Nuisance Abatement Manual - 2005 - Texas Attorney General

Once a property is determined to be a common nuisance, and after a successful suit, it is
closed for a period of one year, unless the property owner posts a penal bond as required by the
statutes. If the property owner posts the bond and the illegal activity continues in violation of the
court order and in violation of the bond, the bond may be forfeited and the property will be mandatorily
closed for a period of one year. If a public nuisance is found to exist due to gang activity, civil
fines and jail terms for contempt of court may be imposed on those who violate the court orders.
In many instances, actual litigation is not required. When faced with the loss of income,
bonds adding up to thousands of dollars, and the threat of forfeiture of those bonds, many owners
enter into a voluntary abatement of the nuisance.
The nuisance laws can have a positive effect on locations that law enforcement agencies have
spent numerous manhours policing. In addition, law enforcement agencies may see large monetary
savings by reducing the need to respond to these locations in the future. In several instances, businesses
that have permitted illegal activity for years have been successfully closed, reducing the burden
on law enforcement as well as on the immediate community.
By denying criminal offenders the use of real property as a base of operations, and by securing
the property owner’s cooperation in the removal of criminal offenders, neighborhood revitalization
can become a reality. Our goal at the OAG is not to abandon other conventional methods of
law enforcement at these nuisance sites, but to supplement these efforts by providing an additional
tool to address illegal activity in Texas communities.
Nuisance Abatement Manual
2005 Fourteenth Edition
2
Office of the Attorney General
Criminal Law Enforcement Division