Texas Deed Restrictions: How to Find Them Before You Buy (2026)

Texas counties have almost no zoning power. State law bars a county like Travis, Hays, or Williamson from regulating whether a piece of land is used for a home, a business, or an industrial yard. That means for most of the unincorporated Hill Country, the recorded deed restrictions on your lot are not just one land-use rule among many. They are the only private land-use control that exists, and they will decide whether you can run a short-term rental, keep chickens, park an RV, or build a second dwelling long before any government office weighs in.

Deed restrictions, called restrictive covenants or CCRs (covenants, conditions, and restrictions), are recorded in the county clerk’s real property records and they run with the land. They bind you whether or not you ever read them, whether or not there is an active HOA, and whether or not the seller mentions them. Title insurance does not protect you against them, because they show up as printed exceptions on Schedule B of your title commitment, and a standard owner’s policy specifically carves out anything listed there. A buyer who skips this step during the option period can close on a lot and discover, weeks later, that the thing they bought it for is flatly prohibited by a document filed in 1998 and amended twice since.

This guide walks through what deed restrictions are, how they differ from zoning and HOA rules, where they physically live in the public record, how to pull and read the full chain (including the amendments that quietly change everything), and what Texas Property Code Chapters 202, 207, and 209 give you as a buyer. It is written for people buying in Austin and the surrounding Hill Country, where unincorporated land, subdivision covenants, and rural HOAs collide constantly.

What deed restrictions actually are

A deed restriction is a private, recorded agreement that limits what an owner can do with a specific piece of real property. The formal legal term is a restrictive covenant. When a developer plats a subdivision, they typically record a master document called a Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions. Every lot sold out of that subdivision takes title subject to that declaration, and each owner in the scheme agrees, by accepting their deed, to be bound by it.

The word “deed” in the phrase is a little misleading. Modern restrictions are rarely written into the individual warranty deed you sign at closing. They live in a separate recorded instrument, referenced by your deed and by your title commitment, that applies to the whole subdivision at once. A century ago, restrictions really were typed into each deed. Today the declaration model is standard, which is exactly why you have to go looking for the document rather than assuming your closing paperwork contains it.

Restrictive covenants are a creature of contract and real property law, not government regulation. Their legal force comes from the agreement itself and from the notice created by recording it in the public record. That distinction matters for enforcement, for how courts read them, and for who has the power to make you comply.

Deed restrictions vs. zoning vs. HOA rules

These three get blurred together constantly, and the differences decide who can tell you no. Here is the clean version.

Zoning is public law. A city government uses its police power to divide land into districts and dictate use, density, height, and setbacks. Deed restrictions are private law that can be stricter than zoning, or exist where there is no zoning at all. The two operate independently. A property can satisfy every zoning requirement and still violate a recorded covenant, and the covenant still wins as between the private parties.

HOA rules sit one layer down from the CCRs. The declaration creates the association and grants it power to adopt and enforce rules. So the HOA’s authority is only as broad as the recorded covenant says it is. When people say “the HOA won’t let me,” what they usually mean is that the recorded declaration, enforced by the HOA, prohibits it. For a deeper look at how associations operate day to day, see the complete guide to HOAs in Austin, and for what to do when a board oversteps, the guide to HOA disputes and your rights in Texas. How zoning fits into the picture inside city limits is covered in the guide to zoning and land use in Austin.

Why unincorporated Hill Country runs on deed restrictions

Here is the fact that surprises newcomers. Texas counties generally have no zoning authority. State law prohibits a county from regulating the use of a building or property for business, industrial, or residential purposes across its unincorporated area. Counties can plat subdivisions, regulate septic systems and floodplain development, and handle a short list of health and safety items, but they cannot pass a comprehensive zoning ordinance the way a city can.

