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property line dispute

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darlin1959

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Texas

My husband and I live the the house I grew up in as a child. It was left to me when my mother died. Some years later we had gotten an equity line of credit and remodeled the house. No survey was done at that time, the mortgage company used what was already on file.Last year in June of 2006 we refinanced and when we refinanced, a new survey was done. The survey showed that the neigbors fence was 3 feet over on our property. The neighbor disagreed and disputed the survey. She had to have a block survey done and the survey for the block showed the same thing our survey showed. Her fence was 3 feet over on our property. At one time she did agree to let us move the fence if we would take care of the fence. We were going to do that but weather issues and health problems with our family prevented us from doing that. She is now stating that since she has had the fence up for over 20 years that the property line is hers. Now let me tell you this, when we did the equity line of credit and they did not do a survey, we never knew that the fence was 3 feet over on our property. We did not learn this until the survey had been done when we refinanced last year. Another thing is that she has never paid the taxes for the portion of land she is claiming is hers. We have paid the taxes and my mother paid the taxes before we got the house. We feel that because the line surveyed is the property line on our property that we are entitled to it even though she is trying to claim this because of the statute of limitations. She also has 2 buildings in her backyard that are not 5 feet from the line which are in code violation. She is also now trying to claim the property line on the front side of the property which she says she has had sprinkler heads on the line for over 20 years and that is not the case. She also had about 12 shrubs on the line which have only been up 18 months to 2 years. We had the line marked to where you see where the divison should be. We put our own fence on that line which took her about 8 of her shrubs hostage which was 3 feet high and she and her male companion tore the fence down and hauled it off, which they stole our fence. She is now trying to sue us. Can you give me information that might help us when we go to court. Thank you.
 


lwpat

Senior Member
What do you mean by "had the line marked"? If it was by a surveyor then you need to have him in court to testify for you. You also need to file an answer and counterclaim for the value of the fence they removed. Be sure to get your answer in to the court on time.
 

darlin1959

Junior Member
Yes the line was surveyed and the only reason I say it was marked was because we were putting up a fence on the front side of the line that took in about 8 of the neigbors shrubs on our side of the fence. My husband marked it off so that he would be able to put up the fence so he would know where everything was. That's what I mean't by it being marked. Yes the surveyors marked the line with their flags, it's just that when my husband was getting ready to build the fence, he put up his own markers - the ones from the surveyors I believe had already been taken up. I don't remember if I said this in the earlier post, but the neighbor disputed our survey that had been done and she had to pay for our entire block on our side of our street to be done and she got the same results our survey stated. Any other help you can give would be helpful. I don't remember if I stated this either but we have always paid the taxes on the property even with the fence there and the neighbor has never paid any of the taxes. My mother even paid the taxes while she was living. Again any other information you can give will be helpful to us.
 

lwpat

Senior Member
There is the possibility of a mistake when your husband "marked" the line. Has she actually filed suit?
 

darlin1959

Junior Member
No there is not a mistake where my husband marked the line-because he made the line where it was marked by the surveyors. Yes she filed suit against, and we were served with papers on Thursday May 10.
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
No there is not a mistake where my husband marked the line-because he made the line where it was marked by the surveyors. Yes she filed suit against, and we were served with papers on Thursday May 10.

Do not ignore the "papers".

You are being sued.

You are involved in a lawsuit.

Get a lawyer.
 

lizjimbo

Member
Get a lawyer and file a countersuit

You might as well get this all done at once. What she is claiming is adverse possession. You have had 2 independent surveys done. Both surveys are in agreement. You must have both surveys in court and you should have your surveyor as an expert witness for your side. The surveyor will charge you expert witness fees. These are recoverable damages. You need to bring a trespass suit against her. The surveyors testimony is going to be critical. Not all judges know what they are looking at when they look at a survey. The surveyor explains his methods and opinions.
 

LindaP777

Senior Member
You might as well get this all done at once. What she is claiming is adverse possession. You have had 2 independent surveys done. Both surveys are in agreement. You must have both surveys in court and you should have your surveyor as an expert witness for your side. The surveyor will charge you expert witness fees. These are recoverable damages. You need to bring a trespass suit against her. The surveyors testimony is going to be critical. Not all judges know what they are looking at when they look at a survey. The surveyor explains his methods and opinions.

AND . . . don't forget to counter sue for your fence she tore down.
 

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