Relating to prohibiting the use of unfair service agreements; creating an offense.
HB 4204 prohibits service agreements for residential real estate maintenance or home sales that contain unfair terms, directly affecting homeowners and service providers like contractors. It defines unfair agreements as those binding future owners without consent, allowing unconsented transfers of service rights, or creating legal claims on property. The bill makes such agreements invalid and unenforceable, while excluding home warranties, utility services, and standard insurance contracts. Violating this law constitutes a deceptive business practice under Texas law.
Bill status
passed
3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Mar 2025
Committee Review
May 2025
House Passage
May 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Mar 31, 2025
Last action May 28, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
Introduced
→
Engrossed
·
3 edits
·
May 16, 2025
MINOR
The bill text was reformatted from a draft version to an engrossed version, with the primary substantive change being the addition of a new definition for 'dedicatory instrument' in the exemptions list. This expands the scope of agreements exempt from the unfair service agreement prohibitions to include dedicatory instruments created by property owners' associations, alongside existing exemptions for home warranties, insurance contracts, and other specified agreements.
Scope change
The bill's scope was slightly expanded by adding 'dedicatory instruments' to the list of agreements that are exempt from the unfair service agreement restrictions.
DEFINITION
Added 'dedicatory instrument' as a new exempt category in Section 17.972(b)(4), expanding the list of agreements not subject to the unfair service agreement prohibitions.
TECHNICAL
Reformatted the bill text from draft markup format to clean engrossed version, removing line numbers and internal tracking codes while preserving the substantive legislative language.
Inserted a note about WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards at the top of the document, which is a technical compliance addition rather than a policy change.
Floor votes · House May 15, 2025
How they voted
133–0
Passed · 11 other
Total votes 144
May 15, 2025
D
Democratic58
91% Yea
R
Republican86
93% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
28
Key actions
9
Committee
7
Amendments
2
May 19, 2025
Committee
Referred to Business & Commerce
upper
May 19, 2025
Introduced
Read first time
upper
May 19, 2025
Introduced
Received from the House
upper
May 16, 2025
Lower · Passed
Passed
lower
May 15, 2025
Lower · Passed
Passed to engrossment as amended
lower
May 15, 2025
Lower · Passed
Amended
lower
May 15, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (133-0-11)
house
May 7, 2025
Lower · Passed
Committee report sent to Calendars
lower
May 7, 2025
Lower · Passed
Committee report distributed
lower
Apr 30, 2025
Lower · Passed
Reported favorably w/o amendment(s)
lower
Apr 23, 2025
Lower · Passed
Left pending in committee
lower
Apr 23, 2025
Lower · Passed
Testimony taken/registration(s) recorded in committee
lower
Mar 31, 2025
Committee
Referred to Trade, Workforce & Economic Development
lower
Mar 31, 2025
Introduced
Read first time
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Sam Harless
RRepublican
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