So when you buy a lot in unincorporated Travis, Hays, or Burnet County, outside any city and outside a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, there may be no zoning map that applies to your land at all. In that vacuum, the recorded deed restrictions become the primary land-use rulebook. If the covenant says site-built homes only, no manufactured housing, minimum 2,000 square feet, no commercial use, and no short-term rentals, that is the law of your lot, enforced not by a city inspector but by the HOA or your neighbors through a private lawsuit.

This is why Ed Neuhaus, broker of Neuhaus Realty Group, has his team pull the full covenant chain from the county clerk before a Hill Country buyer ever waives their option period. On a lot in Dripping Springs or Spicewood, the deed restrictions are frequently the difference between a buildable dream and a very expensive mistake. Buyers looking at raw acreage should pair this guide with the guide to buying land in the Texas Hill Country and the guide to well water and septic systems, since covenants often dictate water, septic, and outbuilding decisions too.

How restrictions “run with the land”

The phrase you will hear over and over is that restrictive covenants “run with the land.” It means the restriction is attached to the property itself, not to the person who agreed to it, so it binds every future owner automatically. You do not have to sign anything new. When you accept a deed to a lot inside a subdivision with recorded covenants, you take the property subject to those covenants, full stop.

For a covenant to run with the land in Texas, courts generally look for a few things: the original parties intended it to bind successors, the covenant touches and concerns the land (it affects how the property can be used or its value), and there is notice, which recording in the public record provides. Once those boxes are checked, the restriction travels with the title through every sale, inheritance, and foreclosure until it expires, is amended, or is legally abandoned.

The practical takeaway is blunt. “I didn’t know about it” is not a defense. The document was recorded and public. Constructive notice means the law treats you as if you knew, whether you actually read it or not. That is the entire reason due diligence during the option period exists.

Where deed restrictions physically live

Restrictions do not hide in one place. To be confident you have the full picture, you need to look at all of these.

• The recorded subdivision plat. The plat is the map that created the lots. It often carries notes, building lines, easements, and setback requirements right on its face, and it references the subdivision by its exact recorded name.
• The Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CCRs). This is the master rulebook, recorded in the county clerk’s real property records, usually filed shortly after the plat. It is the single most important document to read in full.
• Amendments and supplemental declarations. These are separate instruments, recorded later, that change the original declaration or extend it to new sections. They are the trap almost everyone misses, covered in detail below.
• The title commitment, Schedule B. When you go under contract, the title company issues a commitment. Schedule B lists the exceptions, meaning the things the policy will not insure against, and recorded restrictive covenants are listed there by their recording reference (volume and page, or document number).
• The HOA’s dedicatory instruments. If there is an association, it maintains a set of “dedicatory instruments,” which include the declaration, bylaws, rules, and design guidelines. Texas law requires many of them to be recorded and, for larger associations, posted online.

Schedule B of the title commitment is your fastest lead. It will not reprint the restrictions, but it will tell you the exact recording information for the declaration and any amendments the title company found. That recording reference is the thread you pull to find the actual documents at the county clerk. For how title commitments and Schedule B exceptions work in a Texas closing, see the guide to title insurance in Texas and the guide to choosing a title company.

The amendment trap: never read the original alone

This is the single most important craft lesson in the entire guide, and it is the one that separates a real deed-restriction review from a lazy one. A declaration recorded in 1997 tells you almost nothing on its own. What governs your lot today is the original declaration plus every amendment and supplemental declaration recorded after it, read together as one instrument.

A single later amendment can completely reverse the picture. Consider how often these show up in Central Texas subdivisions:

• An original 1999 declaration is silent on short-term rentals. A 2019 amendment adds a flat ban on rentals of less than 30 days. If you read only the original, you conclude STRs are allowed. You would be wrong, and the mistake could cost you the entire investment thesis.
• An original declaration allows livestock. A later amendment restricts animals to household pets only. The barn you planned is now a violation.
• An original declaration sets a 1,500 square foot minimum dwelling size. An amendment raises it to 2,400. Your build plans no longer comply.
• A developer records supplemental declarations section by section as the subdivision expands, and each section has slightly different rules. Your lot is governed by the supplement for its section, not the one for the model-home section you toured.

