Public Utility Easements and Right of Ways are often misunderstood. This article will explain how you can keep your property safe from utility easements and maintain its integrity.
If you own land, it’s likely been affected by a public utility easement. Easements are essentially rights to utility services, like power lines and internet pipelines, which must cross land to reach their destination.
Public Utility Easements are not legal for the casual user. In other words, if you own land and want to install communications equipment, water lines, gas lines or other types of utilities across your property, you need permission from the owner of the easement and all the owners of each parcel through which it crosses.
Power line easements
As with any other easement, a power line easement is an agreement between two parties regarding the use of a certain area of land.
The power company needs access to your land in order to run their lines. This is called an easement, which gives them the right to enter your property to maintain their infrastructure.
They also need to be able to put up poles and towers on your land, this is usually done with an agreement with the property owner.
In this case, it’s between your utility company and yourself. When you buy a home with a power line easement in place, it may seem like there’s nothing you can do about it.
However, that’s not entirely true, there are things you can do to make sure that your property is as attractive as possible with this feature in place.
Water easements
Water line easements are a common feature of many residential and commercial properties. Easements are the legal rights that allow utilities to run their lines across your land.
Easements can also be used for other purposes, such as emergency access roads and sewer lines.
The most common utility easement is the water line easement. If a house has a well, it will often have a water line running from the well to the house. That is why when you buy a house in town, you may find that there is an underground pipe running across your yard to get to the house.
Land conservation easements
A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement between landowners and government agencies or nonprofit organizations to restrict development on certain parcels of land. A land conservation easement is typically granted to protect farmland or natural areas from development or to keep them in their current use as agricultural land or open space. It can also be used to protect endangered species or endangered ecosystems like wetlands, forests or prairies.
If you own property that has been in your family for generations, it’s likely that you would want to keep it in the family for future generations. However, selling the property is not always an option because there may be no one else who wants to buy it or because they don’t have enough money to make such a large purchase on their own.
Land conservation easements can be used on all types of rural lands, including farms, ranches and timberland.
Pipeline easements
A pipeline easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and the company that owns the pipeline. It allows the company to run its pipeline across your property.
The easement agreement may be written or oral, but it must be in writing. If there is no written agreement, the law may consider that you have given permission for the pipeline to cross your property by doing nothing (this is called “implied consent”).
Pipeline companies have to follow certain rules when they create an easement on your land.
The purpose of a pipeline easement is to allow for the safe and efficient use of public property by private companies. These easements often cover large sections of land and may require expensive maintenance from time to time. The cost of maintaining these easements can be borne by individual landowners if they are not maintained properly by the company using them.
Phone lines
Telephone companies use telephone poles and cable lines to carry phone service throughout their service areas. These poles usually support two sets of wires: one set for telephone service and one set for cable television service.
If a new telephone pole is needed on your property, you have no choice but to allow it unless you can prove that it would interfere with your use of the property or cause damage to your home or landscaping.
Natural Gas Easements
Natural gas easements are a common feature in some areas of the country, especially where there are abundant natural gas reserves. They can be used to provide natural gas to homes, businesses and other buildings.
A natural gas easement allows the utility company to construct facilities such as pipelines and storage tanks on the property for transporting natural gas from the wellhead to customers. An easement also allows them to maintain these facilities once they’re built.
Why Are Public Utility Easements Important?
Public utility easements are important because they allow people to continue using these services without having to worry about losing their land due to construction of new lines or other changes. Utility easements are a necessity for utilities to provide service to their customers.
How to deal with public utility easements on your land
The easiest way to check for an existing easement on your property is by looking at your deed or title insurance policy. You can also contact local government agencies with questions about utility easements in your area.
Private utility companies have the right to enter your property at any time without notice to inspect or maintain their equipment — but they cannot remove trees or shrubs without permission.
If you would like a tree removed because it interferes with power lines, contact your electric company directly; they will handle the request through their tree trimming department.
The bottom line
As you can see, easements are important legal documents that affect every owner of land in the country. Because they have such a broad impact, it’s a good idea to understand precisely what they mean and what they involve.
Utility easements are valuable, which makes it important that you understand exactly what they are and why they’re needed. Please, kep in mind that it’s not all about them, but rather about you and how to protect your interests, you should be fine.
