UPDATE: Legal Question. Hunting lease locked, Still in

[grandpatim]

I went out to the hunting lease I am on last night and they put a gate up and locked it. I haven't been out there in couple of months so I had no idea. The website we used to renew on and get updates is no longer working. The contract I have says I am payed up through Oct. of this year. It has no mention of the owner having the right to cancel at any time for any reason. I have the phone number of one of the owners which was the contact person and have called and left messages with no response. Is this legal for him to do? I figure since I was not contacted about any changes that I still have a right to be there. But I am not the kind to just go cut the lock and go in but I am tempted to do so. I know Texas has some weird property right laws. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Tim Tate

[joe817]

I went out to the hunting lease I am on last night and they put a gate up and locked it. I haven't been out there in couple of months so I had no idea. The website we used to renew on and get updates is no longer working. The contract I have says I am payed up through Oct. of this year. It has no mention of the owner having the right to cancel at any time for any reason. I have the phone number of one of the owners which was the contact person and have called and left messages with no response. Is this legal for him to do? I figure since I was not contacted about any changes that I still have a right to be there. But I am not the kind to just go cut the lock and go in but I am tempted to do so. I know Texas has some weird property right laws. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tim Tate

Tim, I'm not an attorney, or a realtor who's usually up on matters like this, but the property owner's should give you some notice of a change in the lease status. Since you've not been notified, and there's not an lessor escape clause in the lease agreement, it could mean the lessor(owner of the property) is in default of the lease agreement.

What you do not want to do is to cut the lock off the gate!! That could get you into trouble, as you are not the property owner, and imo, they could get you for trespassing.

Go back and read carefully the lease. There should be an address of the owner on the lease, if memory serves me right. Write him a letter and ask him, why did he deny you access to the hunting lease. If other owners of the property are on the lease see if you can get their tele. # and call them. Is the lease managed by a property management company of some sort?......usually a real estate firm. If so contact them. Try calling at different times of the day...morning, afternoon and evenings. Maybe someone will pick up.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I hope someone else here will chime in and give you better recommendations.

[grandpatim]

I have an address on the lease and I went back and found an e-mail address from when I made the payment through Paypal. I sent an e-mail to him earlier so hopefully I will get something back. If not I will send a letter in the mail. My wife went to the appraisal district office this morning and found out there are several owners. He is the person they said who gets the tax statements and pays them for the other owners. The address they have for him is also the same one on the contract. The tax office person also said there have been no transactions on the property in over a year. I am wondering if another owner decided they didn't want anyone one else on it and took it upon themselves and locked it. It's frustrating because it was something I could afford and within a few miles of town.

Thanks

[joe817]

Well, you(and wife) have certainly done your homework. Good for you.

I'd suggest that if calling/emailing doesn't work and you're down to writing letters, you may want to send letters to ALL the owners. Maybe that will get somebody off of high center.

Good luck and please keep us informed!

[gemini]

Send your USPS letter certified with return receipt requested. Keep a copy of what you send.
Keep the USPS receipts. Nice to have as evidence if you have to go to small claims to settle
this matter. Good luck.

[Purplehood]

The other owners may not even be aware of the lease. Maybe you need to shake up the tree and make sure you contact them all.

[KD5NRH]

I went out to the hunting lease I am on last night and they put a gate up and locked it.

Do you know any of the other hunters on the lease? You might get lucky and find out one happens to be a lawyer who's also still paid up and unaware of the issue, or at least find someone to split the cost of a lawyer with.

Document every little thing to death, then document the time of death and do an autopsy on video.

[grandpatim]

I only know one other hunter and I cannot get ahold of him yet. I know his feeder is still there cause I saw it with binoculars.

[grandpatim]

I found out what happened. I went to the local gunshop today to talk to one of the owners cause I remembered he was on the same lease. It turns out the land is owned by several people. The guy that was leasing is out is a minority owner of the land. He was leasing it out without the knowledge of the other owners and keeping the money for himself. The majority owner (55%) found out and came out and put a gate up and locked it. One of the other guys that was on the lease got in touch with the majority owner and found out he is anti-gun and anti-hunting. He was in contact with a lawyer who says the only thing we can do is go after the guy who was making the lease contracts. The other owners are off the hook because it was being leased without their knowledge. Now here's the problem. The majority owner put the gate up before anyone could get their stands and feeders off. I didn't have one out there so I got lucky. They don't know what they are going to do to get their stuff off the place. I don't know what the lawyer said about that. He did say it would cost more to go after the person who leased it out to us than what we lost on our lease payments. So I guess I learned a lesson in the school of hard knocks. Now to find a new lease that I can afford.

[joe817]

Tim, no disrespect to you or anything, but if I were in your position, I would take what the lawyer said with a grain of salt. After all, he IS the attorney representing the owner(s) of the property, and not you and the other lessee's.

Again, I'm no attorney, but it would seem to me that you have SOME legal recourse in this injustice. Are you a member of the NRA or any of the other lessee's? If so, whoever is a member could call the ILA and get their opinion. I'm sure they would have some very good suggestions. Heck, it'd be worth joining just to be able to ask that question.

I'm sorry, but what that lawyer (who represents the land owner's) said just doesn't seem right to me. It very well might be, but that's my gut feeling. I don't know how much money is involved in the unexpired term of the lease, but for all lessee's combined, PLUS their equipment left on the property, it could total up to a healthy sum. I would think those monies could be recoverable, but here again......I dunno.

If I were one of the guy's on the lease, I'd contact an attorney, and get their opinion. Just my 2 cents worth.

[grandpatim]

I didn't word the sentence right. One of the people that was leasing the land from the land owner was in contact with his own lawyer. Sorry I phrased it wrong but it wasn't the landowners lawyer.

[joe817]

I didn't word the sentence right. One of the people that was leasing the land from the land owner was in contact with his own lawyer. Sorry I phrased it wrong but it wasn't the landowners lawyer.

Ohhhhhhh, ok. Or I might have misinterpreted what you said wrong. If I did, so sorry. Fiddlesticks, and what a crummy bummer. Sorry friend, I don't have any other suggestions other than the one's I mentioned.

[joe817]

Doesn't seem right the hunters would lose their property.

They should be able to just contact the sheriffs department and have their property returned fairly quickly...

I totally agree with that!

[grandpatim]

The gunshop owner that is on it and myself agree that we still have the right to be on it. He had mentioned that he was apt to cut the lock too. From what I heard today at the gunshop I expect the lock to be cut in the near future. The only person I know that has equipment still on it won't answer my phone calls. I'm off on saturday so I'm going back out and do some looking.