Land Owners Rights vs. Power Company Right of Way

The use of eminent domain by gas companies is a different issue than what you stated. You stated that the Power companies were selling access for pipelines based on an easement they have for electric lines.

Mike

Welcome POM!!! Hope you enjoy our company.

We have huge power lines crossing our place. As in held up by those 4-legged metal towers - which are on either side of our place. Luckily, no poles are on our property. I have just made sure that a 16 ft wide truck can get to the power lines. A cattle panel makes a good gate for that. If they have to get in - they can. (so can the hay-maker's tractors). Other than that, don't plant anything under that can't survive being driven over many times.

Do look at your easement statements, but I see no problem with grazing animals or having a garden there. You might as if they use sprays to keep the vegetation back. Don't put a building under the lines.

Most blanket easements have language that gives the easement holder the legal right to sublet the easement to any and every Tom, Dick, and Harry for any and all purposes, and the property owner has NO recourse.

An easement on your property is a right for someone to use your property for a specific function. But, you still own the property. They just own the equipment on your property to conduct that function.

You say that there is a (sic) "designated as a legal easement for the power lines". Whether it's a written or unwritten (ie. prescriptive) easement, the power company likely has a right to use and maintain those power lines. The manner which it uses and maintains the power lines is up to the power company, practically speaking. You can always take the power company to court and dispute every little thing that the power company does, but it has more money than most of us to spend on it.

Definitely get a copy of the easement and look for anything unusual. Practically speaking, you might just want to call up the power company and talk to the "Power Company Lineman" (I forget what they call themselves) for your location and ask him what is usually acceptable. These guys just want to get their job done and get along with the folks. They're the guys who will do whatever it takes to accomplish their maintenance. I don't think that they 'll willfully damage your property, though.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm just being practical. Good luck.

Stann, the person to get ahold of is the "land agent".

Mike

It's easiest to make hay or other crops on land like this. Every 10-30 years it might get driven on - they will have a right to access their poles. They also have the right/obligation to control weeds and trees on that easement, so they may spray if you aren't using it.

No way will the easement get moved. You think your neighbor wants the poles? You know how many $$$ that would be for 'someone' to pay? What are you thinking?

The company has the use of the land to maintain & operate their electric line. You have some limited use of the land that won't interfere with the power lines.

Some of that will be written down in the wording of the easement, so start by getting a copy of the easement. It should be on your deed.

Fencing and so forth sometimes works fine, sometimes it's a trouble. Depends on your individual easement wording & the utility you are dealing with.

--->Paul

You can grow anything you want on the ROW... however, IF they need to access the ROW for whatever reason, they'd be within their rights.

You can go off grid if you want to (which is a very expensive proposition especially if your on grid now)... but ROW's pretty much last forever. When you bought your property (if you got title insurance) there should be a listing of all encumbrances, including ROW's.

Someone, in the past, granted the easements for the power lines... either granted, or were condemned into easements... and those agreements supersede later owner's wishes.

I can do anything I want on the land under my power line easements. I even built a lake under a power line... luckily one of their sets of poles was on a peninsula that sticks out in the lake... They didn't necessarily like it, but I showed them how to access the lake locked pole... now there's no problem. Only thing I cant do is build permanent buildings. Could probably get away with a goat shed, but don't necessarily want goats congregating under the wires that much.... and the once a year visit by hispanics wanting to mow the row... they look at the lake, and I tell them they need to make sure to mow those underwater weeds growing under their lines...

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Hi Mike,
What's the "land agent"? The person that I spoke with, in my own situation, was the actual "Lineman", who worked the power lines. I don't remember them using that term. Are they the same?

I can't speak specifically for NY, but I am sure they are similar to CA. You need to get a copy of the easement. You need to read the "words" of the easement. This will tell what can be done within the easement. It will also state what the utility easement can do with the easement. It must be specific. If they do anything other than what is written, you may have recourse to be paid for that specific use. Your chances of having the easement abandoned is likely nill. Also, I am concerned about my health and the health of my family, but there are no bonifide studies that prove EMFs are health hazards. I have worked for years as an appraiser in CA working on easement acquisitions. I work for both sides, so I don't have a prejudice one way or another. Maybe one day there will be studies showing adverse conditions, but as of now there are no reliable studies showing EMFs are hazardous. Believe me, if there were I would use them.

Citilivin,
Hope you don't mind me asking, but I curious, how do you appraise the value of a power line easement. My property has no written easement (ie. prescriptive) and a power line through it, and I know it'll never be given up.

I don't want to give details, sorry. Can you provide a general idea of a power line easement's value? Any way for an amateur (myself) to look it up? Thanks.

Your thread title indicates that there's a right-of-way, while your post says it's an easement. From what you said the utility companies evidently have an easement.

The provisions of the easement will be spelled-out in the granting document. If it's a right-of-way then the utility companies would have taken right-of-way by either statutory right or by order of a court, without your granting anything. In the case of a right-of-way, the provisions will be spelled out in the laws of your particular state, or in the granting court order.

I'm reminded of a time when a neighbor and I were watching the phone company prepare to run a new service trunk along a property line. The neighbor asked, "Where's it going to go?" The phoneco guy replied, "We have a 6-foot right-of-way right through here [pointing along the property line]."

The neighbor countered, "In the first place it's 4 feet, not 6 feet. In the second place it's mine, not yours. I only let you use it. Finally, it's an easement, not a right-of-way, and there IS a difference."