The rule is simple and absolute: read every instrument in the chain, in order, start to finish. Do not conclude anything from the original declaration alone. When Neuhaus Realty Group runs a covenant review, the team traces the chain forward from the original plat and declaration through every recorded amendment, because a ban that did not exist for the first twenty years of a subdivision can appear in a single page recorded last spring. If you only take one thing from this guide, take that.

How to actually find deed restrictions, step by step

Here is the workflow that gets you from an address to the full set of restrictions before your option period runs out.

1. Check the HOA website first, if one exists

Under Texas Property Code Section 207.006, a property owners’ association whose subdivision has at least 60 lots, or that has hired a management company, must make its current dedicatory instruments available on a website maintained by the association or its manager. When that applies, the declaration, amendments, bylaws, and rules may be a few clicks away. Start here, because it is the fastest path, but do not stop here. Websites can be incomplete or out of date, so you still confirm against the county records.

2. Identify the exact recorded subdivision name and lot

Pull the legal description from the current deed, the tax appraisal record, or the title commitment. You need the precise subdivision name, section or phase, block, and lot as recorded. “Oak Ridge” and “Oak Ridge Estates Section Two” are different chains. The county appraisal district record and the title commitment are reliable sources for the exact legal.

3. Search the county clerk’s official public records

Deed restrictions are recorded with the county clerk, in the real property records (sometimes called official public records). Each Central Texas county offers an online search:

• Travis County provides a free online real property records search through the County Clerk that does not require an account for basic searching.
• Williamson County and Hays County both offer online official public records searches through their county clerk offices, though some require you to clear a verification step before searching.

Search two ways. First, search by subdivision name to find the recorded plat and the declaration filed against the whole subdivision. Second, search the grantor/grantee index under the developer’s or association’s name, which surfaces the declaration and, critically, later amendments that may not be indexed neatly under the subdivision name.

4. Trace the chain from the plat forward

Start at the recorded plat, note its recording date, then look for the declaration filed shortly after. From there, walk forward in time through every amendment and supplemental declaration. Each recorded instrument usually references the one it amends by volume and page or document number, which lets you confirm you have the complete set. Do not stop until you reach the present with no further amendments.

5. Cross-check against Schedule B of the title commitment

Once the title company issues the commitment, compare the restrictive covenant references on Schedule B against what you found at the clerk. If Schedule B lists a document you have not read, read it. If you found an amendment Schedule B does not list, ask the title company about it. Reconciling the two lists is how you catch gaps.

6. When in doubt, order the resale certificate

If there is an active HOA, Texas law lets you demand a package of subdivision information, described in the next section. That package must include a current copy of the restrictions. It is a paid, official route to the governing documents that also surfaces assessments, violations, and pending litigation.

Chapter 207: the subdivision information you can demand

Texas Property Code Chapter 207 gives buyers real leverage. Under Section 207.003, when there is a property owners’ association, the owner (or a buyer with the owner’s authorization) can send a written request and require the association to deliver a set of subdivision information. That set includes a current copy of the restrictions applying to the subdivision, a current copy of the association’s bylaws and rules, and a resale certificate.

The association generally must deliver the information not later than the 10th business day after it receives the written request. The resale certificate is the valuable part. It discloses current assessments and fees, amounts owed, whether the association is aware of any condition on the property that violates the restrictions, whether there is pending litigation, reserve information, and more. The statute caps what the association can charge to prepare and deliver the certificate, and separate caps apply to updates.

Two practical notes. First, a resale certificate is a snapshot; it is designed to be recent, so order it close to closing rather than early. Second, the resale certificate tells you how the association currently applies the rules, which can be as useful as the rules themselves. If the certificate flags an existing violation on the property you are buying, that becomes your problem at closing unless it is resolved. For the disclosures the seller separately owes you, see the guide to seller disclosures in Texas.

