ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Electrified house in Mass

Two different surveyors did come out one before the foundation and one after the foundation.

Both surveyors say it is not on the easement.


Means nothing, this is the same POCO that said humans have nothing to worry about when pets where getting killed on live manhole covers "Because humans do not walk around bare foot."


They did not, as far as the surveyors are concerned it is not on the easement.

I agree the HO bares some responsibility but as electure mentioned a ways back there is plenty of blame to go around.



[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 01-03-2007).]

Granted I don’t know the local rules where this house was built, but every other project I have ever been on, there is an engineered set of plans submitted for plan review from the AHJ, prior to any permits being issued. These plans have a civil drawing showing any easements that may be present. The approved plans become part of the contract documents, which any lenders on the project get a copy of as part of the lending process.

Regardless of any mistakes that make it through plan review the builder has the responsibility to ensure the building meets all local codes. If a 200A feeder is shown with #3 AWG, and somehow makes it past plan review, the builder still has to use the proper wire size for the feeder, and can not blame the inspector for failing him if he does not. “It made it past plan review” is a poor excuse for doing something wrong.

If this is the case, and he is on the easement then he may have legal grounds to sue both surveyors.

I agree.

I can't imagine that he is not on the easement, but I also can't imagine two surveyors making the same mistake. I wonder how wide the easement is? They are working on the layout of a single 138kV line in my area and the minimum that our utility wants is 50' from the center line of the poles for their easement. I would expect that it would be wider for the 345kV lines.
Don

BTW some of the info I posted was based on hearsay so take it for what it is worth.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Forgetting about the high voltage above the house it is a nosy area on summertime weekends, a lot of trail bikes, ATVs etc.

So two licensed and bonded surveyors messed up? There is nothing about this that smells right.

Some of the stories quote National Grid as saying that the driveway, water and sewer lines are on their easement, but don't say that the house is.

Nobody has said that National Grid has sent out a surveyor. Which leads me to suspect that they don't actually know whether the house is on their easement, in which case the statement reported in other stories that they are claiming the house in on the easement is either erroneous reporting or posturing by National Grid.

I'm finishing up DIY-building a 2000 square foot addition that's bigger than his house, including a $20k kitchen, 3 bedrooms, bathroom, garage, living room, diniing room, the works- more than doubling the size of my house... for about $80k total- that's about $40/sqft for whoever's counting. And that's using quality materials and not cutting corners. No way that house cost him $360k to build if he built it himself like he claims. It might be worth $360k if it was built 100' away, but it certainly didn't cost him that to build.

On the one TV interview, national grid said they had an independant survey done, and he built on their easment.

[This message has been edited by SteveFehr (edited 01-03-2007).]

"How did that line work out for you?"

On a few occasions - pretty well - but I was a shoe in anyway by the time I got around to that.... I was a good looking guy in my 20's and could charm the stripes off a tiger.... Seem to be lacking charm and looks these days - fortunately married the last one to fall for it.

As for utility easements I have 5' of overhead 12kv in the back and 2' of the front yard is high-pressure gas down about 3' - both running the same direction the width of 28' on my lot. The only thing that bugs me is I cant put in a hot tub in the back yard as several service drop spread out from the pole out back as well - knew that when I bought the place. Both are required set-backs and can't build in them anyway due to zoning/planning. When they moved the transformer out of my yard a few months back I tried to get them to mid-span the neighbors drop - but no dice... Think I need to talk to them about thier easement, and its extent on my property as the drops are far outside the 5'....