The Basics of Property Lines in Texas
Texas is a state of independence, pride, and strong property rights. To fully enjoy what is rightfully yours, you need to know where your land begins and where it ends. For Texans, this knowledge is not just a matter of convenience, but a legal necessity. Whether it affects your ability to build a fence, dig a well, or even live in harmony with your neighbors, knowing property lines can save you from legal battles and help maintain your peace of mind.
Understanding and respecting property lines is vital in Texas. Failure to abide by property lines can lead to legal disputes, encroachments, and a host of costly issues involving not just the law, but also safety, comfort , and legitimate enjoyment of your own property. Furthermore, with Texas being such a vast state, each property line has its own history and may include any number of previous owners, conditions, or agreements that inform how you interact with your neighbors today.
At its core, a property line is simply the boundary that delineates one parcel of land owned by one person from the parcel of land owned by someone else. Property lines are normally established in the title deed to a piece of property, outlining the geographical boundaries of what is (or is not) considered the owner’s land. These boundaries can be natural, like a river or a mountain, or man-made, like roads or fences.
What You Need to Know About Property Lines in Texas
Boundary line disputes in Texas are heavily influenced by the Land Title Standards and case law interpreting those standards. Although not binding, the Standards are often relied upon by Texas courts as evidence of proper land surveying practices in Texas. Section 3.8 of the Standards provides, in pertinent part:
In Texas, all lines used to designate the divisions of property are running lines and none are river and stream banks. (See 16.) Any boundary line indicated on the face of a deed must be a running line, except that an indication of an interior lot line is a fixed line.
All divisions of property must be designated by running lines. By statute, a general or can be running line subdivisions cannot be fixed or arbitrary lines. It is therefore necessary to prove that each line runs according to the description and is not a fixed or arbitrary line but is a curvilinear line or diagram or otherwise shown by reference.
This section deals with running lines. Running lines are lines that are existing fences, roads or other boundaries that can be followed to determine the boundary line. A fence is almost always a running line, and therefore the fence line can and should be used to determine the boundary line, unless there is evidence in the historical record to the contrary. For example, a fence line that runs down the middle of a creek will not suffice as proof of a boundary line, as creeks are typically considered to be fixed lines.
Even with a fence line that runs adjacent to a creek, the running line designation may not be sufficient to overcome the presumption that the creek is a fixed line. In many areas of Texas, all boundaries abutting a creek or stream are typically designated to be a fixed line where the river is located in the center of the bank of the river or an entire river within the county.
The Texas Supreme Court has provided a guide in determining the meaning of the term "bank", "bank of the river," "bank of a creek," or other similar expressions as used in deeds or calls for subdivisions of land:
The bank or bank of a river is usually understood to be the edge or margin, and in the case of a creek the upper edge or margin, of the water on the surface. When the bank is referred to as the boundary of land, it is usually intended to mean the bank on the side of the river or creek nearest to the adjoining land. This is not universally true, but in many instances the boundary line is to be located on the bank of the river or creek as it was at the time of the survey.
It is common in Texas to refer to the non-adjoining property as "the opposite bank," as opposed to the opposing bank. Texas has adopted the universal rule, as voiced by the Texas Supreme Court, that the boundary should be defined on the bank of the river as it existed at the time of the original survey. This is also known as the doctrine of accretion, which provides that title to the land gained as a result of the gradual erosion of the property shall pass to the landowner of that side of the bank where it is deposited. On the other hand, the principle of avulsion will control when a catastrophe causes a sudden shift between the center of the river or creek and the land.
How to Find Property Lines in Texas
Determining the exact boundaries of your real property is critically important to any legal dispute involving real estate. If you’re asking "how do you find out where your property lines are?" or "how do I find my property lines in Texas?" or "what are the best resources for finding my property line in Texas," you’ve come to the right place. In general, you will have to either consult an attorney, a surveyor, or a title company to get an accurate boundary determination for your lot. There may be no way around this if an exact determination is needed. You may have to pay a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars to get a survey done on your lot by an expert surveyor or engineer. Small lots typically cost a few hundred dollars, but a large piece of land may cost thousands. The amount you’ll spend on this should be balanced against the risk you face in proceeding without one. As a practical matter, the best place to start trying to establish the boundary of your real property is with the county deed records or appraisal district records. Your deed survey may be wrong, your neighbors’ survey may be wrong, and a professional surveyor may even make a mistake! But the real estate deed restrictions for your real property are always recorded with the local county, and so are helpful maps that depict real property surveys. As a result, you should always focus first on collecting maps that are freely available from the local county appraisal district and/or local county clerk or deed office. In Texas, you can use the following to search your property lines online: If your lot or piece of land is not currently listed as a parcel in the local appraisal district, then you will invariably be forced to hire an attorney to research the property’s chain of title and do a deed metes & bounds description of the property from the papers. This can be quite expensive and time-consuming, however it may be required to protect your rights to the land.
