This page is general information about Texas law and City of Lubbock procedure. It is not legal advice about your property.
Electrum Properties is not a law firm and cannot advise you on your case. Talk to a Texas attorney, and talk to the City of Lubbock about any notice you have received.
Material interest: we buy houses in Lubbock for cash, including houses in the situations described on this page. We make money when you sell to us. Read this page knowing that.
Last reviewed: September 2026
The short answer
Yes, you can sell a Lubbock house with open code violations. Nothing in Texas Local Government Code Chapter 214 or Chapter 54 stops an owner from selling because a code case is open. It changes who will buy it, what a lender will do, and what gets settled at closing — not your right to sell.
What changes the picture is whether the city has recorded anything at the county clerk’s office. A citation in an inspector’s file is one thing; a recorded notice of hearing under Sec. 214.001(e) or a lis pendens under Sec. 54.018(c) is another.
Which Lubbock letter did you get?
City of Lubbock Code Enforcement describes its job as enforcement “related to zoning, junk vehicles, weeds and substandard structures.” Three of those four tracks publish a deadline. The one that can take your house does not.
| Track | What the City of Lubbock publishes |
|---|---|
| Weeds and rubbish | In violation “if they are over 8″ tall and are uncultivated.” Notice goes to “the property owner listed on the tax records,” and owners “will have 7 days from the date the property is posted” — the clock starts at the posting, not at your mailbox. You are responsible out “to the middle of the alley (or the back property line if there is no alley).” |
| Junked vehicles | Vehicles with “expired tags or inspection” that “have not moved in 30 days.” Owners are “issued a citation and a 10-day notice of violation.” |
| Zoning | “Violations are usually given between 1 and 10 days to be abated.” Cars on unpaved surfaces “will receive a citation, without any warning.” |
| Substandard structures | An order may issue “for the property to be repaired, removed, or demolished,” and “Cases vary on a severity basis, which effects compliance times.” No published day count. Anyone telling you “Lubbock gives you 30 days” invented it. |
Two details catch people out: the code covers “incomplete demolitions,” and it “is also applied to occupied housing.” All of this is City of Lubbock enforcement inside the city limits — Wolfforth, Slaton, Idalou and Shallowater run their own.
Who hears a substandard-structure case here
The city uses three names for this body on its own website: “Substandard Structure Commission” on the Code Enforcement page, “Substandard Structure Court” on Boards & Partnerships, “Structural Standards Commission” on Services and in the Codes FAQ. The City Secretary’s official board roster lists none of them. State law does allow a court to do the work — Sec. 214.001(p): “A hearing under this section may be held by a civil municipal court.” We will not pick a label for you. Call Code Administration at 806-775-2193, or 311, and ask which docket your address is on. Get the case number and date in writing.
What Texas law lets the city do, and how long you really have
Texas Local Government Code Sec. 214.001(a) lets a municipality “by ordinance, require the vacation, relocation of occupants, securing, repair, removal, or demolition of a building that is” one of three things. That three-item list is the whole limit on the power, so find your house in it. Most Lubbock substandard-structure cases run on the first: a building that is “dilapidated, substandard, or unfit for human habitation and a hazard to the public health, safety, and welfare.” Nothing in that one turns on whether anyone lives there. The second is the one that catches structurally sound houses, and it reaches only empty ones — a building that is, “regardless of its structural condition, unoccupied by its owners, lessees, or other invitees and is unsecured from unauthorized entry to the extent that it could be entered or used by vagrants or other uninvited persons as a place of harborage or could be entered or used by children.” Regardless of its structural condition — a solid house can be inside it. Read the whole sentence, though, because the two halves are joined by and: the building has to be unoccupied by its owners, lessees or other invitees and unsecured. An empty house with a kicked-in back door is inside Subdivision (2). The same house with you still living in it is not. The third covers a building already “boarded up, fenced, or otherwise secured in any manner” where either “the building constitutes a danger to the public even though secured from entry” or “the means used to secure the building are inadequate to prevent unauthorized entry or use of the building in the manner described by Subdivision (2).” If your house is in none of the three, Sec. 214.001 is not the hook the city is using.
