A driveway or a street: What to do?

[oldtrader]

Originally Posted by petsandgardens

Your posts are always interesting. We had a spot at one time that was in the DOT easement area. A few trees were there....thin trunks. There was a light on a post in that area that finally went out. We called the utility company for the light. When we came home one day the light was working again and someone...the light company, electric, whoever cuts trees for the area...had done a bad chop job on the little trees. Cut one side off one, some tops off another, etc. Have to say we felt kind of violated that someone just came in and did a bad chop job. Didn't even go in the side, but, like wild animals, straight in from the street messing up the grass we were supposed to have there. AND left all the debris on the grass. We eventually fixed the trees up ourselves. But felt they should have hired out a more professional job or maintained that area at least annually or something. Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

Apparently your trees were endangering the power line or underground lines. You are the one who is required to keep your trees under control, not the utility company. What they did was cut out the danger to the power supply. They only did what was required, to meet the utility company needs.

It is not their job to make things look nice, that is yours. You had let the trees grow and endanger the power lines, so they did what was required and nothing more. If you don't want to happen again you are the one that needs to do the annual trimming, and maintaining. You are lucky, they did not just cut those trees down and just leave them laying on the lawn which is common. If you want a professional trimming the trees to look nice, then you are the ones to hire them and pay them, not the utility companies.

As to how they entered the property, depends how their entry rights have been set.

I know you really do not understand utility company easement rights. This event should give you a better understanding.

[petsandgardens]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

Apparently your trees were endangering the power line or underground lines. You are the one who is required to keep your trees under control, not the utility company. What they did was cut out the danger to the power supply. They only did what was required, to meet the utility company needs.

It is not their job to make things look nice, that is yours. You had let the trees grow and endanger the power lines, so they did what was required and nothing more. If you don't want to happen again you are the one that needs to do the annual trimming, and maintaining. You are lucky, they did not just cut those trees down and just leave them laying on the lawn which is common. If you want a professional trimming the trees to look nice, then you are the ones to hire them and pay them, not the utility companies.

As to how they entered the property, depends how their entry rights have been set.

I know you really do not understand utility company easement rights. This event should give you a better understanding.

Thanks. I do value your info. We have been, as have neighbors and friends, frustrated with unsolicited promises by some utility companies. Better they said nothing.

I talked with a guy who met with a tree professional their power company sent to his house before some work was done in a similar utility corner on their property. The guy was surprisingly a professional, knew the trees, suggested what to do, told the owner which ones the power company would need to be cut down and what the owner should dig up and save. Together they put markings around what was not needed to be cut. The rep told the owner that the power company would contact the owner before coming over. They needed more work than just changing a light bulb like we did.

Then the power company came out unannounced, trampled things the previous rep knew were valuable, cut a small tree that the utility company rep had marked as not to be cut and as a special tree. A big mess. The owner would have dug up anything needed. It wasn't necessary for the rep to give him all that info if it wasn't really needed.

Gas Co was a problem with me. Another situation where the guy was supposed to fix the landscaping damage, according to the gas company...landscape remediation I think they called it. We would have done it ourselves but the gas company said, no,that's okay, we have a guy. We thought...great service. The guy stated upfront when we arrived home after the work was done that he had already taken a nice rock from our rock bed. A nut. He even leered. He said he didn't think we'd miss it. Just because he liked it, wanted it and thought we wouldn't miss it didn't make it less than theft. We complained. He brought it back.

Both this guy and we were also told all branches would be taken away by the utility company. We didn't ask them to. We thought ... great. That pile of branches sat there for a while in both the yards. I wanted to see how long the companies would take. I pushed our pile away so it wouldn't do damage. Finally we gave up and a neighbor landscape guy piled them in his truck and took them away.

I don't mind at all if there is no service regarding a certain utility job. I didn't ask for it, didn't expect it. But it seemed like they purposely came out to give me and then my friend a snow job. There was no need for that.