The maintenance split, and the sale of the larger home
Downsizing into Montebello: What You Give Up and What You Get Back
Updated September 2026
If I move from a house into a home at Montebello, what stops being my responsibility, what is still mine, and what happens when I sell the larger home?
Section 82.107 of the Texas Property Code, in force since 1 January 1994, makes the association responsible for the common elements and each of the 98 owners at Montebello responsible for their own home, subject to the declaration and two exceptions.
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, Montebello
Source: Texas Property Code, Section 82.107, Upkeep of Condominium, January 1994.
How much floor area does a home at Montebello actually have?
The county's certified appraisal roll records floor areas at Montebello running from 1,991 square feet at one end to 6,212 square feet at the other, home by home. Your own home's recorded area sits on its own appraisal account, and that is the figure a buyer's appraiser works from.
Two counts sit behind that range. The tower was built with 98 homes, four to each floor, and the roll now carries 93 taxable condominium accounts, because permits at the building record homes being merged. The original plans ran from roughly 2,100 square foot one bedroom homes to 4,960 square foot two level penthouses on the highest two floors, so the largest homes trading today are larger than anything on that plan.
Dividing the building's 360,000 square feet by 98 homes produces an average that describes no home in it, because the total includes lobbies, corridors, plant and the garage. The county's own floor areas across the 93 accounts total 317,435 square feet.
What does the association take over, and what stays yours?
Under Section 82.107, the association is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and each owner is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of that owner's own home, except as the declaration or the section's own two exceptions provide. That is the half of the trade that gets handed over: the exterior of the building, the grounds and the shared parts stop being one owner's project.
Section 82.052 says where the line falls, except as the declaration or plat otherwise provides. Where walls, floors or ceilings are designated as boundaries, the lath, furring, wallboard, plaster, paneling, tiles, wallpaper, paint and finished flooring count as part of the home: the finished surfaces are part of the home and the rest of the wall, floor or ceiling is common element. Where a chute, flue, duct, wire, conduit or bearing column runs partly inside and partly outside those boundaries, the portion serving only that home is a limited common element allocated solely to it, and the portion serving more than one home or the common elements is part of the general common elements.
Under the same section and the same exception, balconies, patios, doorsteps, stoops and the exterior doors and windows designed to serve a single home, but located outside that home's boundaries, are limited common elements allocated exclusively to it, so a balcony sitting outside those boundaries is attached to a home rather than part of it. Under Section 82.112(d), a common expense for the maintenance, repair or replacement of a limited common element is assessed against all the homes as if it were for a general common element, except as the declaration and Section 82.107 provide.
Access runs the other way as well. Each owner affords the association and the other owners, and their agents or employees, access through the home where that is reasonably necessary for those purposes, and whoever is responsible for damage done in taking it is liable for the prompt repair. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, the association may also enter a home after giving notice to the owner and occupant, to prevent or terminate waste of water it buys as a common expense, or to do maintenance and repairs that, left undone, may increase water damage to the components it maintains.
What are you still paying for after the monthly fee?
Two exceptions in Section 82.107 stay with the owner. You pay the cost of maintenance, repair and replacement of any utility installation or equipment serving only your home, including the water heater and the heating and air conditioning equipment, wherever it physically sits, inside the boundaries of the home or outside them. You also pay the cost of maintenance, repair and replacement of the windows and doors serving only your home.
The statute's own list of utility installations and equipment covers electricity, water, sewage, gas, water heaters, heating and air conditioning equipment, and television antennas. Both of those rules begin with an exception for the declaration, so the recorded text for a building can move either one.
Section 82.117 adds the obligations that come with the address, except as the declaration, the bylaws, the association's rules or the chapter provide. An owner pays assessments, interest and other charges properly levied by the association, and pays regular periodic assessments without demand. An owner pays for damage to the condominium caused by the negligence or wilful misconduct of the owner, an occupant, or their family, guests, employees, contractors, agents or invitees. The statute's list for rule breaking is the same one without contractors: an owner is liable to the association for violations of the declaration, bylaws or rules by the owner, an occupant, or their family, guests, employees, agents or invitees, and for costs the association incurs to obtain compliance, including attorney's fees whether or not suit is filed.
The assessment at Montebello covers building and grounds, an activities manager, cable television, concierge, an on site guard, a porter, valet parking, a private garage, limited access, an intrusion alarm system, the clubhouse, a lounge, the gym, recreational facilities, an outdoor kitchen, a pet run, storage outside the home, common area insurance, trash removal, and water and sewer. Interior repairs, insurance on the home's contents and improvements, and utilities beyond water and sewer are yours. For the rate, the arithmetic behind it and the ten-year series, read the monthly assessment page.
What can you change inside a home, and what needs permission?
