Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

[Brian 26]

I'm having a problem with these guys using my driveway and yard like they own the joint. NOTE - This post is probably more venting than anything but if you guys could give me some insight into what they can an can't do that would be nice.

I live at the end of a dead end, wooded, narrow, windy, hilly, private neighborhood. Basically a worse case scenario for parking big trucks especially when there 6' high snow banks on each side.

Unbeknownst to me there was going to be some tree trimming on the power lines near us, day one I'm home for the day and see two huge bucket trucks roll up and block the street. A guy walks to the side of my garage and grabs my garbage can and rolls it a block away. Kind of weird since it wasn't garbage day. I guess he wants to make sure he's not impeding the garbage truck that might come. As the day goes on the guys are using my driveway to store gear and hang out. The next day my wife said a guy in a pickup parked in our driveway blocking our garage for about an hour.

If this was a one day thing I wouldn't care but yesterday makes one week the guys have been trimming trees in our very small corner of the neighborhood. When I leave for work they are not there yet and when I get home they are gone (I'm sure they do this by design as to not have to deal with homeowners) yesterday I came home from work to find tire tracks showing they had parked their truck in my driveway and backed onto my landscaping. This is no one light duty truck mind you, we're talking a giant commercial truck with weight spreading feet for swinging the bucket around.

My driveway is built on sand and in need of replacement anyway, it can not handle the weight of these trucks. I can see pieces of concrete that broke off and I'm sure the bushes (currently buried under snow and tire tracks) are toast.

Today I parked my 4wheeler sideways blocking the driveway before they got there, I'm half expecting they will have moved it. Also I've found garbage in my yard from them. If I could talk to somebody I would politely tell them not to drive on my driveway anymore or cross through my landscaping but as of today I have decided it's not worth taking time off work.

My question is can these guys occupy my property like this without asking permission? To me it would seem they have park on the public street and walk into the woods by foot.

 

[JustJason]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

They can absolutely come on your land for tree trimming only. But they can not use your land as a public park, dump, or parking lot. Call the electric company and complain.

I can tell you that if they were blocking my drive way I would nicely and politely ask them to move their equipment so you can do your business. And I would be reasonable and give them about 15 minutes to move. But after that, I would be hooking up the chains and pulling their trucks down the road.

 

[rbh]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

There should be an easement for the power line, if there is no easement they can't come on to your property
(look at the land title I think)

Regardless it is for you and your neighbours benefit to have the arborists cut back the bush/tree limbs.
It is policy for us to talk with the homeowner if we need to come onto the property with our trucks, find out what we can drive on and not drive on, we don't need hard feelings or a law suite if we drive over your flower bed or put the front wheel through your septic tank or drain field.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

As Jason said, they're entitled to access jobs via your property, which you clearly don't have a problem with, but they aren't entitled to destroy it in the process, which you clearly do have a problem with as you should. Take pictures of everything then call the electric company and describe the situation. Tell them you'll be glad to provide pics if they need them. I'd be amazed if they didn't make it right and straighten out those clowns. Good luck.

 

[thumpar]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

We had them here yesterday. I know they can do it but when they put cones in front of our driveway it teed me off. I drove right over the cone when I went to work. Another thing that angered me was that they knocked on our door at 7:30am (we wake up at 8am) to let us know they would be working in our yard. They didn't start in our yard until 11am.

 

[Vintin]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

It's not like the work isn't tough enough but I bet dealing with pain in the *** people is even worse.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

It's not like the work isn't tough enough but I bet dealing with pain in the *** people is even worse.

Not sure what you mean by pain in the *** people, but I wouldn't accept someone destroying my landscaping and driveway. There's no excuse for that.

 

[Brian 26]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

I did take pictures of the tire tracks and broken concrete last night.

The powerlines are not on my property but they are on purpose set right on the property lines. The funny thing the neighbor that is also along this powerline is a lawyer that specializes in personal injury and criminal defense (not the guy you'd want to mess with) and his yard doesn't have a footprint in it HA!

 

[aspeck]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

Have had many line repair people and trimmers over our property multiple times. Each time the electric company calls ahead of time to see if it is okay, come during to make sure they are only on the right-of-way, and come after to make sure they didn't rip up any yard or landscaping. To say we have a good relationship with our electric company is to understate the obvious. They do what is right, and we respond in kind, as it should be. I would give a gentle call to the power company and explain your concerns. My bet is if you are happy they will want to keep you happy, if you are disgruntled, it really doesn't matter what they do ...