Chapter 202: how restrictions are read, and what cannot be banned

Texas Property Code Chapter 202 governs how restrictive covenants are constructed and enforced, and it contains a growing list of things a property owners’ association simply cannot prohibit, no matter what the covenant says.

Start with the interpretation rule. Section 202.003(a) states that “a restrictive covenant shall be liberally construed to give effect to its purposes and intent.” This is important and often misunderstood. Older Texas case law leaned toward reading restrictions narrowly, in favor of the free use of land. The statutory instruction to construe liberally means courts try to honor what the covenant was clearly meant to accomplish. In practice, ambiguous language gets litigated, and outcomes are fact-specific, which is another reason to read the actual words rather than rely on a summary.

Then come the statutory carve-outs, set out across Chapter 202 of the Property Code. Even where a covenant appears to prohibit something, the Legislature has overridden the covenant for certain protected uses. These are the ones most likely to matter to a Central Texas homeowner.

These carve-outs cut the other way from most of this guide. They are limits on what a covenant or HOA can enforce against you. Knowing them protects you from a board that tries to enforce a rule the state has already voided. For solar specifically, the interplay with these rules is covered in more depth in the guide to building a custom home in Austin, which deals with design guidelines and approvals in new subdivisions.

Chapter 209: enforcement inside residential HOAs

For most residential subdivisions with a mandatory-membership property owners’ association, the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, Chapter 209 of the Property Code, layers procedural protections on top of the covenant. It governs how an association enforces its rules, and it generally requires the association to give an owner written notice of a claimed violation, a reasonable opportunity to cure many violations, and, before certain penalties, a hearing before the board. It also gives owners rights to access association records and limits some fees.

Chapter 209 does not erase the underlying restriction. It regulates the process the HOA must follow to enforce it. For a buyer, the point is that an active HOA has both the substantive power (the recorded covenant) and a defined procedure (Chapter 209) to make you comply, and that process can escalate to fines, liens, and litigation. The guide to HOA disputes and your rights covers the enforcement mechanics and your defenses in detail.

Common Central Texas restriction types to look for

Restrictions vary enormously from subdivision to subdivision, but a handful of categories show up again and again in Austin-area and Hill Country covenants. These are the ones that most often change what a buyer can do.

Short-term rental restrictions deserve special attention because they intersect with a fast-changing legal landscape. A subdivision covenant can ban STRs even where the city or county allows them, and courts have enforced those private bans. But the language has to be specific. In Tarr v. Timberwood Park (Texas Supreme Court, 2018), the court held that a generic “residential use only” covenant does not by itself prohibit short-term rentals; to bar them, the covenant has to say so with reasonable clarity, for example by setting a minimum lease term or expressly prohibiting rentals below a certain number of days. That is exactly why you read the covenant chain for the precise wording rather than assuming a “residential only” clause settles the question. Pair this with the guide to short-term rental regulations in Texas cities. A workshop or home business plan runs into the outbuilding and use restrictions; the post on the HOA and deed rules that quietly kill a home workshop walks through a real example.

Who can enforce a deed restriction

People assume only an HOA can enforce restrictions. That is wrong, and it is an important point. When a subdivision is developed under a common scheme of restrictions, any lot owner in that scheme generally has standing to enforce the covenants against another lot owner, because every owner is both burdened by and benefited by the mutual restrictions. So even in an older subdivision with a defunct or nonexistent HOA, your next-door neighbor can sue to stop you from violating a recorded covenant.

Enforcement is a private lawsuit. The party seeking to enforce typically asks a court for an injunction ordering compliance, and under Texas Property Code Section 5.006, in an action based on breach of a restrictive covenant, the court shall award reasonable attorney’s fees to a prevailing party who asserted the action. That fee-shifting is what gives these covenants teeth even when the dollar stakes of the violation seem small.

