HB5509

Regular Session

Relating to the suspension or revocation of a hotel's certificate of occupancy by a municipality for suspected human trafficking.

CriticalImmediate action required

High Cost

Effective:2025-09-01

Enforcing Agencies

Municipal Governing Bodies (City Councils) • Municipal Code Enforcement/Permitting Departments • Local Law Enforcement Agencies • County Courts with Criminal Jurisdiction

Compliance Analysis

Key implementation requirements and action items for compliance with this legislation

Implementation Timeline

Effective Date: September 1, 2025
Compliance Deadline: Immediate. While the enforcement power activates in 2025, you must audit and remediate current operational vulnerabilities now. Any activity occurring on or after the effective date can trigger a revocation affidavit.
Agency Rulemaking: Municipal Level Only. There is no state-level rulemaking. Individual City Councils will amend local ordinances to align their CO revocation procedures with this statute. Expect a "regulatory gray zone" where procedures vary significantly between jurisdictions (e.g., Houston vs. Lubbock).

Immediate Action Plan

1. Audit Local Ordinances: Direct counsel to pull the specific "Certificate of Occupancy Revocation" procedures for every municipality where you hold assets. Know the hearing rules before you are cited.
2. Establish "Hearing Response Team": Designate a crisis team (Legal, GM, PR) authorized to act immediately upon receipt of a suspension notice. Timelines for hearings are often short (10-30 days).
3. Sanitize the Property: If you have a property currently attracting police attention for vice/prostitution, you must remediate immediately. You have until September 2025 to clean up the guest profile before the new penalties apply.
4. Document Training: Centralize all anti-trafficking training records. If a hearing occurs, you must instantly produce proof of staff education to argue against negligence.

Operational Changes Required

Contracts

Franchise Agreements: Review "Brand Damage" and "Compliance with Laws" clauses. A CO suspension will likely trigger immediate termination rights by the franchisor. Negotiate or clarify cure periods for administrative closures.
Management Agreements: Owners must strengthen indemnity clauses. If a management company’s operational negligence allows trafficking to fester, the owner needs a clear contractual path to recover lost revenue from the shutdown.
Security Vendor Contracts: Amend scopes of work to include specific performance metrics for anti-trafficking patrols and reporting. Shift from "observe and report" to active deterrence.

Hiring/Training

General Manager Role: The GM job description must now include "Law Enforcement Liaison." The GM must proactively build relationships with local Vice/Trafficking units to ensure the hotel is viewed as a partner, not a target.
Frontline Staff: Mandatory, documented training on recognizing trafficking indicators is required. "Willful blindness" is now a liability that costs you your license to operate.

Reporting & Record-Keeping

Incident Logs: Maintain an immutable log of all suspicious activity reports made to law enforcement. This log is your primary defense evidence during a revocation hearing to prove you were not complicit.
Guest Registry: Enforce strict ID verification. Anonymity is a proxy for trafficking liability. Lax guest registration will be used as evidence to support a "probable cause" finding.

Fees & Costs

Legal Defense: Budget for specialized administrative law counsel. Defending a CO revocation is a niche area distinct from standard criminal or civil defense.
Insurance Gaps: High Risk. Review Business Interruption policies. Most exclude losses derived from "acts of civil authority" resulting from criminal acts. You are likely self-insuring the revenue loss during a suspension.

Strategic Ambiguities & Considerations

Reinstatement Protocols: The law defines how to lose the CO but is vague on the timeline and criteria for reinstatement. This discretion is left to local municipalities. You risk indefinite closure while a criminal investigation proceeds, which can take months or years.
"Probable Cause" Standard: The threshold for the court order is "probable cause," not "beyond a reasonable doubt." This is a low evidentiary bar. A single affidavit from law enforcement, if uncontested or poorly defended, is sufficient to trigger the process.

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Legislative Timeline

This bill's path through the Texas Legislature

TopicsCity Government City Government--general County Government County Government--general Crimes Crimes--against Persons Crimes--against Persons--general Law Enforcement Human Trafficking Hotels & Motels

Official Analysis

View HRO Analysis View All Bill Documents

BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 5509

By: Bumgarner

Intergovernmental Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

According to the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force's 2024 report to the legislature, the National Human Trafficking Hotline consistently ranks Texas among the states with the highest number of human trafficking cases. The bill author has informed the committee that hotels are frequently exploited by traffickers due to the high turnover of guests and the minimal oversight they typically receive. While law enforcement actively investigates trafficking operations, the bill author has also informed the committee that municipalities have historically had few direct tools to act against businesses suspected of enabling or ignoring trafficking activities and must often wait to take action until after a lengthy criminal conviction process, limiting their ability to protect vulnerable individuals immediately. C.S.H.B. 5509 seeks to address this issue by allowing municipalities to suspend or revoke the certificate of occupancy for a hotel that is under investigation for human trafficking offenses or that the municipality has reasonable cause to believe is involved in such offenses.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 5509 amends the Local Government Code to authorize the governing body of a municipality to suspend or revoke a certificate of occupancy for a hotel located in the municipality under the following circumstances:

·a law enforcement agency gives notice to the municipality, or the municipality otherwise learns, that the law enforcement agency is investigating the hotel for an offense involving trafficking of persons; or

·the municipality has reasonable cause to believe that such an offense is being committed at the hotel.

