oncor tree cutting

[eric]

oncor rep patrick hogan supposedly said they could tresspass on your private property any time without permission from the land owner. my understanding is they must ask you 5 days prior to enter your property with their contracted ashplundh company which will destroy the property and butcher your trees. ten feet is not nessary. If this is true they had better change their policy and know simple rules about tresspassing. Had our encounter today and contractor wanted to argue about it until police arrived. Will still be watching.

[WarHawk-AVG]

Care to extrapolate farther

Are they coming to farm your trees? Do you maintain mineral rights? is there a right of way or evesment?

[Mike1951]

Sounds like maybe an utility easement.

[eric]

Type in oncor tree cutting and make your judgement then.

[Mike1951]

Yep. Utility easement, and they can pretty much do what they want within that easement.

[WarHawk-AVG]

Document, document, document

If they tear up your yard past the evesment or whatever then they MUST pay you..just like the oil companies that tear thru peoples yards to get to their evesments

Make sure you have pictures/videos and everything, if they damage/destroy your tree/trees maybe a judge will give you some cash in a civil lawsuit

They are there to trim the trees away from the power lines

But no...they DO NOT have the right to go thru your private property to get to their evesement w/o compensation

http://law.onecle.com/texas/utilities/181.102.00.html

§ 181.102. AUTHORITY TO INSTALL AND MAINTAIN
EQUIPMENT. (a) In an unincorporated area, a person in the business
of providing community antenna or cable television service to the
public may install and maintain equipment through, under, along,
across, or over a utility easement, a public road, an alley, or a
body of public water in accordance with this subchapter.
(b) The installation and maintenance of the equipment must
be done in a way that does not unduly inconvenience the public using
the affected property.

read this case..it might help you
http://supreme.courts.state.tx.us/Histo ... 010291.PDF
ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-inf ... ls/utl.pdf

[jimlongley]

An utility easement is legally treated as the property of the utility company, this is a fact that allowed me to cost GE about $1.5 mil a bunch of years ago, when they violated our 9 the phone company's) easement and built a power switching station right over one of our subscriber cables.

OTOH, Molon_labe is right, they do not have a right to hurt your property in the process of maintaining the easement, although the easement does usually include unfettered access to the easement.

Asplundh has been in these fights many times before, as has just about every utility company in the US. Part of the problem stems from the Rural Electrification Act, and Communications Act all the way back in 1934. Our legislators back then, in their infinite wisdom, felt that the way to control the burgeoning monopolies in power and telecommunications was to establish a franchise type of system, which didn't really work as well as they anticipated.

One of the things that transpired was rules about where and when the utilities could place their facilities (just about anywhere they wanted) and what the landowner could do about it (essentially nothing) and just about every court case since then has found in the interest of the greater good for the public.

These days, due to one and/or another of those court cases, easements and access to them are usually written right into the deeds for propety, and by signing when purchasing the property the landowner is stating that the easement is ok with them, leading to problems trying to withdraw that permission.

That much said, and there is so much more, it is good to document, document, document, and hold them to the boundaries that they are required to stay within - a bunch of years ago 1985 to be exact, the power company had to build a drain for a ground mounted transformer, adjacent to my house, that had flooded, and they did damage to my property in the process. Although it took a little time I was able to prevail and get them to pay for the re-sodding of the area which they damaged, which was outside their easment and not necessary for their access to that easement (their argument to the court) and their fight against me in small claims court cost them more than it would have to just resod the few square feet they had torn up. When I became a telephone engineer responsibe for dealing with the power company about a variety of right of way, easement, and noise issues, I turned the tables a few times.

[kevinr277]

is anyone elses trees getting butchered after this last round of storms in Dallas Ft Worth Arlington area..?! Who can a homeowner contact about the needless buchering of hundred year old trees..??

[jimlongley]

is anyone elses trees getting butchered after this last round of storms in Dallas Ft Worth Arlington area..?! Who can a homeowner contact about the needless buchering of hundred year old trees..??

See above, contact your Public Utilities Commission, expect little progress.

I would think with all of the tree damage t power lines shown in the various media, that people would have a better understanding of just how poorly power lines and trees get along. I, personally, think that the law should provide penalties for homeowners whose trees are in any way responsible for power outages in weather events like we just suffered, and that those homeowners should bear part of the costs of restoration as well as outages expenses. Then maybe there would be less "needless buchering (sic)" of any trees, much less "hundred year old" ones.

[Oldgringo]

Yep. Utility easement, and they can pretty much do what they want within that easement.

