Clearview CATV, utility easement

[tractorface]

OK, I need help. I live in Northern Harford County MD and the local CATV provider Clearview has really set me off. During construction the CATV line that feeds my neighbors house was damaged (it was only buried 3" deep) Anyway, The CATV people decided to string the new cable across my yard/driveway to get "Temporary" service to my neighbors. Anyway That was in October and the cable is still not buried. They have been out to fix/replace it many times. Anyone have any ideas? Phone numbers of managers or legal advice would also be appreciated. I need to pave my driveway for a U&O but I really want the cable buried first. I thought about buying the Neighbor a sattelite dish but damn this should not cost me any money. I know this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it has become my lifes mission to get that damn wire buried :--) :--)



Help

 

[JPope]

Check your property survey, it should have the easements listed, including approximate boundries, and if something occurred since your survey was done, the county office where the surveys are filed should have more up to date information.

They can can also provide information on the easements listed, and you can see what is says, and then act accordingly.

The clerk in the county office can be a wealth of information, if approached correctly (perhaps they are not happy w/ cable company either, but check and make sure a relative of theirs is not with cable company, or other such things!)

With this information, you can be better armed with the cable company, and perhaps, discuss things with them, and explain their options, including if they do not have an easement (or it is underground only), what you charge for property rental too date, and give them 'X' days to correct or you will remove, but still charge them (including damages, your time etc. ). sometimes an attorney can explain better with a letter for a small fee (which may be recoverable from cable company) if they do not listen to you. DOCUMENT all conversations, correspondance with cable company, take pictures for files etc.

Cable companies are not one of the better organizations to try to deal with uninformed, cause they deal with unhappy customers every day and are good at it!!! Wait till you encounter some of their executives who have a contract to perform such and such, but are trying to wait out a rate increase, or a bill that may provide them some relief, pros at stonewalling!

Good Luck!!

 

[Sageair]

Originally posted by tractorface

OK, I need help. I live in Northern Harford County MD and the local CATV provider Clearview has really set me off. During construction the CATV line that feeds my neighbors house was damaged (it was only buried 3" deep) Anyway, The CATV people decided to string the new cable across my yard/driveway to get "Temporary" service to my neighbors. Anyway That was in October and the cable is still not buried. They have been out to fix/replace it many times. Anyone have any ideas? Phone numbers of managers or legal advice would also be appreciated. I need to pave my driveway for a U&O but I really want the cable buried first. I thought about buying the Neighbor a sattelite dish but damn this should not cost me any money. I know this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it has become my lifes mission to get that damn wire buried :--) :--)



Help

I work for a utility (telephone) and we are only able to lay a temp line to a neighbors house with the property owners permission. Explain to your neighbor that you are going to demand the temp wire be removed . Then your neighbor can demand that their service be restored. That will force them to make permanent repairs. Cite the temp wire as a tripping safety hazard and mention liability. Hope this helps. Ps cable tv are bottom feeders.

 

[GFritsch]

I would cut it every night. Your neighbors daily complaints ought to be enough fire to fix the problem.



After using a dish for 3 years I amazed that people still use cable.

 

[tractorface]

"I would cut it every night. Your neighbors daily complaints ought to be enough fire to fix the problem.



After using a dish for 3 years I amazed that people still use cable. "



It does go out an awful lot

The CATV guys don't seem to care.

I am with you on the sattelite. Damn CATV runs that stupid commercial about how bad sattelite is, downright lies.



I am paving next week wether the line is buried or not. Those retards at Clearview can pound sand. Thanks for the ideas I will try and get things done the right way up until the driveway is paved.

 

[Scot]

I don't know man, I was just mowing the yard. Hey shouldn't you guys be paying to fix my mower...

 

[Philip]

I wouldn't worry about it to much. I would walk into the closest office. Ask for the person in charge. Tell then they have till X day at this time to get the wire buried. If it is not you are cutting it and repaving your drive way. The tell them you will not give permission to cut you drive after it is done.



