gas line easement

[Bird]

What color should the pipe be ?

Is this a trick question, Dusty? It depends on how old that pipe is. I would assume you're thinking of the yellow "plastic" pipe that's currently most common. Yellow paint and/or flags are also used to mark underground gas lines. However, black pipe was used in the past, and on one leakage survey job I did, they still had quite a bit of cast iron pipe with the flange or bell fittings that was put in the ground in 1921 according to their maps. And of course, galvanized pipe has been used. Copper tubing used to be common in many applications. Even the gas company installed copper tubing for my gas lights and grill in 1972 and a gas grill in 1977. However, copper is now frowned on for natural gas. And while most state laws pretty well parallel federal law, there are some differences in different states. On one job I did, there were some mobile home parks and it was illegal there to use flexible lines from the gas meter to the mobile home, while on another job in another state, in a mobile home park, flexible lines from the gas meter to the mobile home were required.

 

[Bird]

Today when I asked the realtor about the line he didn't have too much to say other than he didn't think it was a big issue....but he really didn't know too much about them.

As I said, they're usually safe and no problem, but I'd want to know what was there. However, to a lot of people, I'm sure the realtor was right. I have a cousin who bought 40 acres south of Dallas and there's a pipeline running across it. He knows generally where it is because they've kept the trees cut down along it, and that's all he knows; doesn't even know or care what size, whether it's gas, oil, LPG, etc.

 

[deereguy]

When you are looking up the deeds, ask the people there in the office for assistance, they aren't surveyors, but they can help you with some generalities of the property. Our family has worked with only one realtor who represented the farm we purchased in 2005, he and the landowner lied about too many items to list here, they both said "they didn't know anything".

My point is to do as much homework as possible and ask questions around to see what people might be willing to share, so you can make an informed decision.

 

[Dusty]

Today when I asked the realtor about the line he didn't have too much to say other than he didn't think it was a big issue....but he really didn't know too much about them.

Is there any means to determine the depth of the line w/o digging it up? Seems there should be.

He is only interested in selling the land, and the less he says, the less he can be held responsible for. When dealing with the realtor, remember, that he / she works for the seller, not the buyer. Many times they will tell you that you don't need a lawyer. If you hire a lawyer, he will be working for you, and is being paid to protect your interests, not the sellers. Many people believe that the mortgage company lawyers will protect them. They work for the mortgage company, not you. If you can't afford to have an attorney working for you, then you can't afford to purchase the property, because the money you spend now, will save you 10 times that amount later on when problems arise. It is always better to be pro active, than re active. Resolve all these issues before you purchase the land. Later on, you might not even be able to sell the land because of potential problems. A good lawyer will not cost you money, but will save you money and headaches.
Dusty

 

[AlanB]

It may be helpful, may not but those big gaslines are regulated by DOT. It was kind of a "trick question" at one of the last classes I was in,

What modes of transportation does DOT regulate...... None of us thought of Pipeline..... Not something many of us use.

Anyway, as you are checking the DOT.gov website, they are the authority having jurisdiction.

OH, and I wholeheartedly second what Dusty just said.

 

[CurlyDave]

Is there any means to determine the depth of the line w/o digging it up? Seems there should be.

Depending on its size and material, you could gently probe for it...

OTOH, if you are dead set on this land, you could make an offer contingent on the current owner demonstrating the depth of the pipeline in a number of places that you choose. That way you don't have to dig it up.

I would look long & hard at this. If the line is on the edge of the property, that is one thing, if it is down the center, that is totally different. Maybe you should just decide to not do anything with the land for 10'-20' or so on each side of the pipeline. Deduct that acreage from the total when you think about prices, and then deduct some more for the inconvenience. Every once in a while I read about someone getting killed by a gas leak from one of these pipelines.

 

[gemini5362]

What color should the pipe be ?

dusty that was not nice

 

[gemini5362]

He is only interested in selling the land, and the less he says, the less he can be held responsible for. When dealing with the realtor, remember, that he / she works for the seller, not the buyer. Many times they will tell you that you don't need a lawyer. If you hire a lawyer, he will be working for you, and is being paid to protect your interests, not the sellers. Many people believe that the mortgage company lawyers will protect them. They work for the mortgage company, not you. If you can't afford to have an attorney working for you, then you can't afford to purchase the property, because the money you spend now, will save you 10 times that amount later on when problems arise. It is always better to be pro active, than re active. Resolve all these issues before you purchase the land. Later on, you might not even be able to sell the land because of potential problems. A good lawyer will not cost you money, but will save you money and headaches.
Dusty

Dusty I agree with you totally I would add a bit to this though. Make sure you get a real estate attorney easements are very tricky things. A good place to look is a local real estate title company. Several of them have inhouse attorneys that do side work also. The advantage to an inhouse title attorney is the amount of experience they have with easements. Most of them have to draft easements. All of them have to aprove easements on property the title company writes a title policy on. The second thing I would add went along with what a previous poster said. I would make them mark the line all the way across the property. A surveyor has equipment to do that so I would make sure that it was done before I bought it.

 

[Bird]

Is there any means to determine the depth of the line w/o digging it up? Seems there should be.

Depending on its size and material, you could gently probe for it...

That might work, but there's a pretty good probability the pipe is too deep for that. As someone else mentioned, one new line going in is expected to be 16' deep in places, and one line I walked was supposedly put in at 15' in depth.

 

[CurlyDave]

That might work, but there's a pretty good probability the pipe is too deep for that. As someone else mentioned, one new line going in is expected to be 16' deep in places, and one line I walked was supposedly put in at 15' in depth.

If the pipe is too deep for that to work, it is deep enough not to be a worry.

The difference between 5' and 15' is 10' of safety factor for normal disturbance.

Except for the issue of what happens when the pipe corrodes through and blows out...