Miss Utility

While shopping for the perfect property, we thought we found the perfect place. As part of due diligence, we called Miss Utility to find any utility lines. They found a shallow buried phone line right down the middle of the best part of the land, a flat hilltop. This line would put a major damper on any digging, drilling, or building and it was right through the center of the hilltop! So not only was there a phone line buried, but the line comes with an easement, meaning any knucklehead employed by a phone company, or its contractors, could legally access (trespass) anytime. Not good for privacy!

We asked about having them move the line. Sure, they would. They wanted $17,000 for the job. Yea, not. Back to shopping.

On another piece of property, we had to keep calling to get the utility companies to come out and mark their lines. Companies buy up one another, and end up with sometimes poorly maintained records of where their water, gas, power, or communication lines are buried.

Case in point: A seller in the rural country had a working landline. The phone company denied the existence of a line; well this became a fun process. How does the landline work without a “land” “line”?

After fussing with “Miss Utility”, we grabbed up the phone company guy, walked him to the seller’s cabin, showed him the demarcation box (this is where the phone company’s line ends and the customer’s lines begin).

Hmmm, he says. He attached a lineman phone, called the switchboard and his boss, and discovered he was wrong after all. Their response? The line went in many years before they automated, and it was overlooked.

Lesson learned: just because it is their job, don’t trust them to know what they are doing.