It's always good to know what you're talking about.

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Also known as Right of Way Agent or Real Estate Services Agent.

Most utility easements, (powerline, gas line, sewer, water, telephone) have a stipulation that grants a temporary easement for construction and repair that is half the width of the permanent easement.

The land agent is the person or department for the utility that is responsible for handling rights of way, easements, relations with property owners, etc. They may also be responsible for dealing/contracting with the subcontractors that keep the ROW clear of growth, etc.

So basically everything to do with land dealings.

Mike

Different states, depends on the particular Company and what title they have for that person.

Plain Old Mike,

I promise you that the electric (or gas) companies do not care if you are off grid or not. We've been off grid since we built our log cabin in 1991. Last summer, after a long eminent domain battle now sitting in the Ohio Supreme Court, the electric spent $128,000 (by their figures of $8,000/half day X 8 full 10-hour days) to cut down over 100 of our trees along 1500', is required to pay us $54,000, which we have only received half to date, not to mention the $100,000+ in our legal fees for which we have never been reimbursed, no doubt twice that for them, and all because we told them we would not grant them an easement unless it was underground across our property. It would have cost less than $35,000 to trench the line underground (at consumer cost and including labor) and the line extension was for the electric company's telecommunication tower, so they were their own customer, which would obviously been a lot less. And there would be no trees to keep trimmed.

The AEP engineer told DH last summer while staking that they could have easily buried the line, but that they intended to "make an example out of you people."

I talked to a local guy today who his beginning a battle with them. They are re-routing lines to in front of his home and he had paid to have all existing lines buried when he bought the place. He told of a story where the electric company removed a pole from near an abandoned (but liveable) house on their own, then charged the next inhabitant $1,200 to re-run the line and set a pole back to the house.

The short of it is, they are the power gods and they make sure you know it. They were so arrogant as to completely ignore the permit process for working in a public roadway. I have filed a citizen's complaint against them and it is pending. The township trustees had told them it would have to be buried, but they would also first have to get our permission.

We never wanted anything to do with their money. We just want our trees and our once scenic landscape back. 7 poles now are in our pasture fields and still surrounded by 80-100-foot tall trees. If we can ever afford to move our next place will have NO easements or leases or right-of-ways of any kind.

These companies are so far from green. Look around. Wires everywhere. Could that be the "web" the Hopi's refer to? (or is it this one?)

I wish I was more enlightening to your inquiry.

mamagoose

Hoop said it plain and simple. Kudos to Hoop.

You bought land with an easement. If you had bought land away from a road that had an easement for access to that road across someone else's property, you would fight tooth and nail to keep that easement, and you would likely win. Easements are legal and they serve a legitimate purpose.

If you bought property that had an easement for an abandoned railroad line, and the railroad decided to start operations back up again and run a train every hour of the day, you would have to deal with that. Easements are legal and they serve a legitimate purpose.

It all comes back to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Do your homework when buying land or anything else. Other folks expect you to do so. If you don't like the power line, sell your property and buy property that doesn't have an easement.

Our property has an easement for a street, a power line, a phone line, and a water line. We bought knowing of those easements. I have no intention of cutting off anyone else's phone, power, water, or access to assuage my sense of aesthetics. As a conservative, I tend to think before I buy.

we watched the electric company clear out 15 feet of beautiful trees straight through our new neighbors a few years ago, but when they started in on the super rich people's trees across from us they only made it to two trees before they were forced to stop by the owner.

Six months after that the electric came to my door and said, we're going to run poles down your property by the road because it's easier for us, OK ?

I said, never in a million years will you get easement from us, use the one you already have across the street. And they acted like I was just a mean old lady.

Easement rights are abused and I would avoid them at all cost.

Ask the power company. Read the easement. I did both. Ours would dearly love us to fence it and pasture there. I don't because it is too far from our other pastures and they won't help pay for the fencing. So they end up having to mow it since I won't allow them to use herbicides. I have that control. I don't get power from them. Wish I did get some sort of lease payment. Bummer. I pay the taxes even. Their high tensile lines make the land useless for much of anything other than Christmas tress, pasture or wildlife. So wildlife it is.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

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Good thread to post! For those who haven't purchased yet, or who are currently dealing with challenges in knowing more about the easements on their land, there is excellent info being posted

When I married DH, I started reading his paperwork, including Title Report. I was very disappointed to learn there were a road easement that was 20 feet from the edge of two of the sides (beautiful row of 30 foot trees growing in the easement that will someday be logged), an easement for the Community Well (serving 6 families) on his property, and easements along the water line that ran across 25% of the property. Since BSA's require a primary drainfield and a secondary drainfield for the septic system, and setback from the well of 150 feet? I determined there was no place to build on his 1.04 acre parcel! Since there was a single wide mobile, put in back in the 1970s (with roof over it), and a garage next to it, those were grandfathered in. Then I also discovered the mineral rights had been sold, too. Around here, you can buy plenty of properties with mineral rights intact! I submitted a BSA and it was approved, due to the grandfathered location of the mobile home. If not for that, the property wasn't buildable! We put it up for sale, but it didn't sell, so we rented it out.

Then, we bought our current property. Out of 6.68 acres, only easement is along one edge for a power pole (with driveway not on our land). Our power lines are underground. We own the mineral rights and happily don't have the common wetland issues.

Great idea on the lake, Texican!

Here in WA, Adverse Possession would make an easement for a power co if the line is on your property for 10 years. They wouldn't have to buy it.

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