Two, three years ago an internet provider exercised its easement rights and tore up a bunch of yards in my neighborhood.

The jefe (yep, none of them spoke English) assured me they'd repair my yard and put my rock garden back in order. They did not. They left a huge mess, such as, just throwing the excavated dirt on top of the rocks, etc.

Now we've got an upstart/new internet company and the utilities people have been putting their flags, spray painting the ground...

They're going to tear up the same route as the other morons. And just a few days ago, I laid sod just where they'll dig. The sod hasn't even taken root yet.

I don't think that back in Thomas Jefferson's day, went they included easements in the Constitution, they anticipated internet companies.

H.o.a.'s and easements,
Don't get me started

We just got fiber in our neighborhood. Overall little disruption, but we have ditches on both sides of the street with a concrete runner along the bottom.

The dig crew cause small settling/subsidence areas where they dug, so really hard to mow there, and they displaced the curbs along the runner a the bottom of the ditch.
No expectation that they'll come back to fix any of it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P250UA5,

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
We just got finber in our neighborhood.

I had to look up "finber." All I got was a history of a family tree for a family named "Finber."

But google asked, "Did you mean 'fiber.'

I guess that's what you meant.

But, yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

We got lucky here in our tiny town. Fiber (finber?) Optic was installed using horizontal boring, very little surface digging, and none in my yard.

quote:

Originally posted by Biker_dude:
Two, three years ago an internet provider exercised its easement rights and tore up a bunch of yards in my neighborhood.

I've got a crisp $100 bill that says it was subcontractor, subsubcontractor, or even further contractually removed from the fiber company.

My beef with the fiber companies is the ridiculous amount of subcontracting they allow/encourage. A few years back, the main suburban city with the restaurant and retail hub hired a fiber company to bring fiber to older neighborhoods, and no surprise at all at least once a month their crews were hitting gas mains, water mains, sewer mains, and that's just the strikes that made the news due to evacuations/closures. The news dug into one of the strikes and the miniHDD crew was a subsubsubsubsubsubsubcontractor to the fiber company. On top of that, the miniHDD company had zero assets as it was all leased. When a homeowner calls to complain that is 7 levels of contractual finger pointing and excuse making, and it's no wonder the homeowner never gets any satisfaction.

My retired neighbor who looks quite mean and muscular sat in a lounge chair and supervised. They were more than careful.

You have little to no recourse. I assume you have a copy of the easement. Read it carefully to see if they are obligated to restore the land to it's original condition. But that would be unusual.

These easement holders will always have the right of access for maintenance and repair, whatever that might entail. I have seen situations where homeowners had built asphalt and even concrete driveways over them and were left with having to fix them at their expense after utility companies went in and tore them up to fix a line.

These easements should never be taken lightly.

The fiber guys in particular seem to nut themselves over damaging yards. They think it’s cute or something. Drive a 20k truck pole to pole rather using the street. All of them in old trucks and street clothes. Fly by night companies grabbing those tax dollar subsidies.

Prodigy, the small local fiber company here, had a machine that moved forward knifing a deep slit in the ground, inserting conduit with fiber inside, then mashing the slit down. It only left much of a disturbance where large rocks were pulled up. I only spent around 3 hours moving rocks and touching it up with a little dirt.

I was happy to get fiber and how they did it because I figured they would make a mess with a Ditch Witch or back hoe.

quote:

Originally posted by Biker_dude:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
We just got finber in our neighborhood.

I had to look up "finber." All I got was a history of a family tree for a family named "Finber."

But google asked, "Did you mean 'fiber.'

I guess that's what you meant.

But, yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Post edited. Swear android autocorrect has gotten useless...

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
We got lucky here in our tiny town. Fiber (finber?) Optic was installed using horizontal boring, very little surface digging, and none in my yard.

Same here, and overall it was fine. But at the road where we have a ditch, there is land disturbance, mostly on the house side, street side is ok & minor slides/subsidence resulting in not only ugly but messy when it rains.

As Todd said above, probably a sub of a sub of a sub...

I recently got Spectrum cable, faster & cheaper than previous provider. With all that have been here, I’ve never seen the same guy twice.

After the cable was buried, they kept texting about coming to bury my cable. After the cable was buried for weeks, another guy pulled in to bury the cable. I asked, ‘doesn’t anyone talk to anyone’? Not sure how they coordinated anything.

On top of that they cut my dog wire, after telling 2 and marking it. I fixed it myself.

My sister has an easement behind her house, she’s always grousing with them, writing letters. Her easement was there before she bought, plus she plants trees right in it. I just almost laugh about it. I gave up telling her to plant outside the easement.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:

My sister has an easement behind her house, she’s always grousing with them, writing letters. Her easement was there before she bought, plus she plants trees right in it. I just almost laugh about it. I gave up telling her to plant outside the easement.

