(a) A person must bring suit for the recovery of real property under a real property lien or the foreclosure of a real property lien not later than four years after the day the cause of action accrues.
(b) A sale of real property under a power of sale in a mortgage or deed of trust that creates a real property lien must be made not later than four years after the day the cause of action accrues.

Terms Used In Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.035

  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
  • Written: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures. See Texas Government Code 311.005

(c) The running of the statute of limitations is not suspended against a bona fide purchaser for value, a lienholder, or a lessee who has no notice or knowledge of the suspension of the limitations period and who acquires an interest in the property when a cause of action on an outstanding real property lien has accrued for more than four years, except as provided by:
(1) § 16.062, providing for suspension in the event of death; or
(2) § 16.036, providing for recorded extensions of real property liens.
(d) On the expiration of the four-year limitations period, the real property lien and a power of sale to enforce the real property lien become void.
(e) If a series of notes or obligations or a note or obligation payable in installments is secured by a real property lien, the four-year limitations period does not begin to run until the maturity date of the last note, obligation, or installment.
(f) The limitations period under this section is not affected by § 3.118, Business & Commerce Code.
(g) In this section, “real property lien” means:
(1) a superior title retained by a vendor in a deed of conveyance or a purchase money note; or
(2) a vendor’s lien, a mortgage, a deed of trust, a voluntary mechanic’s lien, or a voluntary materialman’s lien on real estate, securing a note or other written obligation.