§ 101.064.Land Acquired Under Foreclosure of Lien or by Conveyance in Satisfaction of Certain Tax Debt

An exclusion for land a governmental unit did not choose to own.

The chapter does not apply to a claim against a political subdivision that acquires land as a result of foreclosing a lien it holds, including land bid off to it under the Tax Code, or acquired under the Tax Code provision on conveyance in satisfaction of a tax debt — where the claim arises after acquisition and before the land is sold, conveyed, or exchanged, and arises from the condition of the land, a premises defect, or an action committed by any person other than an agent or employee of the political subdivision.

All three requirements must hold, and together they identify a specific and temporary situation: land taken involuntarily to satisfy an unpaid debt, held only until it can be disposed of.

The rationale is that the subdivision did not seek the property and gains nothing from it. A city that forecloses a tax lien on a derelict building becomes its owner by operation of law, often without inspecting it, and holds it only until a sale.

The third category is the broadest: an action committed by any person other than an agent or employee of the subdivision. Vacant tax-foreclosed property attracts trespassers, dumping, and vandalism, and the subdivision is not answerable for what strangers do on land it is trying to sell.

The employee carve-out is what keeps the exclusion honest. If the subdivision's own people act on the land, this section does not protect it.

"Land" includes any building or improvement located on it.