[kevinm55]

I was out of town and was surprised to learn that a quantum fiber installation project in Liberty Park was recently completed. I was stunned while watching the Ring camera footage which showed a worker using a large machine to remove massive amounts of my lawn and piles of dirt to dig trenches on both sides of my driveway to pull pipe and cable through my property. Further, they put some sort of large green plastic box (crooked and not secure between my property and my neighbors).

My front lawn is destroyed and will require hundreds of dollars and lots of work and time to restore it to the way it looked before this unauthorized work on and through my property. I will be pursuing recourse inclusive of having my front lawn re-sodded.

Are others familiar with this project and has anybody had a similar expedience? I will be curious to hear all thoughts. Willing to bet that this is somehow legal, however, I have never experienced any invasion/destruction of my own property in any other home I have ever owned…the lack of consent and and/or any form of compensation to homeowners all for the benefit of a company arbitrarily enhancing their infrastructure which they will make tons of money from just feels wrong on every level.

Anybody have this happen in their neighborhood and if so, how did it end in terms of repairs. Thx very much

[asianthree]

Yep every village will have or already completed cable. They eventually return and sod.

Did they trench in the easement part of your property, that you technically don’t own. However have to maintain

[jrref]

So, Quantum has the Century Link the "right of way" to replace the old underground phone lines with fiber. I'm 100% sure they notified everyone on your street where the work was to be done since it's a legal requirement. You probably missed it. That's on you. Either way, you don't have to give them permission and you have no legal recourse unless when they do restore your lawn, it's not done properly. Also, you would have to check but you probably don't own the land all the way to the curb where they are working even though you have to maintain it.

I would just make sure they restore your lawn to its former condition and if not, contact them and they will correct any problems. Quantum has been installing fiber over the past couple of years now and many have the same complaint as you have but at the end of the day, from what I've personally seen, they eventually do a great job restoring everything where you wouldn't have known it was disturbed.

[blueash]

Originally Posted by asianthree

Yep every village will have or already completed cable. They eventually return and sod.

Did they trench in the easement part of your property, that you technically don’t own. However have to maintain

So often people have posted this wrong opinion about ownership. An easement is a legal grant to allow a utility to come on to your property that you 100% do own to do their work. Repeat, you own the land but a condition of ownership when you bought the land is you must allow certain specific activities on your land.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by jrref

So, Quantum has the Century Link easement to replace the old underground phone lines with fiber. I'm 100% sure they notified everyone on your street where the work was to be done since it's a legal requirement. You probably missed it. That's on you. Either way, you don't have to give them permission and you have no legal recourse unless when they do restore your lawn, it's not done properly. Also, you would have to check but you probably don't own the land all the way to the curb where they are working even though you have to maintain it.

I would just make sure they restore your lawn to its former condition and if not, contact them and they will correct any problems. Quantum has been installing fiber over the past couple of years now and many have the same complaint as you have but at the end of the day, from what I've personally seen, they eventually do a great job restoring everything where you wouldn't have known it was disturbed.

Dam, I wish they would do that in our neighborhood. It would be great if Xfinity had some competition.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by asianthree

Yep every village will have or already completed cable. They eventually return and sod.

Did they trench in the easement part of your property, that you technically don’t own. However have to maintain

Originally Posted by blueash

So often people have posted this wrong opinion about ownership. An easement is a legal grant to allow a utility to come on to your property that you 100% do own to do their work. Repeat, you own the land but a condition of ownership when you bought the land is you must allow certain specific activities on your land.

Then change asianthree’s term from easement to right of way and the question stands. From every document I have seen, I do not own all the way to the curb.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Then change asianthree’s term from easement to right of way and the question stands. From every document I have seen, I do not own all the way to the curb.

Correct. This is most likely NOT an easement, it is a "right of way". You need to examine your official plat. My front property line is located about 7 feet from the curb. The 7-foot section of land between the curb and the front property line is a right of way and it is not owned by the homeowner. OP, before you accuse anyone of tearing up your property, get a copy of your plat and see if you actually own the property.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by blueash

So often people have posted this wrong opinion about ownership. An easement is a legal grant to allow a utility to come on to your property that you 100% do own to do their work. Repeat, you own the land but a condition of ownership when you bought the land is you must allow certain specific activities on your land.

You're right, most people don't understand easements and ownership.

You are incorrect.

An "Easement" is not a legal grant to allow a utility to come on to your property that you 100% own". Easements have 2 parts ... the Dominant estate and the Servient estate.

It depends on what easement is in questions and and where it's located.

The "Easements" along the sides of Villages roads/streets do NOT belong to homeowners.

Easements between homes, typically belong to abutting home owners, but not always.

