Senate Bill 25 50, carried by Senator West, would exempt transfers of groundwater and surface water rights from a group of statutory disclosure requirements that currently apply to real-property transactions. The sponsor said the bill arose from guidance provided by real-estate practitioners who observed that existing disclosure statutes use the term "real property," which under Texas law can include water rights.

Why it matters: testimony from Denise Chaney on behalf of the Texas Real Estate Probate and Trust Law Institute explained that disclosure statutes were intended to inform buyers about surface-use conditions that affect land, not to impose penalties on sellers of water rights. She said attorneys and landowners who sell water rights have been forced to comply with disclosure statutes that do not meaningfully apply to the sale of water and that the statutes carry penalties for noncompliance, including potential contract termination and return of earnest money.

TCEQ resource witnesses Kim Nygren and Todd Galiga from the water availability division joined the committee as technical resources. The sponsor summarized that five statutes addressed in the bill already exempt mineral-rights transfers and the bill would treat groundwater and surface water transfers similarly by statutory exemption.

Outcome: public testimony concluded and the committee left the bill pending with intent to move it quickly. The committee later reported SB 25 50 favorably to the full Senate during the same hearing; roll-call recorded six ayes and no nays on the motion to report the bill favorably.