Section 82.061 lets an owner make improvements or alterations to the owner's own home that do not impair the structural integrity or mechanical systems or lessen the support of any portion of the condominium, subject to the provisions of the declaration and other provisions of law. Under Section 82.052 the spaces, interior partitions and other fixtures and improvements within the boundaries are part of the home, subject to what the declaration or plat provides and to the rule that divides a fixture running through a boundary.
Outside them, permission is written. An owner may not change the appearance of the common elements, or the exterior appearance of a home or any other portion of the condominium, without prior written permission of the association. An exterior door or window serving one home and located outside its boundaries is a limited common element rather than part of the home, so replacing one is an association question as well as a cost question.
Combining two homes has its own rule. After acquiring an adjoining home, or an adjoining part of one, an owner may remove, alter and create apertures in an intervening partition with the association's prior written approval, even where that partition is in whole or in part a common element, provided the work does not impair the structural integrity or mechanical systems or lessen support. That is the statutory route behind the merged homes the county's records show at this address.
What happens on the sale of the larger home?
On the sale of a main home, the 2025 edition of Publication 523 allows you to exclude the first $250,000 of gain from the sale from your income, increased to $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, where you meet the publication's Eligibility Test.
That test has three parts. Ownership: you owned the home for at least 24 months out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of sale, and for a married couple filing jointly only one spouse has to meet it. Residence: you owned the home and used it as your residence for at least 24 months of the previous 5 years, a total of 730 days that can fall anywhere in the period and need not be a single block of time, and each spouse must meet this one individually.
Look-back: you did not sell another home during the 2 years before the date of sale, or you sold one and took no exclusion on the gain from it, and the exclusion may be taken only once during a 2-year period.
The date of sale is the closing date. Where you received Form 1099-S, it appears in box 1; otherwise it is the date title transferred or the date the economic burdens and benefits of ownership shifted to the buyer, whichever is earlier. An individual has only one main home at a time, and where you own or live in more than one, a facts and circumstances test decides which one it is, with the most important factor being where you spend the most time. A condominium, like a single-family home, may be a main home and qualify for the exclusion.
Where the Eligibility Test is not met, Publication 523 (2025) sets out a partial exclusion for a sale whose main reason was a change in workplace location, a health issue, or an unforeseeable event. The publication carries the arithmetic: Worksheet 1 for the maximum exclusion, Worksheet 2 for gain or loss on the sale or exchange, and Worksheet 3 for how much of any gain is taxable. Take those worksheets and your own figures to a tax adviser.
In what order do these decisions come?
Documents first, then the maintenance split, then the tax question, and the closing date on the larger home last. Section 82.157 sets the first step: before executing a contract or conveying the home, a selling owner other than a declarant must furnish to the purchaser a current copy of the declaration, the bylaws, any association rules, and a resale certificate that must have been prepared not earlier than three months before the date it is delivered to the purchaser. The association has ten days after the date it receives a written request from an owner to furnish that certificate.
Then read the declaration against the default. Section 82.055 requires the declaration for a condominium to contain any restrictions on use, occupancy, or alienation of the units, which is why the answer for one building sits in that building's recorded declaration and its amendments. Where the declaration provides differently, it displaces the default in Section 82.107, in Section 82.052 and in Section 82.112(d).
The certificate carries the figures for one home. It states any right of first refusal or other restraint in the declaration that restricts the right to transfer, the amount of the periodic common expense assessment and the unpaid common expenses or special assessments currently due and payable from the selling owner, and all fees payable to the association or its agent that are associated with the transfer of ownership, with a description of each fee, to whom it is paid, and the amount.
Take the tax question up before a closing date is fixed, because the ownership, residence and look-back tests are all measured against the date of sale. A tax adviser reads your own facts against the publication and its worksheets.
What can this page not tell you?
It cannot tell you what Montebello's declaration provides about maintenance, alterations, leasing, pets or a right of first refusal, because everything above is the statutory default and the declaration may change any of it.
It cannot tell you your own home's assessment or the fees payable on a transfer, both of which are on your resale certificate.
It cannot tell you the floor area the association measures for its own purposes, because the figures above are the county's.
It cannot tell you what any move would cost in tax, because the figures above are the publication's, the arithmetic is worksheet work, and a tax adviser reads your own facts.
It cannot tell you what a home here is worth.
Questions & answers
Montebello questions, answered
How large are the homes at Montebello?
The county's certified appraisal roll records floor areas at this address running from 1,991 square feet to 6,212 square feet, home by home. The tower was built with 98 homes, four to each floor, and the original plans ran from roughly 2,100 square foot one bedroom homes to 4,960 square foot two level penthouses on the highest two floors. Your own home's recorded area is on its appraisal account.
