Harris County Deed of Trust to Secure Owelty Form

Texas homestead law voids most liens the moment they touch a homestead, and the short list of exceptions in Article XVI, Section 50 of the Texas Constitution is famously hard to get onto. An owelty of partition is on that list. When co-owned property is divided unequally, so that one co-owner keeps the whole property and owes the other for the surrendered share, the constitution permits that equalizing debt to be secured against the entirety of the property, homestead included. This deed of trust is the security instrument for exactly that debt.

A Lien That Reaches the Whole Property

Section 50(a)(3) excepts from homestead protection an owelty of partition imposed against the entirety of the property by a court order or by a written agreement of the parties to the partition, including a debt of one spouse in favor of the other spouse resulting from a division or an award of a family homestead in a divorce proceeding. Property Code Section 41.001(b)(4) repeats the rule on the statutory side. The doctrine is older still: in Sayers v. Pyland (Tex. 1942), the Texas Supreme Court described an owelty as being in the nature of purchase money secured by a vendor's lien and enforced one against a homestead fixed by voluntary agreement. The form recites the constitutional and statutory provisions, states that the lien attaches to the entirety of the property including any homestead interest, and identifies the specific decree or partition agreement that imposed the owelty, the connection on which the exception depends.

Divorce Buyouts and Co-Owner Partitions

The most common owelty arises in divorce: the decree awards the home to one spouse and imposes an owelty in favor of the other, payable over time or at a refinance or sale. The same structure carries a voluntary partition among co-owners, such as siblings who inherited a property and signed a written agreement setting it aside to one of them. In either setting, the co-owner keeping the property signs a promissory note and this deed of trust; the departing co-owner holds a recorded lien on the whole property rather than an unsecured promise. Where a married grantor encumbers homestead property in a co-owner partition, the form carries a joining spouse signature block and separate acknowledgment for the joinder Family Code Section 5.001 describes.

The Note, the Source Instrument, and the Power of Sale

The form identifies the note by date, amount, maker, payee, interest, and maturity, conveys the property to a trustee in trust with power of sale, and states the remedy path on default: acceleration after any required notice and cure period, then a trustee sale conducted under the notice, timing, and place requirements of Property Code Section 51.002, with substitute trustees appointed under Section 51.0075. The notice of confidentiality rights required by Property Code Section 11.008 appears at the top of the first page, and the instrument is formatted for Texas recording standards with space reserved for the clerk's stamp.

What Comes With the Form

The download includes the fillable deed of trust, a guide that walks through all fourteen sections with the statutes and cases behind them, and a completed example documenting a realistic divorce owelty from decree to acknowledgment. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.