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There is an old telephone pole in the backyard of a house an elderly neighbor owns. It now has dozens of wires coming from it and some sort of transponder box attached to it. Landlines, fios, optinum, electric - all kinds of things are now running from it through her yard and all these people keep coming to hang more wires and cut all the trees - killing most of them - they claim are interfering with these lines. She doesn't even know what most of them are and worries half the lines are connecting to her house and she is paying for neighbors utilities. I doubt that's the case though her bills are very high for her usage but mostly she wants the pole removed from her yard to stop even more of these vendors from climbing over her fence and hanging more and more lines back there. How does she even find out if she gave anybody an easement to have that pole back there and who does she call to remove it? She's been living there about 50 years and that pole has been there at least 20 years - she doesn't remember ever getting any kind of a discount from any utility for the pole being there. She keeps telling the cable companies they don't have permission to keep running lines through her yard but they tell her she has no choice and do it anyway. The wires are getting lowere and lower and resting on tree branches now and they have chopped the branches down so much that her beautiful cherry tree doesn't even blossom anymore. Optimum vendors wouldn't even identify themselves except to say they are from Optimum and forced their way in. When she said they were loosing other wires were too low and she didn't want then on her tree branches. the workers told her they don't speak English and ignored her. Ideas?
There is an old telephone pole in the backyard of a house an elderly neighbor owns. It now has dozens of wires coming from it and some sort of transponder box attached to it. Landlines, fios, optinum, electric - all kinds of things are now running from it through her yard and all these people keep coming to hang more wires and cut all the trees - killing most of them - they claim are interfering with these lines. She doesn't even know what most of them are and worries half the lines are connecting to her house and she is paying for neighbors utilities. I doubt that's the case though her bills are very high for her usage but mostly she wants the pole removed from her yard to stop even more of these vendors from climbing over her fence and hanging more and more lines back there. How does she even find out if she gave anybody an easement to have that pole back there and who does she call to remove it? She's been living there about 50 years and that pole has been there at least 20 years - she doesn't remember ever getting any kind of a discount from any utility for the pole being there. She keeps telling the cable companies they don't have permission to keep running lines through her yard but they tell her she has no choice and do it anyway. The wires are getting lowere and lower and resting on tree branches now and they have chopped the branches down so much that her beautiful cherry tree doesn't even blossom anymore. Optimum vendors wouldn't even identify themselves except to say they are from Optimum and forced their way in. When she said they were loosing other wires were too low and she didn't want then on her tree branches. the workers told her they don't speak English and ignored her. Ideas?
You are most likely SOL. Utility companies have easement rights on your deed to allow them to access to your backyard to run wires. The easement was probably created when the land was subdivided.
Years ago, the block we lived on had 20+ houses on it but we bought between two cross streets so it was segregated like this:
| Our |
| house house |
| |
For some odd reason they terminated all the lines for both cross blocks in our back yard. When I say in the yard, I mean it was probably 4 feet inside the property line and the lines were low. We went through the usual rigamarole when dealing with utilities and back then it was Lilco. NY Tel and Optimum. It all fell on deaf ears......not my problem, you have to talk to {insert other utility}. Just like your neighbor we tried dealing with them to no avail. We finally went to our local representative and took picots to help present our case. The pole was moved to the corner. Even the joint utility crews that took the old pole out and put the new one in nearer to the corner of the property were astounded and all they could figure is that when they built the development in the early 50's someone made a mistake. We bought from an original owner who was blind so we figure they must have just taken advantage of them.
Now as AGW said, she has no rights at all with the poles and she is not going to get them moved. That said, she could ask her representative to see if they could get the mess of wires cleaned up to as few as possible saying it is both unsightly and unsettling to constantly have al these people cutting her trees . I would use the " I am an old lady and I am fearful of all these strangers coming into my yard unannounced and cutting trees." Good Luck.
It may not, but it really is the only other option. If she can make a point about the possible theft of services as well as her home being visited by different agencies all the time - she just might get someplace.
It may not, but it really is the only other option. If she can make a point about the possible theft of services as well as her home being visited by different agencies all the time - she just might get someplace.
Since you asked for ideas why not Ask if they will move the pole to your yard to help her out. You might have to pay for the cost. I think they charge 10k for a new pole to start. How else do they entirely remove a pole without replacing it ?
There is an old telephone pole in the backyard of a house an elderly neighbor owns. It now has dozens of wires coming from it and some sort of transponder box attached to it. Landlines, fios, optinum, electric - all kinds of things are now running from it through her yard and all these people keep coming to hang more wires and cut all the trees - killing most of them - they claim are interfering with these lines. She doesn't even know what most of them are and worries half the lines are connecting to her house and she is paying for neighbors utilities. I doubt that's the case though her bills are very high for her usage but mostly she wants the pole removed from her yard to stop even more of these vendors from climbing over her fence and hanging more and more lines back there. How does she even find out if she gave anybody an easement to have that pole back there and who does she call to remove it? She's been living there about 50 years and that pole has been there at least 20 years - she doesn't remember ever getting any kind of a discount from any utility for the pole being there. She keeps telling the cable companies they don't have permission to keep running lines through her yard but they tell her she has no choice and do it anyway. The wires are getting lowere and lower and resting on tree branches now and they have chopped the branches down so much that her beautiful cherry tree doesn't even blossom anymore. Optimum vendors wouldn't even identify themselves except to say they are from Optimum and forced their way in. When she said they were loosing other wires were too low and she didn't want then on her tree branches. the workers told her they don't speak English and ignored her. Ideas?
As far as utility easements go, they transfer with the sale of a home. It should be recorded on her property deed where the easement is. Many states have access online to the registry of deeds where a copy of her deed can be looked up if she doesn't have her copy handy.
Since you asked for ideas why not Ask if they will move the pole to your yard to help her out. You might have to pay for the cost. I think they charge 10k for a new pole to start. How else do they entirely remove a pole without replacing it ?
They CANT. Its NOT going anywhere.
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