The roll now carries 93 taxable condominium accounts rather than 98, and permits at the building record homes being merged, so the largest homes trading today are larger than anything on the original plan. Two cautions come with any single number for this building. The architect describes 360,000 square feet of building, and the county's floor areas across those 93 accounts total 317,435 square feet, the remainder being lobby, corridor, plant and garage. Dividing one figure by the other produces an average that describes no home in the tower. The figure that matters in a transaction is the recorded one for your home, because that is what a buyer's appraiser works from and what your assessment moves with. The association measures floor area for its own purposes, and the amount a particular home pays each month is stated on its resale certificate.
What does the association maintain at a Texas condominium, and what does the owner maintain?
Section 82.107 of the Texas Property Code sets the default: the association is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and each owner for the same three things in that owner's own home. Except as the declaration or plat provides, Section 82.052 puts the boundary at the finished surfaces, so paint, wallpaper, tile and finished flooring belong to the home and the rest of the wall belongs to the common elements.
Every part of Section 82.107 opens with an exception for the declaration, so the recorded declaration for a particular building can shift any of it. The section has been in force since 1 January 1994 and has never been amended. Two exceptions sit in the statute itself. An owner pays for any utility installation or equipment serving only that home, and for the windows and doors serving only that home. Access comes with the split. An owner affords the association and the other owners access through the home where that is reasonably necessary, and the association may enter after giving notice to the owner and occupant to stop waste of water it buys as a common expense, or to do maintenance and repairs that, left undone, may increase water damage to components the association maintains. Whoever causes damage in the course of that access, owner or association, is liable for the prompt repair of it.
Who pays to replace the windows in a condominium in Texas?
The owner does, unless the declaration says otherwise. Section 82.107(c) makes each owner responsible for the cost of maintenance, repair and replacement of windows and doors serving only that owner's home. Section 82.052 treats an exterior door or window designed to serve a single home, but located outside that home's boundaries, as a limited common element allocated exclusively to it, so the cost rule and the boundary rule point in the same direction.
The same pattern covers equipment. An owner is responsible for the cost of maintenance, repair and replacement of any utility installation or equipment serving only that home, without regard to whether it sits wholly or partly outside the boundaries of the home. The statute's own list includes electricity, water, sewage, gas, water heaters, heating and air conditioning equipment, and television antennas. Appearance is a separate question from cost. Under Section 82.061 an owner may not change the exterior appearance of a home, or the appearance of the common elements, without written permission from the association first, so a replacement that changes how the building reads from outside is an association question as well as a contractor question. Check the declaration before you budget either item, because each of these rules applies except as the declaration provides.
Is a balcony part of my home or part of the building?
A balcony is a limited common element allocated exclusively to one home, rather than part of the home itself. Section 82.052 puts shutters, awnings, window boxes, doorsteps, stoops, porches, balconies, patios, and exterior doors and windows designed to serve a single home in that category, because they serve one home while sitting outside its boundaries. The declaration or plat can provide differently.
Who pays for a limited common element is a separate rule, and it is the part readers do not expect. Section 82.112(d) says a common expense for the maintenance, repair or replacement of a limited common element is assessed against all the units as if it were for a general common element, except as the declaration and Section 82.107 provide. So the balcony attached to one home can be maintained at the expense of every home in the building. Section 82.107 pulls the other way for two categories: windows and doors serving only one home, and utility equipment serving only one home, both of which stay with that owner except as the declaration provides. Between those two sections, the answer for a particular balcony, patio or door comes from the recorded declaration for the building, read alongside the statute.
Can two homes at Montebello be combined into one?
The statute allows it with written approval. Under Section 82.061, after acquiring an adjoining home or an adjoining part of one, an owner may remove, alter and create apertures in an intervening partition with the prior written approval of the association, even where that partition is in whole or in part a common element, provided the work does not impair the structural integrity or mechanical systems or lessen support.
The county's records show the result of that process at this address. The tower was built with 98 homes and the certified roll carries 93 taxable condominium accounts, with permits recording homes being merged, so some of the largest homes here are larger than any plan the developer sold. What the statute allows, a declaration can restrict. Section 82.061 opens by making an owner's rights subject to the provisions of the declaration and other provisions of law, and Section 82.055 requires the declaration to carry any restrictions on use or occupancy, so the building's own recorded text is where that question is settled. A combination also moves the numbers attached to a home. Your recorded floor area is the figure your assessment moves with, and the amount payable for a particular home is stated on its resale certificate rather than anywhere public.
What still costs money every month after the association fee?
Anything inside your own front door, plus two items the statute leaves with you wherever they sit. Interior repairs, insurance on the home's contents and improvements, and utilities beyond water and sewer are the owner's. Except as the declaration provides, Section 82.107 adds the water heater and the heating and air conditioning equipment serving only your home, and the windows and doors serving only your home.
