I bought 20 acres of land about a year ago in Texas. As we were closing the deal my neighbor agreed that I could come off his electric pole when it was time to get the line in to supply my property. He owns the property adjacent to mine and approved the location for the line a few months later when I had the electric co-op out. I had a dozer clear the route, and the electric co-op staked the planned pole locations. After all this, the man came out and told us he didn't want those electric lines on his property; he had changed his mind. We never had anything in writing. Now I'm looking at double the installation cost. Is a verbal agreement binding? If so, do I have to take him to court to get him to honor his word?
I am assuming the neighbor is also the person who sold you your land. As your question indicates, a major issue here is that your agreement is oral and not written.
Without written terms of agreement, a court would find it difficult to determine specifically what you and your neighbor agreed to do. He essentially agreed to grant you an easement to run electrical wires across his property. But what were the terms for breach, nonperformance, change of plans, etc.?
Easements are real property grants, subject to statutory requirements to be in writing in order to be enforced by the courts. Easements need to be recorded with the county to remain enforceable. All agreements involving use or possession of land need to be written into the land sale contract and recorded.
As with many law questions, the issue here is muddled by the fact that the neighbor made this agreement as part of the land sale deal. If a court could be persuaded that you would not have purchased the land for the price but for this side agreement, a court might agree to enforce the agreement.
However, the court might also just: 1) rescind the entire sale as resulting from misrepresentation by the seller; 2) award you damages for the cost of the work already done; and/or 3) award you the difference in the value of your land with the easement over the value of your land without the easement.
You will need legal representation to either seek a negotiated settlement with the neighbor or recovery in court. Perhaps you can persuade the neighbor with some additional compensation or additional agreement terms as to the way the wires are to be run and maintained. In any case, get the negotiated settlement terms recorded in writing.
—Robert P. Achenbach/Agricultural Law Digest
I live on a small farm in east Tennessee and share a pond with my neighbor. The pond was built in the 1950s, and the property line crosses the pond at about the center. During the drought this year the pond dried up, and we cleaned it out—at least we cleaned it on my side. My neighbor, however, decided to dam up his side, which keeps water out of my side as the pond fills from runoff from the surrounding pasture. Can he be required to remove this dam even though it's on his property?
A court will likely look at your situation as a deprivation of the water itself—not as an issue concerning the real property associated with the pond.
In all likelihood, you will not be able to require your neighbor to remove the pond dam to allow water to enter your portion of the pond because he has the right to collect the rainwater from his property.
On the other hand, if the water runs through a ditch, creek or other channel into the pond, you may have some rights as a riparian land owner.
Generally, Eastern states grant broader rights to owners of riparian land that abuts a body of water, so long as use of the water is reasonable.
Western states—roughly from the 100th meridian on west—subject property owners to more stringent controls and governmental limits on their use of water. That holds even if the water is next to, under or runs through the land.
—Eric L. Pendergrass/Smith, Maurras, Cohen, Redd & Horan
About two years ago I gave a neighbor permission to plant grass on and use about one-third acre of my land, which is next to his house. My neighbor knows it's my land, and he seems to be a good neighbor. But I keep reading about people who try to take land away from the owner using the law of adverse possession. Is there any way my neighbor could claim this land belongs to him sometime in the future?
Because your neighbor has been using the land with your permission, adverse possession will never run. In other words, he will not be able to claim title under this law. This applies whether he uses the land gratuitously, as is the case here, or is leasing it.
If at some point in the future this neighbor fenced off the land you're letting him use and claimed it was his, that would be cause for concern. In that case, you would want to take appropriate legal action to ensure that he did not establish title by adverse possession.
—C. Dan Campbell/Brooks & Campbell
Write to Law of the Land, 2204 Lakeshore Dr., Suite 415, Birmingham, AL 35209 or e-mail vmyers@progressivefarmer.com.