§ 80.002.Trespass

Two ways to commit the trespass, and the second is the one the chapter was written for.

A trespass occurs when an individual erects or places a sign on premises without the permission of the owner.

Or — after the expiration or termination of an agreement with the owner for the erection, placement, or maintenance of a sign, and before the expiration of the period described by the damages section — the individual fails to remove or abandons a sign or fails to obtain permission for the continued use or maintenance of it.

The holdover is the real problem. A billboard lease expires, the operator keeps renting the face to advertisers, and the landowner receives nothing while the structure continues to earn.

Removing a billboard is expensive and finding another site is harder, so an operator whose lease has lapsed has every commercial reason to stay put and negotiate slowly.

"Fails to remove or abandons" covers both the operator that stays and the one that walks away leaving the structure standing.

The cross-reference to the damages section is doing real work. The trespass is not complete until the notice period there has run, so a landowner must give the prescribed demand and wait before any trespass exists at all.