In my power company days I witnessed a lot of arguments about cutting trees that were interfering with the power lines . Why do people plant trees under power lines and then get pissed years down the road when it becomes an issue ? Yeah , I've seen some contractors do some hack jobs but it usually turns out that the tree shouldn't have been there in the first place .

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
After the cable was buried, they kept texting about coming to bury my cable. After the cable was buried for weeks, another guy pulled in to bury the cable. I asked, ‘doesn’t anyone talk to anyone’? Not sure how they coordinated anything.

The cable bury in my back yard [and my neighbor's when he upped to fiber] was the best run part of the process. Guy showed up, spent 20 minutes in the back & was done.
He had a flat blade tool to make a slit to push the cable into & didn't make any mess of the yard.

I’d roll that sod back up and water it til they’re done. They have zero respect. I’ve chased them out of my yard before for coming in and saying they just want to do a little this, a little that. Too many trees killed by incompetence, so unless I see something that writes it out exactly, they can kiss my ass. Btw, my trees were there before the power lines. Property is over 100 years in my family, and we didn’t have power lines back then.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
I’d roll that sod back up and water it til they’re done. They have zero respect. I’ve chased them out of my yard before for coming in and saying they just want to do a little this, a little that. Too many trees killed by incompetence, so unless I see something that writes it out exactly, they can kiss my ass. Btw, my trees were there before the power lines. Property is over 100 years in my family, and we didn’t have power lines back then.

If there's an easement now it doesn't matter who was there first .

The cable company coming to extend to our neighborhood during COVID - which we desperately needed/wanted - could do most of the work - but not all - in the HOA-owned property along the roadside. Where they needed access to non HOA property, they had a crazy easement document they needed owners to sign before they'd start work.

The HOA had me review the doc, which was....let's just say, interesting. One aspect: no limits on how big the installation could be, or what the purpose. I told the HOA that 'that doc would let them put up a new regional HQ building on your property for free' and of course I recommended they push back on that and some other odd aspects.

I don't know what the HOA did after my comments as they didn't make me sign anything (we're close enough to the HOA roadside property there'd be no need to access my property) and a few weeks later the work started.

One bright morning, there are some folks 300 feet from the road, 250' inside my property boundary, toiling away between my house and the downhill neighbor. I ask who they are and what they're doing....They're from the cable company putting in a pedestal to serve my house and the neighbor. Hmmmm.....

Turns out the cable geniuses decided a) they wanted to put a pedestal between my house and the neighbors (saved them money?), b) they didn't tell anyone else, c) didn't check to see if they had an easement, and d) went ahead anyway.

Did I argue? Did I complain? No, because I wanted the service, and the tiny little access pedestal's not an issue. So it's all good - got the service and I don't have an easement

Them not having an easement....might complicate their lives if they ever tick me off enough to raise the issue.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
Them not having an easement....might complicate their lives if they ever tick me off enough to raise the issue.

Not much oil & gas in NC so I have zero NC experience.

However, generally speaking from working with landmen and attorneys for o&g projects in 20+ other states, time works in their favor and it eventually becomes an undocumented easement (i.e. I have seen zero older assets removed despite lack of easement) and either the parties need to agree to its terms or use the legal system (e.g. arbitration or courts) to define its terms. Having much leverage as landowner even less likely if the fiber is considered "common carrier" by the FCC.

I'm not an attorney or landman so consult a NC attorney for your exact situation.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
I’d roll that sod back up and water it til they’re done. They have zero respect. I’ve chased them out of my yard before for coming in and saying they just want to do a little this, a little that. Too many trees killed by incompetence, so unless I see something that writes it out exactly, they can kiss my ass. Btw, my trees were there before the power lines. Property is over 100 years in my family, and we didn’t have power lines back then.

If there's an easement now it doesn't matter who was there first .

Huh. Well, either way they became very respectful after they reviewed the platting, and now they ask before entering. I installed a lift gate just for these folks at my own expense, so they’ve no need to walk through the front, but no one seems to remember that. I have no problem with being respectful to those who are respectful with me, and I absolutely understand they’re here to do a job. I do have a problem with people who wander on my property and act like they own it, and they have the authority of “x” to do what they want. I’ve had 2-3 trees killed by fools who had no idea what they were doing, and pretended they knew better.
Know how to trim a tree without destroying it, and we will all get along better.

50’ gas main easement right through the back yard. A 20” gas main replaced a few years ago… what a mess. They used every inch of their easement, and then some. Black walnut & riverbirch trees ripped up (ground down to just below grade so every time it gets dry the grass dies), landscaper screwed up the fence (shorter and bottom slat right on the ground). The kicker was an abandoned propane line through the corner of the property. They workers parked their trucks in my side yard on it one day…I lost my shit! I made many calls, it dint happen again. It was August til they were done. They planted grass, twice. It took 3 years for it to look “normal”. 4 years later and the ground has settled, about a 2’ deep depression in the middle. Idiots. The internet line they ripped up 3 times.