A pre-1994 regime, and the documents behind the fee
The Huntingdon: Reserves, Staffing, and What the Monthly Covers
Updated September 2026
What does the monthly assessment at The Huntingdon pay for, and which documents let you check it?
The monthly buys each owner's pro rata share of running the building, and the documents that show it are the audited annual accounts and the resale certificate an association must produce within 10 days (Texas Property Code, read September 2026).
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, The Huntingdon
Source: Texas Property Code, Section 82.157 (Resale of Unit), September 2026.
What does the monthly assessment at The Huntingdon actually buy?
Homes listed at 2121 Kirby Drive today carry a monthly assessment of about $1.15 per square foot of floor area, so a four-figure bill here is a rate applied to a plan rather than a flat charge. The older Texas condominium chapter, which governs a regime created before 1 January 1994 unless its recorded instruments bring it under the modern one, says what that rate is a share of: an owner is responsible for a pro rata share of the expenses to administer the condominium regime and to maintain and repair the general common elements, in proper cases the expenses of the limited common elements of the buildings, and other expenses approved by the council of owners.
The obligation follows the home whatever an owner does with it. Under the same chapter an owner is not exempted from contributing toward the expenses of the regime by waiving the use of the common elements or by abandoning the home.
Two of the modern chapter's board powers reach this building, and they are the two that decide where the money goes. Through Section 82.002(c), subdivision 82.102(a)(2) lets the board adopt and amend budgets for revenues, expenditures and reserves, and collect assessments for common expenses from owners. Subdivision 82.102(a)(3) lets it hire and terminate managing agents and other employees, agents and independent contractors. So the assessment is the revenue side of a budget the board adopts, and most of what that budget buys is people and contracts.
The operator's building record for this address lists the services those contracts cover: building and grounds, a concierge, an on-site manager, an on-site guard, courtesy patrol, a porter, valet parking, the private garage, limited access, the clubhouse, lounge and recreational facilities, the gym, the outdoor kitchen, the pet run, storage outside the unit, common-area insurance, trash removal, water, sewer and partial utilities. That list is listing data rather than a statement from the association, so confirm any item that matters to your purchase with the association.
An assessment levied against a home or an owner is a personal obligation of the owner and is secured by a continuing lien on the home and on rents and insurance proceeds the owner receives relating to it. The statutory definition of assessments sweeps in regular and special assessments, dues, fees, charges, interest, late fees, fines, collection costs and attorney's fees, all of them enforceable as assessments unless the declaration provides otherwise. On a conveyance the older chapter sends past due assessments out of the sale price or on to the purchaser, in preference to any other charge against the property except taxes due and unpaid to the state or a political subdivision and an obligation under a validly recorded mortgage.
Which condominium law reaches this building, and why does that matter?
The modern Texas condominium chapter applies to condominiums for which the declaration is recorded on or after 1 January 1994. This regime was recorded in the early 1980s, about a decade before that line. An older condominium can still come under the chapter in full: the owners may vote to amend the declaration so the chapter applies and file that amendment for record, or a declaration or amendment recorded before 1 January 1994 may state that the chapter will apply in its entirety on that date. Absent one of those, the chapter reaches the building only where the statute says it does, and which is true here is a question for the recorded instruments.
Section 82.002(c) says so by listing sections, and in places by subdivision. The list carries Sections 82.005, 82.006, 82.007, 82.053, 82.054, 82.102(a)(1)-(7), (a)(12)-(21), (f) and (g), 82.108, 82.111, 82.113, 82.114, 82.116, 82.118, 82.157 and 82.161. Those listed sections apply only with respect to events and circumstances occurring on or after 1 January 1994, and they do not invalidate existing provisions of a declaration, bylaws, plats or plans recorded before that date.
The sections most often quoted at Houston condominium owners are the ones this list leaves out. Section 82.112, the assessments and budget section, is absent. So are Section 82.107, the upkeep section, and Section 82.156, the purchaser's statutory right to cancel when documents arrive late. Where a regime of this vintage has not come under the chapter in full, that work belongs to the recorded declaration and to the older chapter, which governs a condominium regime created before 1994 and carries its own rules on assessments, records and insurance.
Section 82.157 is on the list, which is why a buyer here gets a resale certificate at all. Sections 82.111, 82.113, 82.114 and 82.116 are on it too, and they are where the insurance floor, the assessment lien, the annual audit and the recorded management certificate come from. Those four, read alongside the older chapter and the recorded declaration, are the public framework behind a monthly bill at this address.
Where do the reserves appear, and what does Texas actually require?
Section 82.157 requires the resale certificate to state the amount of reserves, if any, for capital expenditures and of the portions of those reserves designated by the association for a specified project, along with the capital expenditures, if any, approved by the association for the next 12 months. On the Texas Real Estate Commission's condominium resale certificate those are two lines, one for reserves for capital expenditures with the designated portion beside it and one for approved capital expenditures for the coming year.
