Case Overview

“523 W 30th, Houston, Tx, 77018

The case involves a duplex (allowed in section 1) that was subdivided into two unique properties in 2007. GOMO’s lawsuit against this action was successful in the trial court but was overturned on appeal. The case was remanded to the lower court for resolution, which was issued on April 19, 2017.
THE ISSUE: By subdividing 523 W. 30th into two unique lots, (now 523 W. 30th and 525 W. 30th), two lots of 37’6″” frontages were created, violating the minimum 75′ frontage as required in Section 1 deed restrictions, (paragraph a- Architectural restrictions.)

    CASE BACKGROUND

  • 1979 the duplex was built.
  • Early 2007 the owner of the lot subdivided it into east and west halves and transferred ownership of the east to Moses Ramos and the west to Paul Perez.
  • February 2007 GOMO sued Ramos and Perez (i.e., the owners of both the east and west lots that formerly made up Lot 15) to bring those subdivided lots into compliance with the deed restrictions. The two cases were combined.
  • October 2009 the combined case was resolved when Ramos represented that he had recombined the two lots. At that point, GOMO thought that this issue had been fully and finally resolved. However, the east and west units of the duplex had evidently been financed separately by different lenders. When the borrowers defaulted, both loans were foreclosed, and the east and west units were sold separately at the resulting foreclosure sales. The foreclosure sales effectively subdivided Lot 15 once again, splitting the property into east and west halves, with each unit of the duplex residing on a separate subdivided lot.
  • 2011 GOMO initiated suits against both lenders who sold their interests resulting in different owners for the East and West halves of the original lot.
  • Late 2011 GOMO sues the owner of each half of the subdivided property in two separate proceedings, claiming violation of the 75′ minimum lot frontage deed restrictions. In the case against the owner of the west half of the lot, the trial court found in GOMO’s favor, issuing a permanent injunction in May 2014 that required the owner to use all reasonable efforts to rejoin the west and east halves of the property.
  • 2014 Owner of the western half appeals verdict.
  • 2015 GOMO filed an injunction against the eastern half of the duplex lot to have the owner use reasonable efforts to rejoin the lot.
  • June 2016 The appellate court reverses the trial court’s judgment finding that the owner of the western half of the lot did not violate the deed restrictions because he had not “”erected”” anything. (see Architectural restrictions, section 1, paragraph a.)
  • April 2017 Agreed Judgement Order Signed- Both Elbar and SWE suits are ended

Legal Spending.
Current spending on all the related suits from 2006 to 2017 inclusive of appeals is a little over $30K with approximately a third of this coming at the appeals stage.

Conclusion/Way Forward
GOMO will enforce the prohibition to erect on any lot having less than the required frontage.”

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