Let them figure out how to supply cable to someone then.

 

[Ncostello]

If there is a utility easement in that portion of your yard/drive... I really truly doubt its a temporary easement. And since this is a temporary utility service... it has obviously out lived its time being there. Besides temporary easements have to be granted seperate of permanent easements around here. When construction is done... the utility is gone or buried. Period.



Cut it, roll it up, toss it to the side and ask them to provide you papers showing temporary easment rights.

 

[JPope]

"... Besides temporary easements have to be granted separate of permanent easements around here... . "



Easements typically are for access to maintain and repair the utility in the original easement, or can be for future expansion, not just for the original construction or utility installation, therefore a temporary easement may not be needed. Permanent and temporary easements are usually different animals, but if you read the easement verbage, before acting you have a much better idea of how to proceed.



As suggested it is always a good idea to read up on exactly what the easement says, before you do something that could create an embarassment or expenses to you later.



Surveyors hate missing an easement, and not showing it, cause it has been known to create an embarassment for them, title company, including financial repercussions.

 

[Peter Campbell]

Do not cut the cable!!!- a better trick is to use a small shirt pin- those little metal ones- and stick it through the wire shorting this shield to the center conductor. Then trim the pin flush with cutters. If you cut it then they just repair the cut. This way they will have to replace the entire line- or walk the line hand over hand to find a pinhole fault in the line. If you want to be nice cut the line and then do this on the downstream side - when they repair the line they will cause the neighborhood outage of service. ( this is not actual advice - it is much better to be nice - but it is fun to think about )

 

[TowPro]

Peter beat me to it on this idea! Plus when you short out his cable, it might take down part of the neighborhood's cable depending on how they routed it.



Another idea is to bury some 1 1/2" plastic EMT about a 1 or 2 feet under your driveway and mark where it stops on each end. When the cable company decides it time to fix it they can run through your pipe instead of cutting a trench through your new driveway.



When you say they strung the temp cable I did not catch if it is laying on the ground or not. If it is, I would also go to the township about it. The CATV people have to answer to them because they need the townships permission to run into new areas.

Originally posted by Peter Campbell

Do not cut the cable!!!- a better trick is to use a small shirt pin- those little metal ones- and stick it through the wire shorting this shield to the center conductor. Then trim the pin flush with cutters. If you cut it then they just repair the cut. This way they will have to replace the entire line- or walk the line hand over hand to find a pinhole fault in the line. If you want to be nice cut the line and then do this on the downstream side - when they repair the line they will cause the neighborhood outage of service. ( this is not actual advice - it is much better to be nice - but it is fun to think about )

 

[moparguy]

A bit of advise from someone in the utility biz (gas); unless there is a utility easement at the back of the house or between the lots, then the new cable should be installed in front of the house in public right-of-way.



You should be aware this public right-of-way could extend several feet into the maintained grassy portion of your yard.



If it were me, I'd do as TowPro suggested and install a piece of PVC under the drive and then charge the CTV folks a $200 or $300 to use it. Saves them money and helps offset the cost of the paving.



Good luck, RJR

 

[tractorface]

TDR is the best

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. It's done they buried the cable about two hours after my last phone call. I used a combination of Sageair and Jpope's advice. and gave the people some legal mumbo jumbo about the easement a lawyer and a tripping hazard! Anyway two hours:--) later it was buried. They sure don't bury them deep. Anyway the CATV people trenched deep enough to trash the phone wire right where it comes out of the box. Looks like they followed it for 50' or so and had it all chewed up. After that they pulled up so shallow it was only buried 1" deep. As soon as the excavator backdragged the front he cut the damn cable Anyway the cable guy shows up two hours later and I make em bury the damn thing with a shovel

So now I got the neighbors line buried and no phone. The phone guy was cool, but he had his work cut out for him and nothing but nice things to say about the CATV company Anyway thanks again, my little world is all good again. TDR is a great source of information. Oh yeah I like the pinhole idea, nexttime