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Easement Issues
Easement Issues
I have my plat of survey that shows that I have a utility easement of 10 feet the title commitment reads a 10 foot easement as well. I have an electrical pedestal on my property over the 10 foot easment so I contacted the electrical company and they are telling me its a 12 foot easment. Why wouldn??t there be an a difference and what would be the next steps getting this pedestal moved?
- 18 Replies
Make them prove it.
Adjust your personal perspective & expectation of the importance in your mind of that 2 feet.
That??s 2 feet is my property correct? 2 feet is 2 feet. The electric company showed me their survey which shows 12 foot easment
So the surveyor got back to me there is a 12 foot public utility easement over the 10 foot electrical easement. What are my next steps here since the 12 foot easement wasn’t noted on my survey. Can i still get this moved? What are my options since the survey was incorrect?
Make a claim with the Title Company if you have an owners policy and they didn’t include the PUE in the exceptions.
You mean how much insurance money does the surveyor have?
Sorry I changed my off the cuff reply.
It takes cash to sue people.
i think your claim is against the TC
Interesting dilemma. I had a similar issue with my current house. The lazy and incompetent contractor whom was hired to install the natural gas lines( prior to my ownership) just went willy nilly and left the PUE stated in the Plat, and out more than 10+ feet. When I was considering my purchase, I opted to get an Improvement Survey Plat(ISP) to define elevation etc, and all existing easements, setbacks etc, for future building( and because the garage was awfully damn close to the setbacks…) When I saw the easement was clearly violated, I just called the Gas company, talked with them politely, and mentioned that I was planning on extending my garage 12 feet, but they had exited their easement, and that was preventing my planning and development of my property. They asked me if I was sure, and I replied, ” Yes, I have a survey, and the original PUD that was filed with the easements and exhibits”… to share with them.
They showed up with a crew the following week, dug a new trench, moved the gas line for the entire neighborhood, and that was that. Lawsuits are expensive. They took care of it with the cheapest most effective way possible.
Good luck.
At most you would probably get a refund on your survey and they would have to correct their original or pay for a new survey.
Most Title Insurance Policies have everything plausible disclaimed, so good luck in that respect.
I surveyed a bank several years ago where the sewer line easement was written to be between building and boundary and it was clear that the sewer location went outside that an under the building.
They complained, got loud, wrote letters and demanded the sewer be shown withing the easement and it was not gonna happen because when a line connecting manholes that were 10ft outside easement, showed lines outside easement too.
An overhead survey of the location of objects will show if it was necessary for the pole placement to avoid other hazardous situation not expected when original easement was drawn.
The title company probably went back no more than 25 years in their search, then the surveyor relied on their information instead of researching it himself.
Ran into that recently when a client referred to a survey I did 15 years ago as being wrong because I had shown an easement created about 80 years ago. The title company did not find it when doing their work for his policy a couple months ago. He wants to pretend the easement does not exist. I suggested that might be an expensive problem at some point in the future.
Presuming that the pedestal was in it’s place when you first viewed, then bought, your property the only way you are going to get it moved is by paying to have it moved. The electric company has an easement. At some point they figured that 10′ wasn’t enough. They needed 12′. They got it. Probably they still feel that way.
The surveyor didn’t show a 12′ easement because the title company didn’t let him know that such an easement existed. Possibly he should have realized that the pedestal was outside the 10′ limits and noted that. But if your “survey” is in fact a “mortgage certificate” or “Improvement Location Map”, or the like (if you paid less that $500 for your survey, that is what you have), these aren’t expected to map things in that kind of detail.
Update: I??ve contacted my lawyer who contacted the title company for their position. The title commitment still states a 10 foot easement not a 12 foot Easment. I just lost 50 square feet of land I can??t build on because of this easment. The title company has to be liable somewhere correct? Would I be entitled to any settlement or would the title company insurance be liable to move this pedestal to where I would like it placed?
I really can’t see any way you could force the electric company to move their pedestal or surrender any of their easement. That easement is a legal right for them to to have their stuff there. Possibly you can sweet talk them into it. But I really doubt that there is any way for you to force it.
You have a lawyer and a surveyor involved now. They have way more details about the situation than I have. I’d hate to muddy the water by speculating.
I really can’t see any way you could force the electric company to move their pedestal or surrender any of their easement. That easement is a legal right for them to to have their stuff there. Possibly you can sweet talk them into it. But I really doubt that there is any way for you to force it.
You have a lawyer and a surveyor involved now. They have way more details about the situation than I have. I’d hate to muddy the water by speculating.
I really can’t see any way you could force the electric company to move their pedestal or surrender any of their easement. That easement is a legal right for them to to have their stuff there. Possibly you can sweet talk them into it. But I really doubt that there is any way for you to force it.
You have a lawyer and a surveyor involved now. They have way more details about the situation than I have. I’d hate to muddy the water by speculating.
Ask your lawyer about easement by prescription. If the utility has neen there for a while it may have ripened into an easement where it is, in addition to where the words say.
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Just as a side note here I’d like to interject something from my experiences with utility easements.
The public utility providers I have as clients are not at all in the business to make life miserable for folks; they generally attempt to be accommodating. I have seen many, many cases where a previously placed termination can or transformer wound up at a location that eventually caused a property owner a little heartburn. In every one of the cases the utility owners did everything they could (it’s a safety issue) to keep their facilities out of the property owner’s hair. There are a few instances where the property owner was responsible for a small amount of the cost.
I did a quick survey the other day to move a termination can because the property owner wanted to widen his side drive to park an RV. The REC moved the can and kept out of the owner’s way even though it was within an existing easement. However seeking damages for a “loss of buildable area” for some future project when the obstructing appurtenance is within an existing easement is like pissing up a rope.
Another point I would like to make is that although utility companies don’t like it, there is usually nothing to keep a property owner from full enjoyment and use of the underlying fee. That can include paving or building “over” an easement. The big hurdle to clear is usually the governing municipality and the permitting process, not the utility company.
In this case, apparently the facility is in an easement that was not brought to the buyer’s attention by the TC but if it was out of the easement then the property owner has a cause of action in inverse condemnation. I researched it, as far as I can tell the statute of limitations for Adverse Possession applies so if the property owner doesn’t either convince the utility to remove the trespass or pay for the easement or bring an action in inverse condemnation within the statutory period then the invasion is permanent without compensation. The case I was researching involved a fee simple invasion, I’m not sure how this works in the case of an easement which is less than a complete invasion of someone’s private property.
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