 

[thumpar]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

The guys that did ours yesterday cleaned everything up and can't tell they were here. Other than the the cones in front of our driveway and waking us up early they did good.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

The right of way will be x number of feet on both sides of the lines, so part of the right of way will probably be on your property.

 

[Brian 26]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

It's not like the work isn't tough enough but I bet dealing with pain in the *** people is even worse.

I have no problem with these guy respectfully walking through my yard to work on the utilities we all use but believe me if these guys were treating your property like they are mine you'd have a problem with it too. Parking a 30,000 lbs truck in someones driveway without even asking is ridiculous.

And actually since you mention it the little that my wife and I have seen of it the job looks pretty nice, show up at 9, start cutting around 11, packed up and gone by 3:30, lots of standing around talking while leaning on my 4 wheeler. Plus in 5 working days the team of 4 guys has trimmed about 20 trees.

 

[nwcove]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

i somewhat understand where yer coming from, but, how would you react if the trees werent trimmed, and you were without power for a few days????

 

[thumpar]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

Oh yea they are slow. They only took 3 limbs off 1 of our trees and it took 3 guys about 3 hours and that was after they actually started to pretend to work.

 

[nwcove]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

Oh yea they are slow. They only took 3 limbs off 1 of our trees and it took 3 guys about 3 hours and that was after they actually started to pretend to work.

......maybe they should kill the power to the lines for the day to speed things up! :facepalm:

 

[jc55]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

I've had to work with landowners from time to time for pipeline right of way work. Sometimes there is no access and we have to use private driveways or cut across lawns, fields, pastures, etc. We generally have standing permission and are as respectful as possible. Many times, finding the owner and just shooting the breeze and letting them know what we're doing makes a huge difference.

Sometimes the land owners are extremely disrespectful and intolerant(pulling guns...please) but we still do our best to maintain our integrity, respect and work out a plan that works for everybody. Either way, we GET access. No matter what, we always pay for damages if off of the right of way. Every utility company has a right of way department and land manager for just this sort of thing.

These trimmers are probably out of town contractors hired by the power company. There isn't a lot of ownership in building or maintaining relationships with land owners. Call the Utility company directly. Contractors don't want to take too many hits because all of that gets taken into affect come bid time.

 

[thumpar]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

......maybe they should kill the power to the lines for the day to speed things up! :facepalm:

They were nowhere near the lines. The tree is about about 15' from our back fence and the limbs they cut where way up there (we have 11 pines from 35' to 100' tall). I understand they want to be careful but they just stood around for an hour before they even started. We don't even know why they bothered. In our neighborhood the power is all underground except for the lines that go down the back property lines. There are no lines in our yard above ground.

 

[Vintin]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

I understand they want to be careful but they just stood around for an hour before they even started. We don't even know why they bothered. .

Yep, any lay person can see that they were just trimming tress at random and it had nothing to do with the SAFE TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICITY.:lol:

 

[thumpar]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

Yep, any lay person can see that they were just trimming tress at random and it had nothing to do with the SAFE TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICITY.:lol:

You would have to see the property. They removed about 5 limbs from the neighbors property and that took them all of the day before yesterday and yesterday before they started on ours. Have you ever seen the street crew where there are like 9 guys and only 1 doing anything? It was kind of like that.

 

[bajaunderground]

Re: Can power line tree trimmers come on your property?

99.9% of the time (in most cities with subdivisions, plats/lots) there are easements and right of ways (as stated earlier). This is the legal instrument that runs with the property allowing most utilities access to service their respective equipment. If said easement or right of way is not included as part of you title, then legally that should not be on your property. With said easement and r-o-w, that have access and there's nothing you can do, legally, to stop them up to and including trimming trees. Typically, a lot is platted and has what's called set-backs (areas that are not allowed to be built in with permanent structures...trees, fences, etc. are typically okay as most are not considered permanent?)

If the contractor performing the work destroys anything on your property, they can be held accountable. Once work is complete, document and report to the on-site manager (if available?) otherwise, report all to the contractor's management...moving up the chain! If it's work performed on behalf of a municipality (city owned utilities) then report damage to then directly!

Good Luck!

~Brett