I ran into this situation not too long ago. When I informed the gringo in charge of the operation that I had a sprinkler system in my yard, he decided my big 'ol catalpa tree wasn't such a problem after all.

[HankB]

Some years back, a friend of mine came home from work to find that a large utility truck and crane were in his back yard. They'd cut across his front lawn, across his driveway (which ran alongside his house) and parked in back to work on a transformer. It turned out that the utility hadn't maintained their actual right-of-way/easement, which was the equivalent of an alley adjoining the back of the property, so they cut across my friend's yard.

The workers got nasty when he pointed out the damage they'd done to his yard.

So . . . he parked his car on his driveway - which blocked the truck's egress.

When the utility workers decided to leave, they confronted my buddy with a profanity-laced tirade demanding he move his car.

He didn't take kindly to that.

Police were called by the utility workers, who informed them that since the guy's legally-registered car was legally parked on private property, they had no authority to make him move.

Utility executives became involved, a couple of utility workers lost their jobs, and the utility company ended up re-sodding his entire yard plus some "additional considerations."

[ninemm]

I would think with all of the tree damage to power lines shown in the various media, that people would have a better understanding of just how poorly power lines and trees get along. I, personally, think that the law should provide penalties for homeowners whose trees are in any way responsible for power outages in weather events like we just suffered, and that those homeowners should bear part of the costs of restoration as well as outages expenses. Then maybe there would be less "needless buchering (sic)" of any trees, much less "hundred year old" ones.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. If a limb from your tree fell on a car parked in the street, you would be responsible for damages to the car. Why is a power line any different? The power company trims the trees at no direct cost to the customer and all the customer does is complain. Trees are trimmed according to forestry expert recommendations. That is, they simply do not cut back a certain distance. If a limb looks like it will grow into the the line over the next five years, it needs to be removed back to its point of origin. Stub cuts are dangerous to the health of the tree and promote unhealthy shoots at the stub cut.

In extreme weather events like we recently experienced, some of the trimming done is done in an emergency manner just to get the lights back on. Obviously, in wet situations it is difficult to get in and get out without making tracks with the trucks.

I really believe the day will come when it will be the customer's responsibility to keep the trees trimmed. Some electric cooperatives already give customers the option of doing it themselves. I recently had an experience with Trinity Valley Coop west of Canton and learned that their policy is to get 30 feet of clearance as they are on a 12-15 year tree trimming cycle. Just drive from Kaufman to Canton on Hwy 243 and you'll see what 30 feet of clearance looks like. Trees under the line along the fence line are cut down to around 6-8 feet high.

Trees not only cause interruptions to power. They also cause losses. Those trees that get very close to the line and occasionally brush the lines and cause minor sparking but do not blow fuses of trip breakers actually use electricity. That is, current flows through the temporary faults. It has been estimated that as much as 5% of electricity produced is lost through such "tree tip burning".

[subsonic]

oncor rep patrick hogan supposedly said they could tresspass on your private property any time without permission from the land owner.

I see an exemption in 30.05 for peace officers. I see an exemption for firemen and EMS for "official duty under exigent circumstances." I don't see an exemption for utility contractors.

[The Annoyed Man]

I just spent $500 yesterday getting my wrought iron driveway gate fixed. It was sagging so much that it need to have a section of it cut out and new steel welded into place. The reason it is sagging is that the guy from Encor/Reliant/Whatever (I'm a Stream Energy customer) keeps climbing over my fence to read my meter. I don't have a problem with him reading the meter, but the gate/fence are well over 6' tall, and when he climbs over it, his weight causes it to sag. If he would just come to my door and ask permission, I would let him every time (I work at home), and it wouldn't add but 60 seconds to the process of reading my meter. Each time I've caught up to him and asked him to knock on my door the next time, he literally waves me off and just keeps on walking.

I went out and bought some "Beware of Dog" signs to put on the fence. Let him think twice about whether or not he wants to keep climbing my fence without permission. The rassinfrassin' bleepedy bleep.

[jimlongley]

oncor rep patrick hogan supposedly said they could tresspass on your private property any time without permission from the land owner.

I see an exemption in 30.05 for peace officers. I see an exemption for firemen and EMS for "official duty under exigent circumstances." I don't see an exemption for utility contractors.

I can't claim to be a right of way or easement expert in TX, but I know that in NY blocking access to an easement is as illegal as blocking the easement itself. OTOH, access to a meter is not an easement and they can make appointments to do so.