Disputes over Property Lines and Their Resolutions
Several common property line disputes arise in Texas, particularly those involving common fences, encroachments, boundary lines, easements, and sales of adjoining land by metes and bounds. These all tend to fall into the category of affecting an owner’s use and enjoyment of the property. They also become an issue when two or more people own adjoining land. In most cases, the owner of land that has led someone to believe that a boundary line is located in a certain way may be estopped (prevented from denying) the validity of that belief. If the neighbor enclosed the disputed area, even in part, and it has been used for five years, the owner may not be able to force the neighbor to move or remove the structure. A claim to title to property based on adverse possession may also be available. A claim of adverse possession must be brought in court within ten years after the right to bring the claim arose, or it will be barred. Adverse possession means that the neighbor has crossed the boundary line and taken possession of your land in a way generally inconsistent with your present use of the land, and without permission from you. That person must have claimed the land based on asserted ownership or wrongfully occupied that land under a deed or other document that purports to convey that particular quantity of land, and not simply a claim to occupy the land as a neighbor or as a tenant. The statute of limitations to establish title to land based on adverse possession depends on color of title and relates to whether the possessor has cultivated and irrigated the land and used the land for the production of crops, versus the possession of only the land itself without a deed. In Texas, the time period for void deeds is three years. The disputed area must not be used by either party for any of the following: a public road or street; a railroad; a utility; or ingress and egress, but the owner of the land may elect to not allow the use to continue for ten years. Any adverse possession not claimed for ten years may be barred because it is not a continuing claim for the entire ten years.
That has not deterred some owners from attempting to establish the legitimacy of an adverse possession claim based on possession for a shorter period of time, or to prove that the adverse possession was permissive, not hostile, because the adverse intent was lacking. Adverse possession can include the use of neighboring property in some circumstances. A prescriptive easement grant may apply. Such a claim does not require ownership of the property for any period of time, only continuous use. The claim must be within the prior five years and must be openly, traditionally, and exclusively used, clearly and substantially disturbed by the owner of the affected land. The claimant cannot assert a want of a right since they claim an easement by prescription and not ownership.
The Use of Surveyors to Determine Property Lines
Surveyors are invaluable sources of knowledge and information in Texas for properly describing and otherwise defining property lines. A recent case demonstrates the importance of that role.
In Garza v. Houston, the Tyler Court of Appeals was faced with the question of whether a prior deed should prevail over a subsequent one based upon metes and bounds or customer survey. The first deed described the property using a meted description while the second deed described it as being the property addressed on the front page of the deed. The first deed had an exhibit showing the property lines while the second one had no exhibit or survey. The Court concluded that the second deed was meant to incorporate the first deed by reference to the "exhibit therein" as well as incorporating the metes and bounds description. Based upon this, the Court ruled the property lines being determined were based on the metes and bounds description and not the address or customer survey. The usual rules of construction are that the call lines described in the granting clause of the deed control over everything else and that the metes and bounds description controls over the common elements that are defined in a condominium declaration . Does this mean that surveyors are no longer able to effectively define property lines? No, instead it demonstrates that we need to look past the common elements to determine metes and bounds descriptions. To do that, surveyors and/or an attorney must review the first deed to see if it sufficiently describes the property. If the description is sufficient, then it controls over everything else, and we need not look further in the first deed. That’s what happened in Garza where the Court of Appeals had no reason to look at the survey because the first deed clearly defined the property found in the granting clause. Instead, the opinion focused on the language of the second and third deeds that incorporated the first deed by expressly referencing it. In other words, a good survey is as good as the information it was given. That’s why it is important to read the first deed and to get more information when necessary from both the seller and/or a title company, and not just ask a surveyor what they think is the property line. Instead, a good surveyor must rely on the surveyor’s clients to disclose everything necessary to render a proper survey. Property owners can help the surveyor and ultimately themselves, by disclosing any information they may have up front, including: In other words, a survey is only as good as the information provided to it by the property owner.
How Property Line Issues Affect Real Estate Transactions
A wide variety of property line issues can complicate the acquisition or sale of real estate, regardless of whether the property is rural or urban. When property lines are unclear, it can lead to disputes where one owner fears that the neighbor may claim an easement over his property or another claims title by adverse possession because the boundary is not clear. In many cases, the problem might be solved by an agreement between the neighbors to settle a dispute or to have a survey conducted and work out their differences so they can obtain a boundary agreement that is enforceable in court and works for both to their mutual benefit. We’ll discuss some practical details that people in real estate and boundary disputes should understand.
