Can my neighbor paint my pickett fence? (The Woodlands, Howe: real estate, HOA)

[Oskar_Z28]

I built a 3 ft tall picket fence in my front yard between my neighbor and myself. I put the fence inside my property by more than 6 inches, just to make sure there is no issue on whose fence it is. It used to be all white.

Over the weekend when I was out, my neighbor painted the outer side of the fence dark beige. It looks horrible now 1/2 white - 1/2 beige. She tells me that since it's facing her, she can paint it whatever color she wants without asking me. Can she do that? The fence is all on my property, I paid for it, I built it, I painted it.

I talked with her husband and he said he will repaint it white, but I doubt it. They will procrastinate.

I'll cut the thing down before I leave it looking like crap, and will put some ugly a$$ bushes.

Oh yeah, there is no HOA here, so it's between us.

[LizzySWW]

She really can't legally do that.

However, it's not worth a law suit even though you're (rightfully) mad. Why not whip out a paint roller & paint over her paint job with the origional color?

[travelguy_73]

Pretty gutsy of her, and I wonder where her husband was in all of this. If he acted like he knew she was wrong, then he seems to take "happy wife, happy life" to a new level! Maybe they thought you would just go along?

I guess if you want to maintain neighborly relations, then repaint it yourself. If you don't care, then buy the paint and take it over to the husband and let him pay for his wife's error.

[elnina]

The fence build on your property is yours and your neighbor has no business to even touch it. They should repaint it. If they don't - the price of paint is not worth to argue. Just make sure they understand that's your property, not 50/50
Some Texas fence laws here:
Texas Laws on Property Disputes Between Neighbors - Free Legal Information - Nolo
Real Estate | Deed Restrictions | The Woodlands, Texas

[cheryjohns]

Whoah. They should not have stepped over the property line to change something on your property.

[houston-nomad]

Sounds like vandalism to me. You could call the police. I'm not saying you should.

[Oskar_Z28]

Thanks for all comments, I thought that I was missing something, and I was even discussing taking the fence down to eliminate conflict.

But now, I'll wait and see if he paints it back white. If not I'll grab a bucket of paint and paint over it.

I "was" a good neighbor. My house is immaculate most of the time unlike many people in our neighborhood, so they do not have to live next to a ghetto house. I always helped them out, moved their furniture around in their house, took their garbage to the curb when they were gone, picked up stuff for them in my truck, and they go off and do this.

You know, if they asked first maybe we could come up with a compromise. But to tell me that I am in the wrong by even suggesting that she should not have been painting it, that's ridiculous. She actually argued with me that I should have asked her what color to paint it.

Screw that, no more Mr. nice guy. I will charge them $100 per hour next time they want something.

As far as the fence goes, it needs to be white again.

[City Love]

Wow. Looks like they confused your kindness for weakness. They probably thought they could paint it to their liking and you wouldn't say a word. I really can't believe someone would do that when you clearly placed the pickets inside your property line. I'm assuming that they don't have pickets on the other side of the yard, correct?

[TimBomb]

put some barb wire on their side

[NTT]

Before they painted the fence, did they know that it was all on your property? Maybe, that was how it started.