Update. It has been listed and re-listed several times now. Shocking that the listing doesn't mention anything about the easement. This home is as poorly designed inside as it is ugly and cheap on the outside. Look at the placement of the refrigerator in relation to the ovens, door and small worthless counter in that corner. So terrible...and completely inexcusable on a new build. Drives me crazy to have this piece of crap down the street with all of the other great rebuilds and new builds in the neighborhood.

search.har.com/engine/506-Tabor-Houston-TX-77009_HAR10949342.htm



[This message has been edited by MAS444 (edited 1/25/2014 11:08a).]

The funny angle floorplan in the link suggests the house may not be constructed over the easement. If that's the case, no problem. Just having an easement across your property is no big deal. If you've got improvements on the easements, then thats a problem.

OP, is your house actually built on the easement?

Did you use a title company when you bought? If so and they didn't find it. you may have a claim.

If an easement is old and not currently in use, you might pursue abandonment since the City's own design regs likely won't allow them to construct anything in it (easements not adjacent to right of way have to be pretty wide - 20' I think)

If all else fails this certainly is grounds for a lower valuation at HCAD. You need to pursue that regardless.

Mine is built right on top of the easement and, yes, I made a claim with my title company and that's all settled.

I'm not sure how you think they're not on top of it as well. The easement is 20' wide. There's maybe 5' between structures on both sides.

Oh, and it's active and the city won't abandon. HCAD values it 1/2 of what it's worth. Actually about a 1/3 since it was undervalued in the first place.

If you guys get a chance to swing by E 23rd street jusr west of Harvard and check out the concrete cube going up in the Heights. Barf-a-roni! I especially like the knee high down to ankle second story window on the fron of the house! I will snap a pic of the current ultra modern abortion after work today!

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I'm not sure how you think they're not on top of it as well.

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I was just looking at the floorplan and the funny angle of the kitchen wall.



That with the shape of the lot in your first post made it look like there was enough room to build the house without encroaching. I didn't pay any attention to the rendering showing how close the structures are to each other.

That is interesting. But I don't see any way that somebody is not on the easement. Again, it's 20 feet wide. They may have received a variance with the city (which I have as well). The problem is financing.

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small worthless counter in that corner.

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I didn't even notice that. Guys, what do we do with this extra foot?

I'm conflicted. On one hand I hope the developers lose their ass on this. On the other hand, I don't want the place to turn into a run down rental slum. The latter is somewhat inevitable though imo because of the ****ty layout/design/construction.

You see they tore down that huge brown slum house on Enid? I never thought that would go. I drove by about a month ago and saw it was gone along with the house next to it. I almost started dancing in the street.

This one

Yes! Was very excited about that also. It's the Bungalow Concepts dude...who is doing a ton of work in the area. And that's the perfect example, his houses aren't as nice as some other other builders in the area...but he's building pretty nice bungalows on full size lots and selling them fast for good profit (I assume). The clowns on Tabor have been working on theirs for years and still haven't finished and sold them all.

Any of yall have seen the Dutch colonial style townhouse community at Harvard and East ~27th?? 4 story 3' gap between each POS. Why are some companies cool with changing the landscape of the area. Why put up eyesores that wont hold value.

I can't believe that's half a million bucks!

Open house this weekend yall. MAS444 can you drop by and ask about their encroachment problems?

Hmmmm...

I still think the city would never tear down these houses to replace the line. If they replace this line in a non emergency scenario, they will relocate it, end of story. Could they sure, so risk.

If the line fails under your house and half of Houston can't flush their toilets, they may take your house out, but I would call Q10, etc to be there when they did.

I think it is a very safe bet to invest in these places at below market rate but you need to understand what it is involved.



[This message has been edited by CrossBowAg99 (edited 1/30/2014 11:16p).]

pending.

Another oddly shaped house built around this easement. Sorry MAS444 you have to look at it.

http://www.har.com/518-northwood-st/sale_74652773



(20 ft. wide easement in green)

Man that place is ugly!

Sorry if anyone here owns it, but there is zero curb appeal whatsoever with that one. Looks worse than KB Homes.

Chuckd:

Did the easement run fully under your house or does your house only encroach on part of the easement? I ask because I'm working on a storm sewer easement encroachment case right now. Curious about your conversations with Public Works. Our situation is easier (in my mind) because it would only require trimming the easement down a couple of feet NOT to be under my guy's house.

The easement runs fully under the house. It's been over 5 years, but I don't remember it being too difficult to obtain the variance.