Both halves of the phrase "the amount of reserves, if any" do work. The figure is disclosable, so a buyer can ask for it in writing and rely on what comes back. The figure is also allowed to be nothing, because Texas sets no funding level for a condominium association and requires no reserve study.
One outside benchmark exists, and it is a condition Fannie Mae places on a loan rather than Texas law. A lender running a Full Review looks for a projected budget that funds replacement reserves at at least 10 percent of the budget, and for no more than 15 percent of the homes in a project to be 60 days or more past due on common expense assessments.
How do you read the association's accounts without being in a transaction?
Three routes reach the association's accounts, and they cost you progressively more to use. The first is free and public. The association must record a management certificate in each county where any part of the condominium sits, stating the name of the condominium, the name of the association, the location, the recording data for the declaration and any amendments, the association's mailing address, the name, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address of any management company, the website address of any internet site carrying the association's dedicatory instruments, and the amount and description of every fee charged to a seller or a buyer on a transfer of a property interest in a home. The county clerk records it in the real property records and indexes it as a Condominium Association Management Certificate. An amended certificate is due not later than the 30th day after the association has notice of a change, and the association must file it electronically with the Texas Real Estate Commission not later than the seventh day after filing for recording, so the data reaches a public website.
The second route belongs to owners. Under the older chapter the administrator or board of administration must keep a detailed written account of the receipts and expenditures related to the building and its administration, specifying the expenses the regime incurred. The accounts and the supporting vouchers must be made available to owners for examination on working days at convenient, established and publicly announced hours. An owner who wants to know what last quarter's assessment funded asks for that examination rather than for a summary.
The third route is the certificate, and it runs on a clock. Not later than the 10th day after receiving a written request from an owner, the association must furnish a resale certificate signed and dated by an officer or authorized agent, and the certificate must have been prepared not earlier than three months before the date it is delivered to the purchaser. It carries the association's current operating budget and balance sheet, and the commission's form requires the operating budget, an insurance summary and the balance sheet as attachments. The statute caps the fee for furnishing it at $375. Where the association misses the 10 days, the owner may give the purchaser a sworn affidavit in place of the certificate.
Then the check that gets advertised least. The association must, as a common expense, annually obtain an independent audit of the records, and copies of the audit must be made available to owners. The older chapter says the same thing from its own angle: the books and records must comply with good accounting procedures and be audited at least once each year by an auditor who is not associated with the condominium regime. The standard the audit tests against is worth knowing, because it is unusually concrete: the association's financial records must comply with generally accepted accounting principles and be sufficiently detailed to enable the association to prepare a resale certificate. The audited annual accounts are therefore the closest thing an owner has to a verified account of where the monthly went.
What does the insurance line cover, and what does it leave to you?
The association must maintain, to the extent reasonably available, property insurance on the insurable common elements against all risks of direct physical loss commonly insured against, including fire and extended coverage, in a total amount of at least 80 percent of the replacement cost or actual cash value of the insured property. Alongside it sits commercial general liability insurance, including medical payments insurance, covering occurrences commonly insured against for death, bodily injury and property damage arising out of the use, ownership or maintenance of the common elements.
Where a building contains homes with horizontal boundaries described in the declaration, which is what stacked homes in a tower are, that property insurance must include the units, to the extent reasonably available. It need not include improvements and betterments installed by unit owners. That clause is what decides whether a buyer here needs a policy of their own, and a policy issued to the association does not prevent an owner from obtaining insurance for the owner's own benefit.
Three mechanics follow. The policies may provide for commercially reasonable deductibles as the board determines appropriate or necessary. A claim for a loss covered by the common-element property policy must be submitted by and adjusted with the association. And the insurer may not cancel or refuse to renew the policy less than 30 days after written notice of the proposed cancellation or nonrenewal has been mailed to the association.
The older chapter adds two provisions written for a regime of this vintage. Each owner and each owner's mortgagee is a beneficiary of the policy, whether named as one or not, in proportion to the owner's interest in the regime as the declaration establishes it. And where a damaged building must be reconstructed but the insurance proceeds are insufficient to pay for the cost, the owners directly affected by the damage pay the difference, each contributing in proportion to that same interest, unless the bylaws provide otherwise.
The deductible and the premium this association carries appear in the insurance summary attached to a resale certificate, which is where a buyer reads them.
What does the fee series behind this site show, and what can it not show?
The market-statistics feed behind this site reports a median monthly fee on the homes sold here of $3,286 in 2017, $5,450 in 2025 and $3,607 across the single 2026 sale, as the series was computed on 1 September 2026.
That series is the middle of the fees attached to the homes that happened to sell, so it swings with the size mix in a building whose plans run from 800 square feet to a full floor of 12,827. It is a by-product of which homes traded, and not the association's budget, not a rate and not any home's bill.