| Provision | What it says, qualifier included |
|---|---|
| Sec. 214.001(h) | In conducting the hearing the city “shall require the owner, lienholder, or mortgagee” to act “within 30 days,” “unless the owner or lienholder establishes at the hearing that the work cannot reasonably be performed within 30 days.” A duty on the city with an escape hatch you must trigger — not a grant of 30 days to you. |
| Sec. 214.001(j) | The city “may not allow” more than 90 days “unless” you both “submit a detailed plan and time schedule for the work at the hearing” and “establish at the hearing that the work cannot reasonably be completed within 90 days because of the scope and complexity of the work.” A ceiling on the city, not 90 days handed to you. |
Sec. 214.001(l) then puts “the burden of proof to demonstrate the scope of any work that may be required to comply with the ordinance and the time it will take to reasonably perform the work” on the owner, lienholder or mortgagee — bring contractor numbers to the hearing or the city’s timeline stands. Sec. 214.0012(a) gives “30 calendar days” after the final decision is delivered or mailed to file a verified petition in district court, “or such decision shall become final as to each of them.” Lubbock’s own ordinances are at ecode360.com/LU6396, sections 28.01.014 and Article 28.08.
If I sell, do the violations follow the buyer?
- The condition follows the house. A roof that fails the property maintenance code fails it for the next owner too.
- Recorded filings bind a later buyer — but only if recorded. Sec. 54.018(c): the city “may file a notice of lis pendens in the office of the county clerk,” and “If the municipality files the notice, a subsequent purchaser or mortgagee who acquires an interest in the property takes the property subject to the enforcement proceeding and subsequent orders of the court.” Sec. 214.001(e) does the same for a notice of hearing, binding transferees “who acquire such interest after the filing of the notice.”
- A lien can be cleared, and may never attach. Sec. 214.001(n) gives the city “a lien against, unless it is a homestead as protected by the Texas Constitution, the property.” It attaches “at the time the notice of the lien is recorded and indexed in the office of the county clerk,” and it “is extinguished if the property owner or another person having an interest in the legal title to the property reimburses the municipality for the expenses.”
- A judgment against you is not a claim against the house. Sec. 54.018(b)(2) lets a city bring “an action in rem against the structure that may result in a judgment against the structure as well as a judgment against the defendant.” Selling does not by itself erase a personal judgment.
A title search answers this for your actual address. If liens are the heart of it, start at selling a house with liens in Lubbock.
What this can cost you
Fines. Sec. 54.001(b) caps a fine for violating a municipal ordinance at $500, “except that” one for an ordinance “that governs fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation, other than the dumping of refuse, may not exceed $2,000,” and one governing “the dumping of refuse” may not exceed $4,000. Those are state-law maximums, not Lubbock’s price list.
Civil penalties, and the exception nobody mentions. The number that scares people is $1,000 a day. Sec. 214.0015(j) allows a penalty “in an amount not to exceed $1,000 a day for each violation or, if the owner shows that the property is the owner’s lawful homestead, in an amount not to exceed $10 a day for each violation” — and then only “if the municipality proves” the owner “was notified of the requirements of the ordinance” and that “after notification, the property owner committed an act in violation of the ordinance or failed to take an action necessary for compliance.” The cap, the homestead showing you have to make, and the notice the city has to prove.
Theoretical? KCBD reported in February 2025 that since March 2022 the City of Lubbock demolished 47 properties at a cost of $447,966 — 12 in 2022, 15 in 2023, 21 in 2024. Reported by KCBD, not by us; the trend is the useful part.
Do I have to tell the buyer?
In an ordinary sale, yes. Texas Property Code Sec. 5.008(a) requires a seller of residential real property “comprising not more than one dwelling unit” to give the statutory disclosure notice, and item 9 asks whether you are aware of “Any notices of violations of deed restrictions or governmental ordinances affecting the condition or use of the Property.” The standard is your own knowledge: Sec. 5.008(d) says that if information “is unknown to the seller, the seller shall indicate that fact on the notice, and by that act is in compliance with this section.”
Sec. 5.008(e) lists eleven transfers the section “does not apply to,” including one “pursuant to a court order or foreclosure sale” and one “by a fiduciary in the course of the administration of a decedent’s estate, guardianship, conservatorship, or trust.” Whether you are exempt is a question for your attorney — see selling an inherited property in Texas. Practically, we are buying it with the violations in place, so there is nothing to hide from us.
How to find out what is on file for your address
- Call Code Administration, 806-775-2193, or 311. Ask what is open, which track each case is on, and whether a hearing is set.
- Check permit and inspection history in the city’s Citizen Self Service portal. We link it rather than describe it — confirm it loads for you.
- Search the Lubbock County Clerk’s real property index for anything recorded. Set expectations first: the office states it “will not conduct searches over the phone” and “We do not conduct searches for the existence of a document filing.” Use the online index or have a title company run it. 806-775-1062.