Abandonment and waiver: a narrow escape hatch

Texas courts do recognize that a restriction can become unenforceable through abandonment or waiver. If violations of a particular restriction have been so widespread, continuous, and unchallenged that the restriction’s purpose is effectively defeated across the subdivision, a court may find it abandoned. But this is a high bar and a fact-intensive fight. A few scattered violations do not do it. Do not buy a property planning to rely on an abandonment argument; treat it as a rare defense, not a strategy. There are also statutes of limitations on enforcement actions, so the timing of a violation and when a claim is brought can matter. These are questions for a real estate attorney on the specific facts, and the guide to Texas real estate law gives the broader legal context.

What happens if you build or use in violation

The consequences of violating a recorded restriction are real and can be expensive. A court can order you to stop the offending use, and it can order you to remove or tear down improvements that violate the covenant. Owners have been ordered to remove structures, cease rentals, and pay the other side’s attorney’s fees. Because the fee-shifting can dwarf the underlying dispute, a covenant fight over something modest can turn into a five-figure problem.

The part that catches buyers off guard is the title insurance angle. Recorded restrictive covenants appear as exceptions on Schedule B of your title commitment and policy. A standard Texas owner’s title policy does not insure against loss caused by items listed as exceptions. In other words, title insurance protects you against defects the title company missed, not against the recorded restrictions it disclosed. Because the covenants were disclosed on Schedule B, they are excluded from coverage. You cannot buy a lot, violate a covenant that was sitting on Schedule B the whole time, and then look to your title policy to bail you out. This is precisely why the review has to happen before you close, not after. The title insurance guide explains what the policy does and does not cover in more detail.

Restrictions also interact with easements and survey issues, since building lines and setbacks in the covenant often overlap with recorded easements on the plat. Reading both together is the only way to know where you can actually build, which is why the guide to easements, boundaries, and land surveys is a natural companion to this one.

Buyer checklist: deed restrictions before your option period ends

In Texas, the option period is your paid window to investigate and walk away. Deed restriction review belongs at the top of that list, alongside the inspection. Work through this before you waive the option.

• Get the exact legal description. Confirm the recorded subdivision name, section or phase, block, and lot from the deed, appraisal record, or title commitment.
• Check the HOA website for posted dedicatory instruments if the subdivision has 60 or more lots or a management company.
• Pull the recorded plat from the county clerk and read the notes, building lines, and easements on its face.
• Pull the original declaration (CCRs) and read it in full, not a summary.
• Find and read every amendment and supplemental declaration. Trace the chain forward to the present. This is the step that catches STR bans, size increases, and animal limits added years after the original.
• Reconcile against Schedule B of the title commitment; investigate any document on one list but not the other.
• Order the resale certificate if there is an active HOA, and read it for assessments, existing violations, and pending litigation.
• Map your specific plan against the rules. STR, ADU, workshop, livestock, RV, minimum size, setbacks, resubdivision. Write down where each stands.
• Get a real estate attorney’s read on anything ambiguous or deal-critical before the option period closes.
• Decide with facts, not assumptions. If a restriction kills your plan, that is exactly what the option period is for.

The bottom line for Central Texas buyers

Deed restrictions are the quiet rulebook that decides what you can actually do with a property, and in the unincorporated Hill Country they often outrank every other land-use control because there is no county zoning to compete with them. They run with the land, they bind you whether you read them or not, and your title policy will not save you because they sit right there on Schedule B. The work is not glamorous. It is pulling a plat, reading a declaration, and tracing every amendment forward until you reach the present. But that work, done inside the option period, is the difference between buying the property you think you are buying and buying a lawsuit.

Neuhaus Realty Group runs real deed-restriction lookups across Travis, Williamson, and Hays county records as a standard part of buyer due diligence, and the team knows where the amendments hide in the local subdivisions of Lakeway, Dripping Springs, and the surrounding Hill Country. If you are weighing a lot and need to know what the covenants really allow before your option period runs out, reach out through our contact page and we will help you read the chain before you sign.