CHECKLIST: Before allowing access to TEXAS parcels

 

Before You Allow Access:

A Front-End Checklist for Landowners

Bare-minimum steps to complete before granting survey, repair, or hunting-lease access to land in Texas — so a friendly request today can’t turn into a claim on the land ten years from now.

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Applies to Every Tier Below, No Exceptions

• Nothing happens on a phone call alone — every agreement, even a small one, is a signed written document before entry.
• Every document states plainly that it creates no permanent right, easement, or right-of-way, and that it can be revoked.
• A map or written description defines exactly where they can go — never “the property” in general.
• A clear start date and end date — never open-ended or “until further notice.”
• Proof of insurance, naming the family as an additional insured, collected before entry — every time, every crew.
• A dated photo log of the relevant area before arrival and after departure.
• A written record of every visit — who came, when, and what they did.

Tier 1 — Survey Access Only

The original request. Complete all of these before the first visit.

1. Get the request in writing: company name, project name, project number.
2. Confirm who’s actually asking — call the company’s main office number (not just the caller’s cell) to verify the person and the project are real.
3. Get a real map or GPS coordinates showing the exact survey area — confirm it really is a small corner.
4. Sign a written Right-of-Entry Agreement before any entry, defining the exact area, the exact activity, and a hard end date.
5. Require 48–72 hours written notice before every visit, sent to a specific person, with a check-in on arrival.
6. Require the certificate of insurance before the first visit — not “we’ll send it later.”
7. Keep the signed agreement and all notices in one folder, physical and digital.

Tier 2 — Letting Them Roam and Repair Gates/Fences

Everything in Tier 1 still applies. Add these before any repair work.

1. Never let repair work or “checking things out” happen outside the exact survey area from Tier 1 — any wider area needs its own written amendment and map.
2. Get the repair offer in writing before it happens — exactly which gates, which fences, what materials, and when.
3. Take dated photos of every gate and fence before any repair, and again after.
4. State in writing that any repair work is a one-time, limited favor — not an ongoing service or relationship.
5. Never treat free repair work as an unspoken trade for broader access — more access always requires new paperwork.
6. Every crew member or subcontractor on the property must be named or covered by the same agreement and insurance.
7. Repeat the “this does not create any permanent right” statement in writing every time the scope changes, even slightly.

Tier 3 — If a Hunting or Deer Lease Comes Up

Treat this as a brand-new, completely separate matter — never an extension of the survey agreement.

1. Put it on its own written Hunting Lease Agreement, with its own signatures and its own payment — never folded into the survey paperwork.
2. Get a hunting-lease liability insurance certificate, naming the family as additional insured, before any hunter steps on the land.
3. Get a signed liability waiver from every individual hunter by name — not just from whoever organizes the lease.
4. Define the lease boundary specifically — which acres, clearly excluding the survey/pipeline corridor and any off-limits area.
5. Set a one-year term with required renewal and re-signing — never indefinite or auto-renewing.
6. Spell out the rules in writing: how many hunters, what vehicles, whether stands/blinds/feeders are allowed, and who closes gates.
7. Check with the county appraisal district first about whether a hunting lease affects any agricultural or wildlife-management tax valuation, to avoid a surprise tax bill.
8. Require a security deposit to cover any damage, and name who is responsible for gate and fence upkeep during the lease.
9. Ask for references — other landowners who’ve leased to this same person before.
10. Keep the survey relationship and the hunting-lease relationship on entirely separate footing, even if it’s the same person asking.

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The short version to repeat to family: nothing gets a “yes” — even a small one — without a signed paper defining exactly where, how long, and under what insurance, every single time the request changes. That is what keeps a friendly phone call from turning into a legal claim on the land a decade from now.