Property line dispute

[tlholder]

What is the name of your state? Texas
My husband and I bought our home 14 yrs. ago with a certified survey. There were iron rods in the ground that were still intact to this day. We lived next to unoccupied land that was just recently purchased about six months ago. Origianlly the new owners were fine with the iron rods as land marks and put up a Pier and Bulkhead based on the iron rods therefore we did the same. They also put up a fense based on these rods. Four months later they re-surveyed their land and want to claim 17 feet of our waterfront as encroachment however based on our survey it is our land. When they put in their bulkhead they removed the iron rod. We then re-surveyed our land at our cost which essentially is the same as our original survey. I request why their survery did not discover this until four months later as their was no dispute initially and we spent quite a lot of money to put in a bulkhead as well. They have had two surverys that do not match. The new owner stated that the first survey did not have any disputes but the second one did. Also they are putting in commercial property ( Marina ). Our surveyor stated that he will stand by his survey. What shoud we do at this point? We are meeting with an attorney to discuss this issue as well.

 

[seniorjudge]

You don't say upon what kind of water you are on (fresh or salt) but you had better go hire a real-estate lawyer well-versed in the kind of land you are talking about.

You have several very complicated issues; nothing can be decided on this forum which would help you.

 

[tlholder]

Thank you for the reply, We are meeting with a real estate attorney next week. We are on Fresh water. Just hoping for some advise. Thanks

 

[Florid-aise]

tlholder, I don't know the Texas law in this case, but you seem to understand quite a bit about a lot of other stuff just now, so, do you know whether the land under the water in Texas is soverign land or not?

And where freshwater is concerned, does Texas consider water front property ownership to go to the waterline, or to the mean water level?

Is this flowing and/or running water, or is it a pond, lake or other body of non-flowing water?

 

[tlholder]

Thank you for your reply. This is on Lake Houston with a man made lake for a water reservoir for the City of Houston with two flowing rivers into it. As I understand we do not own directly to the water front but the city has an easement around 10 feet however we get a permit to build pier and bulkhead from the city and it is considered our property. The city will only give the permits with a survery available of the land owned. We own the pier and bulkhead. Thanks Tlholder

 

[seniorjudge]

Thank you for the reply, We are meeting with a real estate attorney next week.

The FIRST thing you should ask this lawyer is Florid-aise's question.

If he does not IMMEDIATELY answer it, then excuse yourself and politely tell him you need to look around for another lawyer.