In this case, the poster says they were digging trenches on "both sides of his driveway" ... that doesn't make sense. It's not likely there's an easement for utilities, through or over his driveway (other than within the road layout).

[margaretmattson]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Correct. This is most likely NOT an easement, it is a "right of way". You need to examine your official plat. My front property line is located about 7 feet from the curb. The 7-foot section of land between the curb and the front property line is a right of way and it is not owned by the homeowner. OP, before you accuse anyone of tearing up your property, get a copy of your plat and see if you actually own the property.

It should also be noted homeowners are not allowed to add landscaping especially trees in the easement.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

You're right, most people don't understand easements and ownership.

You are incorrect.

An "Easement" is not a legal grant to allow a utility to come on to your property that you 100% own". Easements have 2 parts ... the Dominant estate and the Servient estate.

It depends on what easement is in questions and and where it's located.

The "Easements" along the sides of Villages roads/streets do NOT belong to homeowners.

Easements between homes, typically belong to abutting home owners, but not always.

In this case, the poster says they were digging trenches on "both sides of his driveway" ... that doesn't make sense. It's not likely there's an easement for utilities, through or over his driveway (other than within the road layout).

If the work is being done near the road, it is most likely on the right-of-way. This is not an easement, and it is not owned by the homeowner. It does make sense that they would be digging trenches on both sides of the driveway because the homeowner probably does not own the entire driveway because it is part of the right-of-way. Even though you may be using and maintaining the driveway to the street, you probably don't own part of your own driveway. It may sound unfair, but that is the way it is. Hopefully, they will tunnel under the driveway to install the cable.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by margaretmattson

It should also be noted homeowners are not allowed to add landscaping especially trees in the easement.

That is untrue.

It depends on what the easement is and what it is for.

People on TOTV keep talking about "Easements" and lump them all together. Every easement is different, for a different purpose, with different specifics what can be done or not done with the boundaries of the easement.

There is no "The Easement" !

[kevinm55]

Thanks to all for the mostly well informed responses. As I stated in my initial post, I said that I am sure this was legal or this company would not be doing this in the entire neighborhood.

That said, the trenching was definitely done at least 7 feet from the street and it certainly required digging trenches on both sides of the driveway. There is now also an unsightly approx 2 foot high green square box now proudly sitting next to the driveway (I don’t care who you are and how you feel about easements, it is not a good new look and I am certain you would be unhappy if this new quantum lawn ornament was placed on your lawn or what you always thought was your lawn LOL)

I will monitor the lawn remediation efforts closely (this just occurred). After spending thousands of dollars in top notch lawn care to maintain and improve my front lawn, this obviously came as a surprise to me but it will all be fine. It will be nice to have an alternative to Xfinity so perhaps this will have been a good thing down the line. Thx again all!!

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

That is untrue.

It depends on what the easement is and what it is for.

People on TOTV keep talking about "Easements" and lump them all together. Every easement is different, for a different purpose, with different specifics what can be done or not done with the boundaries of the easement.

There is no "The Easement" !

I suppose that may depend on the interpretation of the words. ”2.14 No building or other improvements shall be made within the easements reserved by the Developer without prior written approval of the Developer.”

[kevinm55]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

You're right, most people don't understand easements and ownership.

You are incorrect.

An "Easement" is not a legal grant to allow a utility to come on to your property that you 100% own". Easements have 2 parts ... the Dominant estate and the Servient estate.

It depends on what easement is in questions and and where it's located.

The "Easements" along the sides of Villages roads/streets do NOT belong to homeowners.

Easements between homes, typically belong to abutting home owners, but not always.

In this case, the poster says they were digging trenches on "both sides of his driveway" ... that doesn't make sense. It's not likely there's an easement for utilities, through or over his driveway (other than within the road layout).

Definitely under my driveway and nowhere near the curb/road. I will research the existence of the exact easements in my particular instance. It was clear they were dragging this cable under everybody’s driveways no matter what each individual property may stipulate regarding the existence of easements etc. Said another way, they must be batting 1,000 as not a single property was left untouched - all good, I will welcome better fiber for my own use if that is what the project will ultimately yield.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by kevinm55

There is now also an unsightly approx 2 foot high green square box now proudly sitting next to the driveway (I don’t care who you are and how you feel about easements, it is not a good new look

You need to look at your Deed (& recorded easements) and your Plot Plan, very carefully. DO NOT assume what you've been told in this thread is accurate. As I posted, every easement is different.

Every Utility Easement is different. Don't assume the installers know what's allowed and not allowed. There's a very good chance that Quantum does not have an easement to locate anything "above ground". Again, it depends on the specific language in your easement.

In most cases, there are no longer "blanket easements". Easements must have an attached "plan" and a specific description of what's allowed (& what's not allowed).