A different view:
Thanks to excessive activism coupled with past abuses by unscrupulous investors, the 79th Texas Legislature has now made it much more difficult for investors in Texas to work within their entrepreneurial vocation.
Two laws which were recently passed have dealt a deadly blow to the use of popular lease-options. SB 629, authored by Sen. Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville) and sponsored by Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston), and HB 1823, authored by Rep. Harold Dutton and sponsored by Sen. Eddie Lucio.
These laws were initially introduced as a means to protect low-income buyers and immigrants along the Texas-Mexico border as the practice of lease-options by unscrupulous builders and developers are what is traditionally blamed for the creation of ‘colonias’ (identifiable unincorporated areas located within 150 miles of the Texas-Mexico border that lack infrastructure and ‘decent’ housing), however; their effect on real estate investors extends far beyond the state’s border regions.
SB 629 and its companion HB 1823 both enter into simultaneous effect on September 1, 2005.
http://www.insuranceforinvestors.com/2009/07/texas-lease-options-hb1823/
Rent to own is a huge rip off so not much sympathy from me. No reason for Perry to publicly give credit and by so doing credibility, to the despicable ACORN.
It appears Ricardo wanted to appeal to the illegals along the border that ACORN was mostly concerned with.
According to the links from the link you gave, the bill passed the house by voice approval, with only ONE person registering a no vote. The Senate vote was 30-1.
SO this legislation was an essentially unanimously passed before Perry signed it.
I read the bills, and I read the article you posted. I see why the people at the link didn’t like the bill, but I don’t see the bill as being a bad thing. But more importantly, the entire state legislature was FOR the bill, there was no controversy recorded, and the Governor signed it.
I wouldn’t necessarily take the word of the insurance companies as a non biased source. Let’s just say that they probably were the reason why the legislature had to rectify the law after the tornadoes.
You should have seen the excuses made to people here after Hurricane Rita that insurance companies made in getting out of paying. Many people who paid in for years without a claim were denied. It was so bad that there were a couple of class action suits where the state was involved.
Sometimes these advocacy groups do the right thing.