A twelve-month lease is an acquisition.
SB 17 reaches leasehold interests of one year or longer. A lease made in violation is void. The proposed Chapter 67 rules would also treat a series of short renewals as one long lease when the substance is a long lease. Landlords and property managers are inside this statute whether or not a title company is involved.
What the statute says
The prohibition applies to purchasing or otherwise acquiring an interest in real property, and the statute treats a leasehold of a year or more as such an interest. Leases under a year are outside it. Verify the exact text at Texas Property Code chapter 5, subchapter H.
What the proposed rules would add
Proposed sections 67.2(5) and 67.6(b) would let the Attorney General treat successive short-term leases as a single leasehold of a year or more when they are structured to avoid the statute. Proposed, not adopted.
Who this touches
Commercial landlords leasing to entities. Property managers with corporate tenants. Brokers on lease deals with foreign-national principals. Ground leases for energy and telecom.
What a record shows for a lease
The tenant's answers, the control-person tree if the tenant is an entity, an OFAC screen of every name, the rule result with the lease term recorded, and the hash. The record shows the term you were told and the date you asked. It does not tell you the lease is enforceable. Counsel decides that.
See what the record looks like.
The sample uses fictional names and a fictional hash. It cannot be verified and it is not a record.