For direction the per-square-foot rate derived from listed homes is the better series, and it rose about 18.8 percent in three years from its 2022 base. Underwrite the rate rising rather than holding, because the assessment funds people and contracts that reprice every year, and because an assessment is a yearly decision resting on a budget the board adopts.
What can this page not tell you?
The reserve balance, the operating budget, the assessment schedule, the insurance deductibles and the account balances for this association, and whether a special assessment has been levied or is contemplated, all come out of a resale certificate package delivered in a transaction. The certificate with its attached operating budget, insurance summary and balance sheet is the route to every one of them.
Whether a reserve study exists here is a question for the association, because Texas requires the reserve figure, not a study.
Staffing counts, salaries, contract values and vendor names sit outside the public record too. The services list for this address is listing data, and the cost of the people behind it appears in the audited annual accounts.
The recorded management certificate for this building names no third-party managing agent, which is a narrower statement than any claim about how the association is run.
What an individual amendment to the declaration changed is a reading job through the chain in order, and a condominium instrument recorded on 17 September 2025 is part of that chain. Whether anything in that chain brings this regime under the modern chapter in full is answered the same way.
Your own bill is stated by one document only, the resale certificate for that specific home. Ask for it early, read it before the option period ends, and keep the copy.
Questions & answers
The Huntingdon questions, answered
Which Texas condominium law applies to The Huntingdon?
The modern chapter applies where a declaration was recorded on or after 1 January 1994. This regime was recorded in the early 1980s, so unless its recorded instruments bring it under that chapter, the chapter reaches it only through the sections Section 82.002(c) lists, among them Sections 82.111, 82.113, 82.114, 82.116 and 82.157. The rest of the framework is then the declaration and the older chapter.
Section 82.002(c) lists the sections that reach back, and it lists some of them subdivision by subdivision, so the board powers that apply here are specific numbered paragraphs rather than a whole section. Those listed sections apply only with respect to events and circumstances occurring on or after 1 January 1994, and they do not invalidate existing provisions of the declaration, bylaws, plats or plans. Three sections owners often hear quoted are absent from that list: the assessments and budget section, the upkeep section, and the purchaser's right to cancel when documents arrive late. Where a building of this vintage has not come under the chapter in full, the declaration and the older chapter govern how assessments are computed, how the records are kept and audited, and how insurance proceeds are shared. Section 82.002(a) is what coming under it means. The owners may vote to amend the declaration so the chapter applies and file that amendment for record, or a declaration or amendment recorded before 1 January 1994 may state that the chapter will apply in its entirety. Which is true at this address is a question for the recorded instruments.
Which document tells me what reserves the association holds?
The resale certificate the association issues for a specific home. Section 82.157 requires it to state the amount of reserves, if any, for capital expenditures, the portions of those reserves designated for a specified project, and the capital expenditures, if any, approved by the association for the next 12 months. The commission's form gives each of those its own line, and the operating budget and balance sheet come attached.
The words "if any" matter as much as the figure. Texas requires the number to be disclosed and sets no funding level for a condominium association, so a lawful certificate can report a reserve figure of nothing at all. No reserve study is required either, which is why the question of whether one exists goes to the association rather than to a public record. The same certificate states any unsatisfied judgments against the association and the nature of any pending suits, and it is prepared no more than three months before delivery. A purchaser, lender or title insurer who relies on it is not liable for a debt or claim the certificate leaves out, and the association may not deny the validity of a statement in it. Ask for the certificate early, read the attached budget and balance sheet beside the reserve line, and treat the two together as the answer rather than the reserve figure on its own.
Can an owner see the association's accounts outside a sale?
Yes. The older chapter requires the administrator or board of administration to keep a detailed written account of the receipts and expenditures related to the building and its administration, and the accounts and supporting vouchers must be made available to owners for examination on working days at convenient, established and publicly announced hours. Anyone, owner or not, can also read the recorded management certificate in the county's real property records.
Examination is a different thing from a summary. The right runs to the vouchers behind the ledger, which is where a payroll line or a service contract stops being a category and becomes an amount. Ask for the hours, then ask for the period you care about rather than for the year. The modern chapter adds two pieces that reach this building. Copies of the annual independent audit must be made available to owners. And the association's financial and other records must be reasonably available at its registered or principal office in Texas for examination and production, which covers the owner list, the voting records, the correspondence on declaration amendments and the minutes of association and board meetings. The plans and specifications carve-out is worth knowing too: a building originally constructed before 1994 is not required to keep them, so a request for construction drawings here may have no document behind it.
Does the association at The Huntingdon have to be audited every year?