The bill defines "hotel" by reference to Tax Code provisions governing the hotel occupancy tax. The bill establishes that its provisions do not limit a hotel owner's or operator's right to a public hearing and to present evidence at a proceeding regarding the suspension or revocation of a certificate of occupancy. The bill requires a municipality that seeks to suspend or revoke a certificate of occupancy for a hotel under the bill's provisions to follow procedures that are consistent with the suspension or revocation of a certificate of occupancy for any other type of business or use of land within the municipality. The bill's provisions may not be construed to create a private cause of action.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 5509 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute includes a provision absent from the introduced defining the term "hotel" by reference to Tax Code provisions governing the hotel occupancy tax. The substitute accordingly omits references to a motel which were present in the introduced, as motels are included in that statutory definition of "hotel."

The substitute includes provisions absent from the introduced that do the following:

·establish that the bill's provisions do not limit a hotel owner's or operator's right to a public hearing and to present evidence at a proceeding regarding the suspension or revocation of a certificate of occupancy;

·require a municipality that seeks to suspend or revoke a certificate of occupancy for a hotel under the bill's provisions to follow procedures that are consistent with the suspension or revocation of a certificate of occupancy for any other type of business or use of land within the municipality; and

·establish that the bill's provisions may not be construed to create a private cause of action.

House Authors

Rep. Ben BumgarnerRepublican · Primary Author

Joint Authors

Senate Sponsors

Sen. Angela PaxtonRepublican · Primary Sponsor

Cosponsors (2)

Bill Text(with markup)

H.B. No. 5509

View bill text in multiple formats on Texas Legislature website

Fiscal NoteView Original

	AN ACT
	relating to the suspension or revocation of a hotel's certificate
	of occupancy by a municipality for suspected human trafficking.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 215, Local Government
	Code, is amended by adding Section 215.007 to read as follows:
	Sec. 215.007. SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF HOTEL CERTIFICATE
	OF OCCUPANCY. (a) In this section:
	(1) "Hotel" has the meaning assigned by Section
	156.001, Tax Code.
	(2) "Human trafficking activity" means conduct that
	constitutes an offense under Section 20A.02 or 20A.03, Penal Code.
	(b) The governing body of a municipality may suspend or
	revoke a certificate of occupancy for a hotel located in the
	municipality if:
	(1) a law enforcement officer provides an affidavit of
	probable cause swearing that criminal human trafficking activity is
	occurring in the hotel;
	(2) a court with criminal jurisdiction in the county
	in which the hotel is located issues an order stating the court's
	finding of probable cause that human trafficking activity is
	occurring at the hotel; and
	(3) the municipality follows the procedures described
	by Subsection (d) before suspending or revoking the certificate of
	occupancy.
	(c) This section does not limit a hotel owner's or
	operator's right to a public hearing and to present evidence at a
	proceeding regarding the suspension or revocation of a certificate
	of occupancy.
	(d) A municipality that seeks to suspend or revoke a
	certificate of occupancy for a hotel under this section shall
	follow procedures that are consistent with the suspension or
	revocation of a certificate of occupancy for any other type of
	business or use of land within the municipality.
	(e) This section may not be construed to create a private
	cause of action.
	SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.

LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 89TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION


April 21, 2025

TO:	Honorable Cecil Bell, Chair, House Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs

FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board

IN RE:	HB5509 by Bumgarner (Relating to the suspension or revocation of a hotel's or motel's certificate of occupancy by a municipality for suspected human trafficking.), As Introduced

No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

LBB Staff:

JMc, SZ, BC, CWi

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about HB5509

What does Texas HB5509 do?

Effective September 1, 2025, Texas municipalities are granted statutory authority to revoke or suspend a hotel’s Certificate of Occupancy (CO) based solely on a judicial finding of "probable cause" that human trafficking has occurred on the premises. This legislation converts criminal activity by third parties into an immediate administrative trigger for total business closure, bypassing the need for a criminal conviction of the hotel owner to force a shutdown. Implementation Timeline Effective Date: September 1, 2025 Compliance Deadline: Immediate.

Who authored HB5509?

HB5509 was authored by Texas Representative Ben Bumgarner during the Regular Session.

When was HB5509 signed into law?

HB5509 was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025.

Which agencies enforce HB5509?

HB5509 is enforced by Municipal Governing Bodies (City Councils), Municipal Code Enforcement/Permitting Departments, Local Law Enforcement Agencies and County Courts with Criminal Jurisdiction.

How urgent is compliance with HB5509?

The compliance urgency for HB5509 is rated as "critical". Businesses and organizations should review the requirements and timeline to ensure timely compliance.

What is the cost impact of HB5509?

The cost impact of HB5509 is estimated as "high". This may vary based on industry and implementation requirements.

What topics does HB5509 address?

HB5509 addresses topics including city government, city government--general, county government, county government--general and crimes.

Legislative data provided by LegiScanLast updated: November 25, 2025

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