Request for power pole easement

[wheeezil]

I recieved a letter form the owner of the propery next to mine with a enclosed easement consent form. They state that the power company requires them to obtain the easment before they will do the estimate. I do not know these people therefore I am unwilling to sign a blind easement granting access across my property until I see all the facts ie. neighbors agreements where the proposed powerlines will go, I also want to make sure that the easement continues across their property in the same manner so that the property next to theirs is granted equal access. I do not want to hold up progress of their homestead. I just want it to be good for everybody involved. Do you think I am unreasonable? The distance to pull across my land
is a half mile and from the other direction a mile.

[james dilley]

I would call the power company and ask them whats up.

[jassytoo]

You're not being unreasonable at all, just smart. I wouldn't sign anything either until I knew every single detail of whats going on. I'd talk to the power co. myself and double check what your neighbors say. Then I'd have the paper work looked over by a lawyer. Once you sign, you're stuck, like it or not.

[Cosmic]

Would not be in any big hurry to sign. Lot of people would have to provide enough info to make me totally comfortable.

Remember, you don't need the wires, nothing really positive in it for you. Potential could be a lot of negatives. Somebody tell me again, why I want your wires in my way and maybe a lot of future hassles.

[Bluecreekrog]

I'm fairly sure that if they are putting in power, the power co will make them sign an easement or they won't put it in. In my case I only needed to pass 20 feet from the pole on my neighbors property and I had to sign an easement allowing them inspection access to all poles on my property. There were already several across the back field but his was closer. My line is underground.

[Nature_Lover]

wheeezil you have a PM

[MaryNY]

This could mean you will be granting the power company road access as well -- to drive on your property, along that easement, to inspect/fix/mess with the poles they put up -- then what if they want to put up some of those bigger towers -- then what if (in 20/30 years) they want a permanent road or a power plant building . . . etc.??? What if the "lend" or "share" their easement with the telephone company or cable company or water company or ????

Oh, and those easements will continue with your property forever once you sign that they are okay. They will probably affect the value of your property, too, in the long run. That should be taken into consideration. Are you being offered any monetary compensation??

I second the idea that you should call the power company to see what's up; and then call a lawyer. Don't sign anything unless your lawyer says you should. Good luck!

MaryNY

[crystalniche]

Please for your own sake be very, very careful! If it were me I would not do it. The telephone company had an easement on our driveway when we first moved here and what a mess that was. Whenever they would come to work on their equiment they would block our driveway for hours. After a few years the equipment became obsolete and they dissolved the easement. The power company now has an easement for a pole and they at times will come up and block our driveway. This happens whenever a squirrel gets into the transformer----yes, we have a transformer in our front yard. We are way off the road and the pole is up in our driveway. It exploded one time and we were warned not to go outside because of PCB's in the air. What about our animals? Well----. Also, the power and other lines cross our neighbors' properties, their power comes off this line too. One neighbor was having some work done and the equipment operator accidently took down the cable tv line. Another neighbor had a temper fit, really, really angry because his cable went out and his tv wasn't working! It was accidently done but he didn't care----he was missing his soaps! The cable company here is really good. They had it fixed that day but even that wasn't good enough for him. An easement can cause all kinds of problems, make your property worth less and harder to sell if you should ever want to. It can also cause a neighborhood dispute like the cable incident did.

[crystalniche]

Oh, I forgot to mention---once you give then an easement for the poles then everyone uses them Telephone, power and cable. When they work on the lines they drop short pieces of wire that can cause injury to an animal especially if they swallow it when grazing. After they work on the wires in our yard we go out there and pick up all these little pieces of wire they dropped. Their trucks are big and heavy and damage your land leaving ruts and cracks. We know this because we have had it happen here. They don't fix it either.

[decamper]

I bought a piece of property last year and wanted electricity on it this year. I had to sign an easement; it was just giving the power company permission to set foot on the property. That covers them, I gave them permission to be on my property, that they are not trespassing. Of course, I would advise reading the paperwork to make sure that is all that they are asking.