Yes, from both directions. Section 82.114 requires the association, as a common expense, to annually obtain an independent audit of the records, with copies made available to owners, and a certified public accountant must perform it where the bylaws or a vote of the board or the membership requires that. The older chapter requires the books and records to be audited at least once each year by an auditor who is not associated with the regime.
The audit is paid for out of the assessment, so an owner is already funding the check. Asking for the most recent one is the cheapest route to a verified account of where the monthly went, and it costs nothing but a request. What the auditor is testing against is a defined standard. The association's financial records must comply with generally accepted accounting principles and be detailed enough for the association to produce a resale certificate for any home in the building. That is a demanding standard for a tower with a payroll and service contracts, because a certificate has to state the periodic assessment, the unpaid amounts on a particular home, approved capital spending for the next 12 months and the reserve position. So the audited annual accounts and the certificate are two views of one set of books. Where a figure quoted to you sits in neither, ask which record it came from before you rely on it.
What can the recorded management certificate tell me?
It is the association document anyone can read without being in a transaction. It states the name of the condominium, the name and mailing address of the association, the location, the recording data for the declaration and any amendments, the name and contact details of any management company, the website address of any internet site carrying the dedicatory instruments, and the amount and description of every fee charged to a seller or a buyer on a transfer.
The county clerk records it in the real property records and indexes it as a Condominium Association Management Certificate, so it can be pulled by anyone with the building's name. The association must record an amended certificate within 30 days of notice of a change in any of that information, and must file the certificate electronically with the Texas Real Estate Commission within seven days of filing it for recording, so the data reaches a public website. Two uses follow. The recording data for the declaration and every amendment gives you the chain of instruments to order from the clerk, which is how you get to the allocation clause and the association's powers. And the transfer fee list is the only public statement of what a sale at this address costs in association charges, which is a figure a seller usually meets for the first time at closing.
Does the association's insurance cover the inside of my home?
Partly, and the dividing line is a single statutory clause. The association maintains property insurance on the insurable common elements, to the extent reasonably available, at a floor the statute sets. Where a building has homes with horizontal boundaries described in the declaration, that policy must include the units, to the extent reasonably available. It need not include improvements and betterments installed by owners.
That clause is what decides whether a buyer needs a policy of their own. Coverage of the finishes, fixtures and upgrades an owner put in is not required, so whether this association's policy includes them is read off the policy, and a policy issued to the association does not stop an owner from buying insurance for their own benefit. A lender may also require an owner to carry insurance beyond what the association provides. Three mechanics matter in a claim. The policies may carry commercially reasonable deductibles as the board determines appropriate or necessary. A claim for a loss covered by the common-element policy must be submitted by and adjusted with the association rather than by an individual owner. And the insurer may not cancel or refuse to renew less than 30 days after written notice to the association. The deductible and premium figures for this association appear in the insurance summary attached to a resale certificate, which is where a buyer reads them.
What happens if assessments on a home here go unpaid?
An assessment is a personal obligation of the owner and is secured by a continuing lien on the home, created by recordation of the declaration, which is itself record notice and perfection. The statute's definition of assessments is broad: regular and special assessments, dues, fees, charges, interest, late fees, fines, collection costs, attorney's fees and any other amount due to the association all travel together as assessments, unless the declaration provides otherwise.
On a sale the older chapter is direct about the money. Where assessments against a home are unpaid, the selling owner pays the past due amounts out of the sale price, or the purchaser pays them, in preference to any other charge against the property except taxes due and unpaid to the state or a political subdivision and an obligation under a validly recorded mortgage. The certificate is the control on that risk. If a properly executed resale certificate understates the delinquent sums owed by the seller, the purchaser is not liable for the additional delinquencies unpaid on the date the certificate was prepared. The certificate does not touch the association's right to recover debts arising after it was prepared, or its lien for future assessments. So a buyer's practical step is simple: get the certificate, read the lines on unpaid common expenses, special assessments and other amounts payable, and keep the copy.
Why do the fee figures reported on sold homes here jump around?
Because the series follows the homes that sold rather than the fee schedule. The market data behind this site reports a median monthly fee of $3,286 on 2017 sales, $5,450 on 2025 sales and $3,607 on the one 2026 sale, computed on 1 September 2026. In a building whose plans run from 800 square feet to a full floor of 12,827, the size mix moves that median more than the budget does.
A median of four sales in one year and one sale in another is a measurement of which homes traded. Two consecutive readings can differ by thousands of dollars a month while every owner in the building is paying the same rate per square foot. For direction, the rate derived from listed homes is the better series, and it rose about 18.8 percent in three years from its 2022 base. A rate survives the mix, so it can be compared year to year, and it is the figure to apply to a specific floor area. What neither series can give you is a particular home's bill. That comes from the resale certificate for that home, which states the periodic common expense assessment and anything unpaid on it. Read the certificate before the option period ends, and where it and a published figure disagree, work from the certificate.