§ 17.031.Expedited Foreclosure Proceedings

A service provision for one specific and fast-moving proceeding.

Where a power of sale is exercised by filing an application for an expedited court order allowing foreclosure of a contract lien under Rule 736, service of citation shall be completed in accordance with Rule 736 or Rule 106, or in any other manner provided for petitions under the Rules.

Rule 736 is the expedited foreclosure track, used principally for home equity loans, reverse mortgages, tax liens, and property owners’ association assessments — liens the Texas Constitution or a statute requires a court order to foreclose. It runs on short deadlines and produces an order permitting foreclosure rather than a money judgment.

The reference to Rule 106 is the significant part. That rule governs substituted service — service by leaving the papers with someone over sixteen at the defendant’s usual place of abode, or by another method a court authorises on affidavit, including electronic and social media methods.

Homeowners facing foreclosure are frequently difficult to serve personally, and without substituted service an expedited proceeding would stall precisely where speed is the point.

The closing phrase is a catch-all, letting any manner of service the Rules allow for petitions be used here — so citation by publication and the other methods remain available rather than being impliedly excluded by the naming of two rules.

Note that this is about notice, not about the merits. Whether the lien may be foreclosed at all is governed by Rule 736 and the substantive law of the lien; this section only settles how the respondent is brought before the court.

The social media service provision two sections later is a further route, and the citation-by-publication provision covers the respondent who cannot be found at all.