mojo84 wrote:How about " No Trespassing", "No Hunting" or "No Dumping" signs? Should those not have the force of law? Or, are those just conveying the owner's wishes and should the property owner have to confront them visit prior to them being in violation?
That's not quite the same though. According to the
Texas TPWD:
It is unlawful to:
Fish on privately owned waters, fish in public water from private land, or
hunt on privately owned lands without the permission of the owner or the owner's agent.
- Under the Texas Penal Code (§30.05) it is an offense for any person to enter property that is fenced, posted with a sign(s), or marked (purple paint) without the express permission of the owner. Posts or trees bearing purple paint marking of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width at not less than three or more than five feet from the ground constitute notice that the property is posted.
- A person who hunts without landowner consent and kills a desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, white-tailed deer, or mule deer commits an offense that is a Parks and Wildlife Code state jail felony. Upon conviction, your hunting and fishing license is automatically revoked.
Where Texas 30.05 CRIMINAL TRESPASS states:
(a) A person commits an offense if the person enters or remains on or in property of another, including residential land, agricultural land, a recreational vehicle park, a building, or an aircraft or other vehicle, without effective consent and the person:
(1) had notice that the entry was forbidden; or
(2) received notice to depart but failed to do so.
(b) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Entry" means the intrusion of the entire body.
(2) "Notice" means:
(A) oral or written communication by the owner or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner;
(B) fencing or other enclosure obviously designed to exclude intruders or to contain livestock;
(C)a sign or signs posted on the property or at the entrance to the building, reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, indicating that entry is forbidden;
(D) the placement of identifying purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property, provided that the marks are:
(i) vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width;
(ii) placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground or more than five feet from the ground; and
(iii) placed at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than:
(a) 100 feet apart on forest land; or
(b) 1,000 feet apart on land other than forest land; or
(E) the visible presence on the property of a crop grown for human consumption that is under cultivation, in the process of being harvested, or marketable if harvested at the time of entry.
So if you don't have consent and received notice (
written or oral) from the owner, then you are trespassing as they even give methods to convey such notice. However, the TPWD specifically states you cannot hunt on private property without consent and is a state felony for killing specified animals! Posting a gun-buster sign does not constitute trespassing unless you are asked to leave and refused to do so. And just as 30.05 requires notice against trespassing,
with specific requirements, so does 30.06.
That would be akin to posting a "No Trespassing" sign on your business door and calling the cops on certain customers just because you don't like the way they look. You could argue you posted the sign and they entered the store anyways but is that really enforceable?
