Fences in Texas

[chasinthesun]

A real estate question about property lines and fences came up as I was talking to a friend .A dog kennel next to his property has been a real pain in his side lately ,he just finished his move in on this nice stretch of land and found out how noisey their speaker system and staff can be during the day,the complaints to their managment were useless .In just recent weeks he found that theyve errored in their fence placement by 3 ft onto his property .Does he have limited time to fight this? Does he own the fence they have in place? I told him to sell them the 3ft section for 20k and call it a day.

[Air&Road]

As I understand after seven years of no complaint, the intruder can claim the property.

[Adriel]

https://assets.recenter.tamu.edu/documents/articles/1074.pdf

TX Fence Issues in Residential Neighborhoods | Silberman Law Firm, PLLC

[t walgamuth]

The term is adverse possession. To achieve it takes (in Indiana) something like 27 different facts any one of which not present does not make adverse possession.

[Mxfrank]

He's probably within his rights to bulldoze the fence, but he has to live with this neighbor. The first thing to do is verify the survey, as things aren't always as they appear. The next step is to put the neighbor on verbal notice. If that doesn't work, then he should have a lawyer send him a formal notice. If that doesn't work, he'll have to litigate. And after that, he better build a high wall along the line.

[Adriel]

Originally Posted by Mxfrank

And after that, he better build a high wall along the line.

Plus a high hedgerow (like 12') also help. Leaves do a good job of reducing noise, the thicker the better.

(Very few pictures, if was in Sandy Eggo could get a picture of one that is at least that height, along a very busy thoroughfare.)

[barry12345]

Fence or property line issues in my experience have never usually been pleasant. Perhaps a mild understatement. How the property is zoned next to you can sometimes help. Usually outside town and city lines there is usually limited zoning though. At least in areas that I am familiar with. The hedge could help substantially but they take time to grow.

You want a sad case. Guy acquired a piece of land from a farm division. Nice quiet area. Perhaps three to four acre lot. Asked the vendor what she was going to do with the other components of the property. Said more housing but he did not get it in writing.

Built a really nice house and very large garage. The guy gets it all done plus extensive landscaping. She then puts an RV park right up to his property line and even worse it is slightly upslope from him. Place has been for sale for three years without a buyer in sight. In my opinion it may never sell. Even if it ever does he would only get pennies on the dollar.

This lady is also very aggressive as well. Our beaches are privately owned. She wanted to shuttle her commercial traffic down on to them. In her deed she has access to them. Yet not the use of them. Strange situation but she remains persistent.

In the days when a lot of deeds and arrangements where drawn up the cottage lots where only around 100 dollars apiece. So things were pretty loose sometimes and people less concerned. . Where a cheapy cottage lot will get you into at least 60K today with prices rising if you can even find one.

Then she makes a big error. She gathers up twelve people as her guests and not people from the RV park. . Comes down and one of them starts to physically push one of the beach owners around on his own beach property. That was it. A five hundred dollar fine for any further intrusion by any person up there. We had all the beach area posted as private property much earlier. It has been quiet for the last two years. The police did not lay charges but their financial message obviously got across.

Anyways look at the bright side. These issues are usually problematic and it fortunately is not your issue. I own some issues that will probably never be resolved. Just not worth the fight and aftermath. Usually we brought the properties so cheap I also knowingly got the issues. Although on occasion I have had to tell people to not erect any fence on our properties. Squatting type laws are generally still in effect in most places. There was talk locally of killing them but nothing ever occurred. .

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by barry12345

Fence or property line issues in my experience have never usually been pleasant. Perhaps a mild understatement. How the property is zoned next to you can sometimes help. Usually outside town and city lines there is usually limited zoning though. At least in areas that I am familiar with. The hedge could help substantially but they take time to grow.

You want a sad case. Guy acquired a piece of land from a farm division. Nice quiet area. Perhaps three to four acre lot. Asked the vendor what she was going to do with the other components of the property. Said more housing but he did not get it in writing.

