Has anyone had AT&T come and dig up your yard?

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by Bowie

That's really bad advice. If AT&T has a utility easement and underground lines, they have the right to dig. In neighborhoods with buried utilities, how would they get to their underground cables if they couldn't dig?

Absolutely correct. When you buy property, if there are any utility easements on it, they're noted on the survey and should be explained to you as part of the closing. You're not supposed to build anything permanent on the easement (at least, not anything you would be upset about if it had to be torn-out by the utility to work on their lines), and you have to let the utility onto your property and allow them to dig if they need to. Corporate utilities, like AT&T and TWC, have the same rights in this case as do government-owned utilities like CPS and SAWS. (It's not an eminent domain issue because they're not taking your property from you.) In return, they're obligated to restore the ground to the same level it was before the work and to replace any reasonable existing ground cover (i.e. sod, gravel, or mulch). Also, the utility has to repair or replace any fences that they damage or remove as part of their work.

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by TexHwyMan

Absolutely correct. When you buy property, if there are any utility easements on it, they're noted on the survey and should be explained to you as part of the closing. You're not supposed to build anything permanent on the easement (at least, not anything you would be upset about if it had to be torn-out by the utility to work on their lines), and you have to let the utility onto your property and allow them to dig if they need to. Corporate utilities, like AT&T and TWC, have the same rights in this case as do government-owned utilities like CPS and SAWS. (It's not an eminent domain issue because they're not taking your property from you.) In return, they're obligated to restore the ground to the same level it was before the work and to replace any reasonable existing ground cover (i.e. sod, gravel, or mulch). Also, the utility has to repair or replace any fences that they damage or remove as part of their work.

Well, I need to correct myself a little. An easement is actually a contract between the property owner (you) and the utility/utilities. In the contract, the terms of use, access, and what obligations each party has are spelled-out. Unless the easement was created after you purchased your property, you inherit that contract as part of the deed when you purchase the property. Information about the easement should be included somewhere in your closing paperwork.

[tberryrocks]

Thank you all for your feedback. I was able to get connected through to the repairs and they had the subcontractor call us with an update. He said they have been delayed but would be back to sod wthin 10 days. The repair rep from AT&T advised us to call back if this timeline had not been fullfilled. The guy who cam out to notify us initially did not leave a phone number with us, but I should have asked. Hopefully our yard will be back to a presentable state soon. I thank you again for your advice.

[coffee4me]

YES! Apparently AT&T uses contractors to do this. By doing this, they identify themselves as working with AT&T but you can never find them again because the reality is they don't really work for AT&T as they are just contractors. They dug up my back yard and then left in the middle of the job. I tried with no luck to contact someone and have it fixed but I had no luck. It was in a back part of the yard that we barely use but they left all their junk too. One year later I was able to get AT&T to come get all their crap out of my yard and fix the hole they dug. Yes..one year. They told me that this sort of thing never happens . Looking at this board, I'd say they are wrong . Based on this issue alone I decided not to switch to U-Verse even though I hate getting ripped off on a regular basis by TWC. However, AT&T made a bad name for themselves with me on this one and so I won't be a customer.

[2DMaxx]

If they will bury fiber from the street and allow me to stream 4hd channel vs the current 2, they can dig all they want. Seriously u-verse is great but that is bad that they took a year to fix your yard...