive place to live, and that matters when you are trying to help a buyer see the value in your neighborhood.

For renters in HOA communities, HB 621 is particularly worth noting. The law protects residents, not only owners, so if you are leasing a home inside an HOA, you share these rights when it comes to inviting officials and candidates to common areas.

If you have questions about how these laws apply to a specific community you are considering buying into, already own in, or are thinking about selling, the best first step is reviewing your HOA's current rules and CC&Rs alongside the new statutes. Consulting a Texas real estate attorney is the right call for anything that requires legal interpretation specific to your situation.

What is clear right now is that as of this week, the legal landscape for HOA homeowners in San Antonio and across Texas shifted in two concrete ways. Knowing your rights is the first step to using them.