[lacyj]

You need to find out, what trees they will be cutting down or toping. If trees grow tall around the lines, who will be trimming them in the future.
You can say that lines can only go under ground. It will cost your neighbor alot more, but very few trees will be affected. It may keep other companies from using the same path.

[Michael W. Smith]

Ok, I'm going to play devil's advocate. Put yourself in the place of the neighbor wanting electricity. How would you feel if your neighbor denied you access to electricity. Now granted, it would have been nice if the neighbor would have come over and introduced themselves and explained what they wanted. I would go introduce yourself to the neighbor, and see what they have in mind. Once that has been done, if you do decide to help your neighbor out, contact the power company to make sure you can tell them where YOU want the power line to be. If this isn't a problem, then you can look into signing the agreement.


I'm assuming that the neighbor hasn't built a house yet, and that is why they are looking into it. What if you had bought a piece of property and planned to homestead on it, only to find out your neighbor wasn't willing to let the power line come through. Also, do you really want to known in the neighborhood as somebody willing to deny electricity to someone?

Please don't take this the wrong way. I certainly wouldn't want to sign anything without knowing if the power company is just going to put the poles where they see is the easiest access or not. As for the few people who have had bad luck with power companies, I just don't see this being a problem. Chances are, once the line is up, nothing will have to be done to it for 25 years or more. However, this could very well be a thread on here as well "Neighbor refuses to let the power company cross his line. How can I get electricity." and the majority of people here would say how callous and uncaring the neighbor was. Every story has 2 sides!

[antiquestuff]

Don't sign it. Read enough of the threads here over easement problems and it'll be clear...and, besides, is going through your property the only way they can get power? they cannot go around you somehow?

[littlebitfarm]

My property already had power easements when I bought it. They come in and drive through the pasture "to check their lines". Lines that can be seen from the road. No asking permission, no worrying about what livestock could be hiding in the tall grass as they drive. They come and chop trees down to the ground, not just trim them and then leave all the branches laying around for floodwaters to deposit in my fences or poison livestock with the dead cherry leaves.

I won't sign another easement here!

Kathie

[jassytoo]

I see Michaels point, but the neihbor would have been smart to make sure he had an easement before he bought the property. You have to take care of your own place, easements can affect property values. We had bought and sold quite a few pieces of land over the years and personally I wouldn't t buy one with an easement over it. We have some property now that has 2 easements to it over a neighboring property. They are for access and also for utilities. The utilities are required to be underground, which is something you might want to think about if you decide to go for it. The land owner in our case can move the roads providing he pays to move utilities and replaces roads to the same standard they were before.

[norris]

If I bought a piece of property that didn't have the utility easements I wanted, I would expect to get that property at a discount that reflects it.
If I did and a neighbor was generous enough to grant an easement, I would be very thankful. I have offered money for an easement before, it's the right thing to do. I have granted easements for free too, but was very careful the power company would not inconvenience me in any way.

The power company will try to make the wording as broad as possible, that is a foregone conclusion. If you don't understand easements and contracts I would at least demand they reimburse you for legal consultation, about $500.

In most cases you can demand that the wording only allows them very limited rights and they usually go along with it. That's the best solution if you can negotiate and understand it.

[Windy in Kansas]

It sounds to me like you are in the driver's seat and in control at this point.

As a way to get along and help out a neighbor, how about allowing a NON-STANDARD easement allowing the electrical provider rights of access for ONLY 20 feet or so at the edge of your property? Also that they must maintain signs of non-standard easemnt notice on their poles so that linemen will not just drive wherever they wish. Also that ONLY the electrical provider have easement and cannot extend the easement to other utilities such as cable television, telephone, etc.

Perhaps limit the maximum line voltage that can cross your property thus limiting the strength of electro-magnetic fields.

I can think of a number of ways to accommodate your neighbor but still be pretty much in control of your property. I would try to get along, but only on my terms.