Property disputes

Business & Civil Litigation

Start with the survey and the chain of title.

Almost every property dispute is resolved the same way: a current survey, the recorded instruments going back far enough to explain the boundary, and evidence of use and possession over time. Neighbours arrive with strong convictions about where a line is; the recorded deed and the surveyor usually settle it quickly, and knowing that early saves years.

The disputes we handle

• Boundary and encroachment. Fences, driveways, buildings and improvements over a line, and the question of whether a long-standing fence has become the boundary by agreement or acquiescence.
• Easements. Access and utility easements, prescriptive and implied easements, easements by necessity for landlocked property, and disputes over the scope and maintenance of an existing one.
• Adverse possession. Texas provides several limitations periods depending on the circumstances — including whether the possessor holds under a deed and pays taxes — each requiring possession that is actual, visible, continuous, hostile and exclusive.
• Title defects and quiet title. Clouds on title, defective conveyances, forged or fraudulent deeds, and undischarged liens.
• Partition. Co-owners who cannot agree, including inherited property held by several heirs — Texas provides for division in kind or by sale.
• Trespass and nuisance. Timber and soil removal, drainage and flooding altered by a neighbour's work, and continuing interference with use.
• Restrictive covenants and HOA disputes, both enforcing and defending.

Heir property

A recurring Houston problem: a house passed down without probate for two or three generations, now owned by a dozen relatives who each hold a fractional interest, none of whom can sell, refinance or insure it properly. The fix combines heirship determinations with partition or a negotiated buy-out, and it is worth starting before a tax sale or a hurricane forces the issue.

Remedies

Declaratory judgment establishing rights and boundaries. Trespass to try title, the Texas mechanism for resolving competing claims to land. Injunctions to stop construction or interference while a case proceeds. Damages for trespass, waste or diminished value. Partition, by division or by sale with the proceeds split. And a lis pendens filed at the outset where the ownership itself is disputed, so the property cannot be sold out from under the case.

Common questions