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Cochran County commissioners approve platting for Bledsoe land scam.
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At their February meeting, the Cochran County, Texas Commissioners Court approved the platting for three new subdivisions located in the barren sandhills south of Bledsoe near the Texas-New Mexico state line. The land is virtually worthless for any useful purpose, including farming or ranching, and the area has been the source of several land scams over the past 40 years. It consists of rolling sandhills and scrub, no source of water, no utilities, and is basically a semi-arid wasteland.
The approved platting is on top of over 800 acres of similarly situated property that the Commissioners Court previously approved. The perpetrators of the land scam presented the county commissioners with plats showing alleged road easements and lots ranging in size from one to 20 acres. Cochran County Attorney Jay Adams, accompanied by Levelland attorney Chris Dennis who represented the landowners, told the Commissioners Court that all paperwork was in order and the plats met the minimum state requirements. The commissioners approved the plats with the stipulation that the county would not be responsible for providing roads, utilities, or emergency services to the alleged subdivisions.
While the paperwork for the plats may have met the minimum legal requirements, the description of the land is being misrepresented in eBay auctions and on other internet websites. To put it simply, a fraud is being perpetrated against unsuspecting buyers because the paperwork that allows it to be carried out meets the state's minimum requirements. Cochran County Judge James Sinclair, a Republican, and the Republican-dominated Commissioners Court are well aware of the condition of this land and the scheme that is taking place right under their noses, but insist that as far as they're concerned it's all nice and legal. Apparently, the governing body of this rural county is willing to grasp at whatever straw they can in order to try and stem the tide of continuing economic and population decline.
According to anonymous information I received, just this past week the Bledsoe Baptist Church came to the rescue of a California family that had purchased a one-acre lot in one of the alleged subdivisions for $1200. I would be surprised if the land had an appraised value of more than $100 an acre. The family was living in a hole in the ground with a camper-shell top over it. The children were enrolled in the Whiteface School District, and school officials reported that the children were unbathed and that they complained of the primitive living conditions and lack of water where they lived. Fortunately, the Bledsoe Baptist Church stepped up and helped relocate them to decent housing in Whiteface.
How many more people will be ripped off or find themselves and their children stranded in the middle of nowhere before this land fraud is shutdown? Not only are people being robbed of their money, but children are being put at risk as well. This must stop now.
3 comments
If the land is properly described, and is legally divided, how can the sale of it be called a scam? The author of the above article seems to think that any subdividing and selling of the land outside Bledsoe is a scam. Why?
The $100 to $200 per acre value is applicable to this type of land when it is sold in larger denominations. Once the land has been legally split into smaller denominations, such as 1 acre instead of 160 acres, the value goes up tremendously.
This land outside Bledsoe is nice for rural Texas land. There are electric lines in the area, good access to the parcels via existing dirt roads and recorded easements, excellent paved roads leading to the dirt roads, and beautiful views in all directions.
The story about the family living in the small dirty trailer is disheartening. These stories exist all over the country and world. Even in our nation’s most developed cities, people live in desperate, filthy conditions, by choice and also out of necessity.
The bottom line is, if the land is properly described when sold, there is not any scam occurring.
You say, "there are electrical lines in the area." Yes, and you may have to string the wires a mile or more to connect with any of them. You say there is good access to the lots via existing dirt roads. Yes, there are a few dirt tracks through the area, but it's a stretch to call them "roads." And those recorded easements you mentioned are paper phantoms that don't exist on the ground. So be prepared with GPS, four-wheel-drive vehicle and maybe even a bulldozer or road grader to plow your way through the sandhills to stake claim to your new home site.
I also have information that the "developers" of these subdivisions wanted to name one of them "Lubbock Suburbs", even though Lubbock is over 65 miles away. I don't have a problem with people selling worthless land, just so long as the people who are buying it are fully aware of its true value. Ambiguities and misrepresentations are not what I consider to be full disclosure and proper description.
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