Property line disputes with regard to adverse possession can lead to litigation over whether the neighbor has adversely possessed contiguous property. The doctrine of adverse possession is a legal construct which allows someone to take title to land held by another person because of possessory acts over a set period of time. All of the elements of adverse possession must be present and proven by the "clear and convincing evidence" burden of proof, whether the sufficient period of time is three, five, ten, twenty, twenty-five or thirty years, depending on whether the adversity is exclusive or whether the owner had knowledge of the adverse claim but failed to file suit. The adverse possession statute requires that the possession be "peaceable" – in other words it cannot be under a claim of right or color of title or entry and without exclusion of all others, but some Texas border counties with surveying issues lead to adverse possession cases which involve very narrow strips of land which might not be obvious to the owner. If the possession is excluded by the owner, that will break the continuity because the adverse possessor must place himself in acord and occupy the land. The question is whether the exclusive possession can be under a claim of right as opposed to just trespassing. Another aspect is that one cannot adversely possess the public roads. Adverse possessor has no right to convey it to a third party.
The legal doctrine of adverse possession was initially created to prevent the public policies of statute of limitations and marketability of title to be defeated by secret title claims. However, it needs to have limits and sometimes the boundaries of adverse possession overlap with easement by necessity cases.
In order to successfully litigate a boundary or adverse possession case, the evidence to establish your particular claim must be compelling and meet the elements of adverse possession or equitable estoppel. Problems arise for people who do not consult an attorney until well into the adverse possession period or until after the dispute has arisen with a neighbor. Any communications and actions should be carefully considered. Keep contemporaneous notes so that you have an accurate record later. An adverse possession can lead to a lawsuit to remove a cloud on title and ask for a judgment of possession, and of course have the other party pay attorney’s fees and costs of litigation and to sign a judgment and a boundary agreement to close the case.
Not just fences, but fences and side trees can divide Texas landowners, just as fences and trees divide residents of New York. The adverse possession statute has no requirement that the person adversely possessing the land must enclose the entire property with fences. An easement by implication has some requirements which can lead to disputes. If the necessity arose – like a flood or hurricane which washed away the road – the owner is required to move the fence or repair the road. Texas law provides that it is not lawful for a fence to be placed on a property line but leaves it up to litigation in support of an easement by necessity. Boundaries can be resolved by a boundary agreement. Sometimes a surveyor can provide solutions that will be acceptable to both owners and save litigation.
For real estate transactions that involve surveys to clarify the property lines, without an agreement to bar re-entry, battles over adjacent property ownership can lead to a lawsuit to establish the differences. A prescriptive easement is a favorable-landlock alternative for those that cannot legally under the statutory provisions or Court-created equitable estoppel principles obtain access by using an adverse possession claim. An easement by agreement can be a great solution to long-term boundary disputes where litigation is expensive and lengthy, especially because easements are created by contract, and can allow flexible legal remedy. Finally, where we see very small disputes, it is often possible to agree on a boundary agreement and file it in the clerk’s office with the survey and easement "Exhibit A" to preclude future disputes.
Advice for Your Property: How to Maintain Your Property Lines
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and this is certainly true when it comes to knowing your property lines. When you own or develop land, it is crucial that you know exactly where your property ends and where your neighbor’s begins, because challenges to your assertion of boundary lines can be difficult and expensive to defend against.
Fortunately, with some preventative tips and tricks, a boundary dispute can be avoided altogether. Although each set of circumstances is unique, the following are some pieces of generic advice that Texas landowners may find useful:
Frequent and regular surveys should be a part of your ongoing land affairs – especially if your property line is in any way unclear or contested. Surveys should be scheduled on an annual basis or whenever the land is being significantly changed. For example, you may want to have a survey done before new construction, before planting a large garden, before building a fence or before any other changes that could affect property line disputes.
Be sure your surveys are thorough and done by licensed, experienced land surveyors. It is not as expensive as you think and could potentially save you thousands (or more) in legal costs.
Regularly mark out your land boundaries , especially before embarking on development. This could be done by placing fences, stakes, flags, fences, trees, paint marks or any other kind of permanent marking in order to make it clear to you and your neighbors where land ownership starts and stops. These markings are legally required if the land is also subject to claims of adverse possession or limitations.
If you are comfortable doing so, seek out your neighbors and get to know them and their expectations when it comes to boundary lines. Peaceable (and neighborly!) discussions ahead of time can prevent disputes from ever happening in the first place. If you cannot or do not want to talk to your neighbor, ask your land surveyor how they can be described in your survey to minimize the chances of confusion and potential dispute.
Do not be afraid to talk to a boundary dispute attorney in order to resolve boundary disputes early on, potentially avoiding costly litigation in the future. The earlier you resolve boundary disputes, the easier and less expensive they generally are for all parties involved. An attorney can advise you on your options and help you strategize a course of action.