Easements for Power and Telephone Lines
I have a question about laws and procedures in America that I hope someone is familar with.
From my (very cursory) reading of posts here, it is customary for power lines, telephone lines, and the like traversing your property to have easements if they don’t service your structures. It is my understanding that such easements should be written into the title of a property.
My MA property title has no such easement, and I have 200′ of 2″ DIA telephone wiring + some cable TV wiring serving the block behind me snaking through the sky, across the yard.
I am hoping that I can persuade the power and pole comission to either run in the wires underground (I’ll provide the conduit, ditch witch, etc.) or that they can move their trunk line to come into the block along with the power line.
Any insights would be appreciated.
Replies
" It is my understanding that such easements should be written into the title of a property."
First of all a real property does not have a "title" as such. The title is the sum of ALL recorded instruments at the Recorder of Deeds (or whatever it called in your area).
What you are thinking about is the Deed, which is only used to transfer whatever rights that person has in the property. After it is recorded then the deed is worthless.
In the past property title was proven by an abstract, which was a copy of all of the papers recorded against that property in the past.
Now does it is done by a title search/insurance which list only those things that only appear to still be current.
With my very limited experience easements are often not written on the deed, but rather incorporated as separately recorded documents.
Your title search should have made reference to such documents.
Depending on the age, etc, you deed may read something like Lots 22 and 23, except the nothern 20 ft of lot 23 in the 3rd resurey of the Jones Addition as recorded on plat map on page 256, book 192.
Now that plat map might show the easement.
Or there might be completely separate documents that cover the whole development and say easement for utilites in Jones ADdition, 3rd resurvey, as shown on map xxxx.
Rots of Ruck on getting those burried and expect to pay BIG MONEY to have it done. And that is PLUS just puting in the conduit.
Putting in conduit is just a small part of undergrounding utilities. They would also have to pull in new cables and connect them to the existing cables. Since they won't interrupt service to customers further down the line, they'll have to do a cutover to make the switch. All in all, this is a pretty expensive proposition.
I know, that is why I said that it would be expensive, even if he provided the conduit and trench.A 2" phone cable has more than a couple of pairs in it.
Tell me about it. - lol
I did telecom outside plant engineering for almost 10 yrs.
You want to come over and fix my line?We had bad rains and the voice is completely out, but DSL is still up and running.
I wouldn't have a clue about how to fix it. My "expertise" was designing and building conduit systems - and getting the cables pulled in. Everything after that was black magic and voodoo.
I'm surprised that you lost voice but kept your DSL. If I'm not mistaken, a DSL line is just a POTS pair with some kind of electronic do-hickies at the CO and your SNI that allow the pair to carry digital and voice signals. If something takes out the pair, you would lose both...........I think. - lol
I am and electrical engineer, but I don't know much of the details of DSL. One of these days I am going to get my scope out and look at the signals. But is does use high frequency tones. I think in the several 100 khz range. Now the high frequencies are easier to attenuate. In fact on the the basic requires is that you use a filter at each phone (or as I did install a splitter just past the SNI) so that the phone does not load down the DSL signal.But, just guessing, I think that is not affected by the unbalanced circuit (grounding of one side) like the voice is.
Sounds good to me, Bill, but I'm a mechanical engineer. How much of what you wrote is actually english?? - lol
When I was in grad school I taught a class in electrical engineering for the non-EE's, but all of the ME's sleep through it <G>.
On the legal end, the advise you were given is right. Easements (right to use the land) are mostly recorded separately from deeds (ownership of the land). The thing that is important is what was recorded with the local government - typically the county. Since these "rights" last forever, you need to see what the prior owners had agreed to. That's why it was recorded, so that everyone would know - forever - as long as they took time to look it up.
The general rule is that if no easement is recorded, they have no right to cross your property. Your title search would very likely show an easement; but not always. I've seen some where the utility easement was not picked up - especially if it served the house itself. Talk to the lawyer that represented you when you bought the property (You did have one, right?) and go over the title search.
If the utility co. has an easment, then they can usually run their wires above ground or under, as they wish, unless there are restrictions in the document itself. Good luck getting them to change it. They want to see what they own, it's easier to service.
I have exactly that problem now, I checked and there is no easement for my neighbors powerlines across my property. yet I need to spend thousands getting a court order that I have almost no way to enforce..
I go to court on July 5 for attempting to take matters in my own hands..
Lawyers don't want to handle this because it's to petty unless I leave at least $2000 in their trust account and promise to promptly keep it tothose levels. Nobody yet has given me a cost to get things done.. just give the lawyers an open check book...
PS there is a 1985 state law that says that all power lines need an easement but the city ignores it, they claim everything is grandfathered in.. so first I fight city hall then I fight the neighbor and finally I get to fight with the power line company..
Have you looked into your state regulatory agency or public utility commission?
I have the same situation because of where they put the pole for me and my neighbor due to a tree that is no longer there. I got a copy of the the utility's easement from when they granted the franchise and it is fairly specific.
I'm just not going to fight the battle until I get my new service installed.
Check with the local registrar of deeds or whatever (usually a county function). They should have the plat maps and associated papers that spell out the easements, assuming this is a "subdivided" area.
Beyond that, most states have "adverse possession", meaning that if someone uses your property for NN years, it becomes theirs (or, in this case, the easement becomes theirs). This generally applies even if you just bought the property one day short of the time period -- what happened under the prior owner counts towards the NN years.
Constantin:
I am an engineering project manager for a telecommunications company in Kentucky and have many years of experience in matters such as yours. There are two things that you should look: (1) If your property is a parcel or lot in a subdivision, the utility easements were mostly likely granted and recorded on the original subdivision plat when the developer
went to record with their plans. (2) If your property is not part of a subdivision and you purchased the property with visible utilities already in place, the utility companies will claim prescriptive rights to be were they are. (3) In Kentucky, the power utility companies can exercise eminent domain powers to remain where they are.
If you want the utilities relocated, you will most likely have to pay the construction cost. Occasionally, if the utility companies have scheduled a replacement or upgrade project in your area they may alter their plans for aerial placement to place buried facilities at no cost to you.
Stan