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<\/p>\nAssume that a landowner has pasture that abuts a highway.\u00a0 The landowner has a solid barbed-wire fence to keep his livestock on his property.\u00a0 One night, a car accident occurs and a motorist crashes through and causes significant damage to the landowner’s fence.<\/p>\n
With costs to repair barbed wire fences in the Panhandle averaging $10,000\/mile, a vehicle damaging a landowner’s fence can be a serious economic hardship on the landowner.\u00a0 Can the landowner take action to recover the cost of repair from the motorist?<\/p>\n
Yes, based upon a statutory lien in Texas titled the “Lien Related to Damaged Fence.”\u00a0 Passed in 2001, the Texas Property Code Section 70.501-506 sets forth the requirements and scope of this lien.<\/p>\n
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To whom does it apply?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The lien provides that a landowner owning property enclosed by a fence or other structure “obviously designed to exclude intruders or to contain livestock or other animals” may obtain a lien against a motorist who damages the fence with a motor vehicle if the vehicle is owned by the motorist or if the motorist has consent to drive from the owner of the vehicle at the time of the damage.<\/p>\n How much is it for?<\/strong>\u00a0 The statute provides that the amount of landowner’s lien is the lesser of (a) the fair market value of the motor vehicle on the date the fence is damaged; or (b) the actual costs incurred by the landowner to repair the fence, recapture any livestock or other animals that escaped as a direct result of the damage to the fence, and costs to have the vehicle towed and stored.\u00a0 Additionally, the lien grants a landowner of an abandoned vehicle the right to select a towing service to remove the vehicle from the landowner’s property.<\/p>\n