Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Texas
Neighbors
I own a piece of lake property which has been in our family since 1960. I inherited it upon my mother's death. We have an ingress and egree easement to the lake which is 30 feet wide. The neighbor who owns the easement and the property between our houses and the lake has put up an 8' wooden fence to block our view and keep us from using the paths to the lake which we have used since 1960. In addition over the years he has blocked the drive into our property which had used (forcing my 80 year old mother to walk down a hill with all of her groceries, etc.), called us names, yelled at us, called our children ''pricks'', etc.
His son knocked my 35 year old niece down after calling her and others quite a few names. We have had to call the sheriff on him a number of times for harrassment.
What can we do? He has destroyed our view of the lake and is now threatening to put up a fence along the easement to the lake, ''jailing'' us in on our property.
We have decided to sell the property but no one wants to deal with someone like him. He has destroyed our property value and is threatening to do more harm to us.
Unfortunately, I do not have the money to fight him through the court system. Any suggestions?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Neighbors
I can think of no way short of suing this guy to protect your rights -- and your only enforceable rights may well be to the original easement, not the paths or driveways (presumably out of the easement) you have long been using. If you cannot pay by the hour, there's always a contingency fee. Since you're selling the property anyway, you might hire a lawyer based on paying him a percentage of the sales proceeds. In addition to obtaining the relief needed to secure your easement, you might recover fees against the neighbor under a statute providing for attorneys fees when you successfully prosecute a claim for breach of contract. Of course, even if you obtain a fee award against your neighbor, you may not be avbe to collect from him, so you might have to pay legal fees out of the sales proceeds anyway.
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