Built a really nice house and very large garage. The guy gets it all done plus extensive landscaping. She then puts an RV park right up to his property line and even worse it is slightly upslope from him. Place has been for sale for three years without a buyer in sight. In my opinion it may never sell. Even if it ever does he would only get pennies on the dollar.

This lady is also very aggressive as well. Our beaches are privately owned. She wanted to shuttle her commercial traffic down on to them. In her deed she has access to them. Yet not the use of them. Strange situation but she remains persistent.

In the days when a lot of deeds and arrangements where drawn up the cottage lots where only around 100 dollars apiece. So things were pretty loose sometimes and people less concerned. . Where a cheapy cottage lot will get you into at least 60K today with prices rising if you can even find one.

Then she makes a big error. She gathers up twelve people as her guests and not people from the RV park. . Comes down and one of them starts to physically push one of the beach owners around on his own beach property. That was it. A five hundred dollar fine for any further intrusion by any person up there. We had all the beach area posted as private property much earlier. It has been quiet for the last two years. The police did not lay charges but their financial message obviously got across.

Anyways look at the bright side. These issues are usually problematic and it fortunately is not your issue. I own some issues that will probably never be resolved. Just not worth the fight and aftermath. Usually we brought the properties so cheap I also knowingly got the issues. Although on occasion I have had to tell people to not erect any fence on our properties. Squatting type laws are generally still in effect in most places. There was talk locally of killing them but nothing ever occurred. .

LOL
In my work I deal with developers who constantly ***** and moan about the strict zoning rules and the strangle hold neighbors have on developing any parcel of land. They don't realize that **** like this happens all the time in other parts of the country and they would have no recourse.

[chasinthesun]

The seller who sold this piece of land to my friend hated these business neighbors next to his property ,he would sell to anyone but them. Now that he is the new owner the resistance to be neighborly still exists.I believe they purposely yell out on their loud speaker each time a customer comes to pick-up their animal ,this could easily be done with a numbered flashing light or some other form of communication between the frt desk and their employees.One employee who is a female smoker seems to have the job of keeping the dogs in line. When their misbehaving ,a real loud yell of SHHHHHUUUTTTTT UUUUPPP!!!!!!!!! comes across the field ,this followed by a few deep coughs ,we call her the dog whisperer..

[ESchwab]

Originally Posted by chasinthesun

A real estate question about property lines and fences came up as I was talking to a friend .A dog kennel next to his property has been a real pain in his side lately ,he just finished his move in . . ..In just recent weeks he found that theyve errored in their fence placement by 3 ft onto his property .Does he have limited time to fight this? Does he own the fence they have in place? I told him to sell them the 3ft section for 20k and call it a day.

1. It looks like the limitations period of adverse possession is 10 years. However, the period could be as short as 3 or 5 years if the Kennel owner has a deed or other instrument that could be interpreted to give him title to that land.
https://www.fortworthinjurylawyer-blog.com/2013/04/what-is-adverse-possession-in-texas.html
But don't rely much on that; it could have been wrong when written or the law may have changed by amending statutes or by court decisions.


2. When was the fence put there? Any time under a prior owner or owners might be tacked on as your friend had notice before he bought of any intrusion on the land he was buying. He should have known that the other guy's fence was on that land.


3. Your friend should talk to his prior owner about when the fence was put there and whether he had any agreement regarding the fence. Often owners enter into an agreement that any intrusion of a property line fence like this one will not be considered adverse possession and will not result in any transfer of property. If the prior owner consented to the placement of the fence knowing it might be partially on his property there is an argument that the possession was not adverse but by consent.


4. Your friend should talk to the kennel owner and tell him that the fence intrudes on the property and must be moved and confirm in writing what was said. That demand probably stops the running of an adverse possession period. He should also contact a lawyer who handles real estate matters. The kennel owners will likely get one if they are doing well and think they have any kind of argument for keeping the fence there.