Buying land that has a natural gas line on it?

[Death Row Dave]

The min is 36 in to the top of the pipe . The issue is :

The guy driving posts DID NOT have the pipe located .
It is his responsibility to ha the pipe located by call before you dig . Once the pipe is located if he planned on digging / driving posts in the located area , he must locate the pipe by hand digging or use of a metal rod . This is prime example of 3rd party dig in , I explained earlier . This is not the pipeline companies fault .The blame is on the guy driving posts . I have been involved in hundreds of dig ins , it will very expensive for the guy driving the post . He will be charged time and material to repair and cost of gas leaking .

The amount of cover is subject to change after installation of the pipeline . I have been involved many times in transmission pipes being installed in a rural area , as time passes and population moves and subdivisions are built , grades often more than not change . The developers , want to sell lots , at the grades they want . You buy the property and are never informed , there is a pipeline in your yard . You want to plan a flower garden and hit the top of the pipeline with a shovel . Now the developer is gone and got your hard earned $$ . The pipeline company comes in and adds 3 ft of cover on the easement . What can you do , nothing ! The pipeline company paid for easement 35 years before you took ownership of the property .

I installed a pressure regulating station to lower pressures to house line pressure , in the back yard , 6 ft from a swimming pool , 750K lot and home price . The owner was not happy and threatened me . The police were called and the home owner was informed nothing he can do !

 

[Jstpssng]

You buy the property and are never informed , there is a pipeline in your yard .

That is completely on the landowner. Most likely the title attorney informed them, along with all of the other things they cover at a sale. Furthermore if it was a subdivision; any easements and R/Ws should be on the platte. If people don't read what is given to them, they have nobody to blame but themselves.

I'm planting bare root trees on the church lawn to eventually create a screen from the road, digging down 18" to prep the soil. You can bet that I will be calling DigSafe first.

 

[Death Row Dave]

Well I can tell you first hand , I own property with transmission pipeline on it , I installed it before I bought the property , I had the previous own sign the easement agreement .

When I purchased the property I looked closely at all paperwork nothing was listed or shown as having an easement . I would not sign until , paper work was located .

It could never be produced by closing attorneys . I returned to work and produced a copy of the easement agreement .

The final result was , it was never entered by the county court clerk .

Funny thing sellers attorney says , “ if it ain’t shown there isn’t one !” He was a real egg head .

My question to his wise ass was , if I produce it how much $$ return do I get for doing your job ? I have line markers , I installed , and I never know the pipe is there or seen a worker present after I retired .

This is why I can not over stress , Call Before You Dig , it’s free . It could safe your life and thousands of $$ in damage repair . Please remember , depth is never given , it is your responsibility to locate the pipe before breaking any soil over it .

 

[dougtrr2]

The line crossing my property is much deeper than 36". But when the lines cross waterways they are sometimes elevated and fully exposed. Just the thing for my son and his friends to rappel off of.

Doug in SW IA

 

[AWSubie]

I have a large line crossing my property. The pipe developed a leak due to corrosion. Once I discovered the leak the company was very prompt in sending out a team to repair the line.

 

[JasperFrank]

In your calculation of the value price for the land, I would entirely discount what ever easement this took up. You don't "own" this. So it isn't 42 Acr.. that you are buying. There would have to be a compensation to you from the Gas Company, in writing, and forever attached to your deed.

 

[two_bit_score]

In your calculation of the value price for the land, I would entirely discount what ever easement this took up. You don't "own" this. So it isn't 42 Acr.. that you are buying. There would have to be a compensation to you from the Gas Company, in writing, and forever attached to your deed.

Not trying to be argumentative but.....
Would you expect the same thing from electrical service easements, cable tv, telephone, sewer, water lines, etc. because chances are you have easements for all of these, maybe more, on almost any property you own?

And, yes, easements are recorded and will be referenced on your deed if the Title records were properly searched and recorded when purchased. And, no, the gas company paid the owner when they obtained the original easement rights and unless specifically limited in the original record it will continue in perpetuity. All standard practice. This has all been done before.

 

[Death Row Dave]

You still do OWN the property , the utility company does not own land where the Right of Way is located . The own the use of the Right of Way , is about as basic as it can be explained . You DO NOT have to allow access of the Right of Way over other parts of your property . You can require the utility company to access from nearest road crossing and stay on Right of Way only to do required work .

 

[denchen]

Different country different rules, but... Many years ago when dad owned our farm in England, we had a 36 inch high pressure natural gas pipe going through one of the fields. This pipe was 16 feet deep and we were allowed to farm above it with some restrictions. Not allowed to sub soil whilst ploughing, not allowed to construct any building and things like that. Anyway one autumn [Fall] dad was ploughing and when crossing where the pipe was close to the edge of the field, his tractor called out and stalled. Dad thinking he'd caught on some hedge row roots, backed up and had another go. Again the tractor dug in and stopped so again dad backed up. This time when he reversed he saw what looked like a 6 inch plastic pipe with hundreds if not thousands of tiny electric wires going through the pipe. The plough had cut almost the whole way through. Dad said if he'd had one more go it would have gone right through. Anyway dad crossed the `wire` and dropped the plough and carried on until he came close to the house. The gas company used to give him a nice calender each year that had a phone number. Dad phoned this number and was told that they had thousands of lights on and wondered what had happened. A couple of days later, the gas company had a plastic tent over the `wire` and some guys rejoining all the wires said the `wire` should have been 12 foot deep. The gas company used to pay a sum of money each year for the pipe going through the land.

 

[LHF2019]

This showed up in local paper. It's not about buried lines but gas and oil wells. But all of these are connected. This is my county and one of the dots is the well on this farm. I wished they had it separated by gas and oil.

Report highlights record natural gas production

Pennsylvania is the second largest producer of natural gas in the nation — second only to Texas. That’s one of the highlights of the Department of Environmental Protection’s 2021 Oil and Gas Annual report released last week. According to DEP, more than 7.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas was...

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