- Check your mailing address at the Lubbock Central Appraisal District. Sec. 214.001(q) lists appraisal district records among the six record sets a city searches to identify an owner, and Lubbock’s weed notices go to “the property owner listed on the tax records.” If LCAD still shows your late mother’s address, that is where the certified letter went — and under Sec. 214.001(r), when the Postal Service returns a notice “refused” or “unclaimed,” “the validity of the notice is not affected, and the notice is considered delivered.” In Lubbock County it is LCAD, not the Tax Assessor-Collector, that bills and collects property taxes.
When a cash offer is not your best move
Fix it and list it when the list is short — weeds, a junk vehicle, a fence, grass in the alley. That is an afternoon and a phone call, not a reason to sell a house. Repairs also make sense if you still live there as your homestead and can pull your own permit. That rule is the fork in the road: Lubbock issues homeowner building, plumbing and mechanical permits only to “homeowners who currently own and occupy a residence as their homestead,” and “Homeowners who do not live in the home (rental property) can only obtain building permits for structural work.” If you have already moved out, you are hiring licensed trades — see our unpermitted work page, or call Building Inspections at 806-775-2087.
Talk to a lawyer first if a hearing is set, if you think an order against you is wrong, or if title is unclear because the estate was never settled. Sec. 214.0012(a) gives 30 calendar days to file in district court — not a window to spend shopping offers.
A cash sale earns its keep when the mechanism is against you. Conventional, FHA and VA loans run through an appraisal and a lender’s condition requirements, and a house with an open substandard-structure case or unpermitted work routinely fails them — the deal dies late, with the clock still running. Our comparison page lays out both routes.
How selling to Electrum works with an open case
We buy it as-is, with the case open. You do not repair anything, mow anything, clean anything out, or close the file first. Jarrod has been buying houses in Lubbock since 2019, and hail-beaten roofs, leaning alley garages and foundation movement on caliche and clay are familiar ground out here.
On the first call we need the address, roughly what the city sent you, and whether a hearing date exists. Then we look at it, then you get a number. If a lien is recorded, title finds it and it gets settled out of the proceeds at closing.
We cover all closing costs on purchase. No commissions, and no repair credits, because there are no repairs. You pick the closing date. When speed matters we can close in as little as 7 days on the right deal. On this kind of file speed sometimes matters, because a sale has to finish before the city acts. When you need more time, we work to your schedule.
Call 806-630-0875 or fill in the form below. To compare every route, start with your options for selling a house fast in Lubbock; if the house is also standing empty, see selling a vacant house in Lubbock.
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Code violation questions we get from Lubbock sellers
Can I sell a house in Lubbock that has open code violations?
Yes. Nothing in Texas Local Government Code Chapter 214 or Chapter 54 stops an owner from conveying a property because a code case is open. It affects who will buy it and what gets settled at closing, not your legal right to sell.
Do code violations transfer to the buyer?
Partly. The condition follows the house. A recorded filing binds a later buyer, but only if the city recorded it and only as to interests acquired after that filing (Sec. 54.018(c), Sec. 214.001(e)). A lien under Sec. 214.001(n) does not attach if the property is “a homestead as protected by the Texas Constitution,” and “is extinguished” on reimbursement. Full quotes are in the section above.
The city ordered repairs or demolition. How much time do I have?
Lubbock publishes no deadline — its Code Enforcement page says “Cases vary on a severity basis, which effects compliance times.” Sec. 214.001(h) tells the city to require the work within 30 days “unless the owner or lienholder establishes at the hearing that the work cannot reasonably be performed within 30 days,” and Sec. 214.001(j) bars more than 90 days unless you meet both of its conditions at the hearing. Call 806-775-2193 for your dates.
Can Lubbock really fine me $1,000 a day?
That is a state-law ceiling, not Lubbock’s price. Sec. 214.0015(j) allows a penalty “not to exceed $1,000 a day for each violation or, if the owner shows that the property is the owner’s lawful homestead, in an amount not to exceed $10 a day for each violation” — and only if the city proves you were notified and violated after that notice.
Do you buy Lubbock houses with an open demolition order?
We look at every one of them. We buy as-is with the case open, we cover all closing costs on purchase, and you pick the closing date — when speed matters we can close in as little as 7 days on the right deal. We cannot promise an outcome on your case. Call 806-630-0875.
An open code case is a problem with a deadline attached, and deadlines are the one thing you cannot buy back. Call 806-630-0875. We cover all closing costs on purchase. You pick the closing date.