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squatter's rights law

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bdasch

Junior Member
undefinedWhat is the name of your state?
Texas

Back in 1985 I purchased a beach house on the coast. At the time of purchase the plat showed that when the house had been built it was 3-5 ft. into an alley that dead ended on this property. That original owner sold the house and the new owners had the alley closed. (The people I purchased the property from)

About 1987, I put up a fence on the side of the property that the closed alley was on, taking 10ft. from the house into the closed alley. At the time a city inspecter had to OK. the fence posts due to city ordinances because of hurricanes, they had to be just so deep etc. When he inspected it I asked him if we could claim the whole alley for ourselves as the owners of the adjacent property lived out of state and never came to the Texas coast. He said as long as they did not contest it we could take half of it or all of it. Well, we did not take it all, just 10 ft. as it was a 20ft. alley. Which meant that we actually had 13 to 15 feet of the alley because the origanal builder/owner had encroched the alley with the structure/house.

This fence has been up for 18yrs. with no contest, I assume we pay the taxes on it and have since we built the fence.

Now the adjacent property has been sold and the gentleman who purchased it,noticed that his part of the alley, (10 ft) which could have been claimed at one time, had already been partially claimed and fenced by us. Now, he is wanting to trade a certain piece of our (bought) property (not the alley) for what he claims he now automatically owns (i.e. his part of the alley) because he is having access issues, not to his liking. His lot is a corner lot, if he enters from one street his easement is 40ft but if he can obtain an easement from the side street, which we own frontage on, he will only have a 20ft easement.

What he proposes is that we give him this land, for the land we have had fenced all these years ( part of the alley) that no one ever claimed or disputed until now) or he will make us move our fence and deck that we built 18 yrs. ago.

Now, if we claimed part of the alley and fenced it, decked it, mowed it and paid taxes on it for the last 18 yrs how can he come in now and try to claim the part we already claimed? The land has been used and maintained by us for 18 yrs. so what now? We did offer to trade him equal square footage for the rest of the alley, so that he can enter his property from the street he is wanting to put his driveway on but he says that he guesses he will see us in court.

Any light you could shed on this for me would be greatly appreciated as we have been told by this new neighbor that he will take us to court. if we don't do the trade his way and make us give him the part of the alley we fenced and claimed 18yrs ago. Thereby making us take down our fence and deck. So what say ye???
 
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seniorjudge

Guest
http://www.uslegalforms.com/lawdigest/legaldefinitions.php/adverse_possession.htm

http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20011123_askgeorge.htm

Generally, the rule is that a vacated alley goes half to one adjoining owner, then half to the other adjoining owner.

From your post, you were a mere trespasser on the part that did not belong to you and thus cannot claim it due to adverse possession. I doubt that you were paying taxes on it.

When he inspected it I asked him if we could claim the whole alley for ourselves as the owners of the adjacent property lived out of state and never came to the Texas coast. He said as long as they did not contest it we could take it all.

As a lawyer, that fence inspector would make a good fence inspector.

Anyway, this shows you were on notice that you were a trespasser.
 
A

absconder

Guest
What the inspecter said dont mean diddly squat talk to a TX lawyer and see what it says. Texas has some weird laws about property rights. Texas is one of the few states where you own the property but some yahoo in Florida owns your mineral rights and I dont mean just 1 property but the whole damn state.
 

bdasch

Junior Member
could you explain what squatter's rights are?

What does the phrase mean and why can't it apply here?
 
S

seniorjudge

Guest
bdasch said:
What does the phrase mean and why can't it apply here?
Google texas adverse possession requirements and start studying.

The reason it does not apply is because you were a trespasser to begin with and that never changed. You must have a claim of right (among other things) for "squatter's rights" to apply but you (according to your post) never had that. Thus, you fail the threshhold test of claim of right.
 
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