Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Texas

Nuisance Neighbors Junkyard

A person bought land next to me and has turned it into a junkyard he also brought in tons of rock an stopped flow of water off my property except for a small 12 in. pipe he put in to let the water out. When it rains hard it takes days for the pond that forms on my property to drain.Also the middle of my property&the middle of his is in a flood plain.After many months of trying to get the County Enviromental Officer(who said he was KINDA related to this guy)I talked to the Sheriff about cleaning this place up,I also went in front of the County Appraisel Board&told them my property was worthless because of what this man has done over on his property,(this man does not live on this place but in a town nearby)After that the Sheriff&his Deputy made him clean some of the Junk cars off his place&the deputy told me that the charges I tried to file(being a nuisance&illegal dumping)WOULD finallay be filed.Well its been a few months & in that time hes built the wierdest fence to try to hide all this.I called the DA &asked if the charges had been filed,They told me that they had not heard anything about it.I called the Sheriff & he told me that they were not going to file charges&everthing thats left overthere is legal. What would you do now?


Asked on 2/24/08, 1:30 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Joseph A. McDermott, III Attorney at Law

Re: Nuisance Neighbors Junkyard

There's a statute that provides you can sue to make him stop damming the flow of water onto or off of your property. These are expensive to take to trial -- you have to have an engineer in addition to a lawyer; maybe $50,000-$100,000 in legal fees. However the statute does say that IF you win and IF he can pay, you can get your legal fees back.

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Answered on 2/25/08, 11:56 am


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