Homeowner Can’t Get Their RV Out and They Find a Utility Wire Blocking Backyard Gate
A homeowner walked outside to discover several new guy wires had appeared on their property. One was an eyesore in the front garden. Another presented a much bigger problem: It blocked an existing gate at the back of the property.
“Recently I noticed a few guy wires that wernt there before,” u/DerfQT wrote in a Sept. 28 post on Reddit.
One “super ugly” guy wire had been installed in the homeowner’s front garden. Additionally, a guy wire was installed near the back corner of the property, where the homeowner said it now prevents an existing gate from opening properly.
A guy wire is a tensioned cable used to add stability to structures such as utility poles and towers. As Penn-Tech International explains, the cables are also commonly used to support radio towers, ship masts, and similar structures.
The property owner’s gate served a rather big purpose—literally. The homeowner said it provided access for parking an RV and for annual soil deliveries by dump truck. According to u/DerfQT, the wire blocked the gate from opening and also eliminated the vertical clearance needed to bring an RV or dump truck through the entrance.
“Has anyone dealt with this before, is there any recourse for them blocking an existing ingress / egress?” the homeowner asked. “I know easements exist but surely there has to be some consideration for this?”
Moving the Gate Isn’t So Simple
Utility company installed guy wire blocking existing gate, what can I do?
by
u/DerfQT in
homeowners
Some commenters suggested relocating the gate, but the homeowner said the layout of the backyard made that an impractical solution.
A parking area sits behind the gate, with a pond on one side and a shed and patio nearby. “The entire yard is designed around what’s already there,” u/DerfQT explained, adding that they would “have to rip up my concrete patio or remove a huge ponds worth of rocks and flagstones and fill it in.”
And even then, the homeowner said they would be left with roughly a quarter of the backyard devoted to a parking area they could no longer access for parking.
That leads to the question: If the wire was installed within a utility easement, what would that easement actually allow?
Utility Easements Can Give Companies Broad Property Rights
Other commenters focused on who had the right to use that part of the property. U/UndividedCorruption suggested the homeowner charge the utility rent if the equipment had been installed on their property. At this, u/_176_ countered by saying an easement gives the utility certain legal rights to use the property. An easement does not necessarily transfer ownership of the land, though it can give another party specified rights to use it.
Exactly what those rights include depends on the easement itself, as well as applicable state and local law.
Utility easements generally give companies certain rights to use portions of privately owned land for their infrastructure. For example, PG&E explains that its easements can allow it to install, operate, and maintain utility facilities on property owned by someone else. Similarly, easements can also restrict what the property owner may put within that area.
The Reddit post doesn’t identify the utility company, location, whether the wire sits within a recorded easement, or the terms of any easement affecting that part of the property.
Those missing details would be important in determining what the utility was entitled to do in that part of the property. PG&E, for example, recommends that homeowners obtain copies of recorded utility easements from their county recorder, noting that they also commonly appear in property title reports.
For u/DerfQT, determining whether a utility easement covers that part of the property may be only the beginning of the answer. The next question is exactly what rights any applicable easement gives the utility—and whether those rights allowed a new guy wire to be placed directly in the path of an existing gate. We will monitor this story for further updates.
