Public Utilities running through your property? Any rules for this?

Is it OK for National Grid to run their gas line 3' into my property, parallel to the street, for the entire width of my yard?

As some of you know, we're doing MAJOR renovations on our house - lifting it to excavate existing foundation, digging a new basement, pouring new footings, new foundation, putting the house back down.

To complicate things, our property is <0.1 acre and it's a TINY one-lane street to access it, so the diggers/scoopers/trucks/dumpsters will have a he L L of a time getting the dirt out and away from the property.

We intended to take over most of the street and dig through the front of the house, allowing better access to the dumpsters (our neighbors are all OK with this), but we found out Fri we can't do that because the gas line for National Grid runs parallel to our street, 3' into my front yard (which is maybe 8' from street to front door), and it runs the entire width of my property.

So now the excavators have to go through the backyard, which will create more work and risk the collapse of the cesspools in the back -- I've emailed a great customer service guy at National Grid but I'm concerned they'll say "sorry - we're a public utility and that's the way it is"

Anybody have experience with this? TIA.

Re: Public Utilities running through your property? Any rules for this?

yes they can. They probably have an easement on the deed allowing them this right.

Re: Public Utilities running through your property? Any rules for this?

Maybe your property line in the front doesn't go to the street and land you believe is yours is really not. You would need your 2 front corners of your property staked to be sure. But regardless, like someone said above, they could have an easement.

IMO, it is what it is. If it's a risk re the gas line to work from the street, there is no fighting that IMO.

Message edited 8/7/2011 5:51:55 PM.

Re: Public Utilities running through your property? Any rules for this?

It is possible that National Grid has a utility easement. Generally speaking, an easement is an interest in land owned by someone else that entitles its holder to a specific limited use or enjoyment. A utility easement is strips of land used by utility companies to construct and maintain electric, telephone and cable television lines, water, and sewer lines or to bury gas pipelines.

I would check your Title Insurance Report as it will list any easements that were found for your property at the time the report was created.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to FM me. Good luck with your renovations!

Message edited 8/7/2011 9:33:52 PM.

Re: Public Utilities running through your property? Any rules for this?

Re: Public Utilities running through your property? Any rules for this?

Yes. We have a scwa water box on my lawn, about 3 feet back. I asked the scwa guy about it, he said the town technically owns the first 3-4 feet of my property and that of most blocks. So they can technically widen my street if need be.