The assessment at this building covers building and grounds, staffing, common area insurance, trash removal, and water and sewer, among the items on the association's list. The rate, how it is worked out and what your own home pays are handled on the monthly assessment page and on your resale certificate. Property tax and your own insurance run alongside the assessment. Section 82.117 covers the charges that arrive less predictably, except as the declaration, the bylaws, the rules or the chapter provide. Assessments, interest and other charges properly levied are the owner's, and regular periodic assessments are payable without demand by the association. Damage to the condominium caused by the negligence or wilful misconduct of the owner, an occupant, or their family, guests, employees, contractors, agents or invitees is the owner's as well. The association's costs of obtaining compliance with the documents follow the same list without contractors in it, so a rule broken by a contractor sits outside that limb.
Where do I find the rules on pets, leasing and guests before I buy?
In the recorded declaration, the bylaws and the association rules, which the seller furnishes to the purchaser along with a current resale certificate under Section 82.157. Section 82.055 requires the declaration for a condominium to contain any restrictions on use, occupancy or alienation of the homes, which is why a brochure or a summary of the statute cannot answer the question for a particular building.
The certificate is the document with a deadline attached. An association has ten days after receiving a written request from an owner to furnish one, and the copy delivered has to be prepared no earlier than three months before it reaches the purchaser, so the timing of the request is a decision rather than a formality. Read the declaration and its amendments in sequence, because an amendment can carry the operative text. Restrictions on transfer appear in the certificate as well: it states any right of first refusal or other restraint in the declaration that restricts the right to transfer a home. Everything the statute provides about upkeep, alterations and limited common elements applies except as the declaration provides, so the recorded documents are the binding text and the statute is the fallback.
How long do I have to have owned and lived in a home to exclude the gain when I sell it?
The 2025 edition of Publication 523 sets 24 months for each of two separate tests, on the sale of a home that is your principal residence. You meet the ownership requirement if you owned the home for at least 24 months out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of sale, which is the closing date. You meet the residence requirement if you owned the home and used it as your residence for at least 24 months of the previous 5 years.
The 24 months of residence can fall anywhere within the 5-year period and need not be a single block of time: a total of 730 days is what the publication asks for. On a joint return the two tests split. Only one spouse has to meet the ownership requirement, and each spouse must meet the residence requirement individually for the full exclusion. A third test runs alongside them. You meet the look-back requirement if you did not sell another home during the 2-year period before the date of sale, or sold one and took no exclusion on the gain, and the exclusion may be taken only once during a 2-year period. Where the three are met, taking the exceptions into account, the sale qualifies for the maximum exclusion. Where they are not, a partial exclusion may be available for a sale whose main reason was a change in workplace location, a health issue, or an unforeseeable event. Either way the exclusion may be taken only on the sale of a home that is your principal residence, meaning your main home. Take the publication's worksheets and your own figures to a tax adviser.
Does the exclusion of gain on a home sale apply if I move into a condominium?
The exclusion turns on the home you sold rather than on what you buy next, and Publication 523 (2025) states that a condominium may itself be a main home. The publication lists a single-family home, a condominium, a cooperative apartment, a mobile home and a houseboat as types of housing that may each be a main home and therefore qualify for the exclusion.
One rule links the two homes: an individual has only one main home at a time. Where you own or live in more than one, the publication applies a facts and circumstances test to decide which property is the main home, with the most important factor being where you spend the most time and other factors relevant as well. The look-back requirement links them in time. The exclusion may be taken only once during a 2-year period, and the look-back test is met where you did not sell another home in the 2 years before this sale, or sold one and claimed no exclusion on the gain from it. The date that anchors all of it is the date of sale. Where you receive Form 1099-S, it appears in box 1; otherwise it is the date title transferred or the date the economic burdens and benefits of ownership shifted to the buyer, whichever is earlier. Read those rules against your own facts with a tax adviser.
What does the resale certificate tell me about transfer fees?
Section 82.157 requires the certificate to state all fees payable to the association or an agent of the association that are associated with the transfer of ownership, including a description of each fee, to whom the fee is paid, and the amount of the fee. It also states the home's periodic common expense assessment and any unpaid common expenses or special assessments due from the seller.
The certificate arrives on a clock. An association has ten days after the date it receives a written request from an owner to furnish one, and the copy delivered to a purchaser has to be prepared within the three months before delivery, so a certificate ordered far ahead of a contract goes stale. It also carries the restraint a purchaser wants to see early: any right of first refusal or other restraint in the declaration that restricts the right to transfer a home. The certificate comes as part of a set. The seller furnishes a current copy of the declaration, the bylaws and any association rules alongside it, and that set is the binding text on maintenance, alterations, leasing and pets for a particular building. Section 82.157 was last amended by the 2025 condominium act and has been in force in its current form since 1 September 2025.