Water line easement -- why?

[ultrarunner]

Around here it is the sewer connections that cause havoc...

The main runs a quarter mile on my brother's property which is also under a county road which is on his pioneer homestead land...

When he contacted the district he was told he needed to file EIR and have approved plans to hook up for his existing home...

He said the county has no easement for the line run on his property... and after research... my brother is technically correct... it is one of the only places a county road here is still on private property... going back to the pioneer homestead...

The county said they always have the option to eminent domain... amazing how these things get complicated...

When he was repairing a culvert they said he needed an encroachment permit... he told them to look again... the clerk could not believe he owned the property the road was on...

 

[Rock knocker]

I won't willingly agree to any easement through my property, period. I don't care if would benefit me some how. No easements. Talking from experience.

You already probably have an easement from where you electrical feed hits your property until it enters the meter. All that is the property of the POCO, hence under easement.

 

[Wagtail]

Why would your taxes go up? If you have public utilities, they might go up slightly because it would add a little value but you already have water.

Because the local government (what ever it's called in your part of the world) will want to finance the cost & maintenance of putting it in, whether you've hooked up to it or not.

My shire council, after I jumped through all of the hoops to build my 5-bay shed and finished it to their specs, then up'd my property tax assessment immediately by $15 due to 'an improvement'. Sure, an extra $15 per annum isn't that much, but it's a 'death by a thousand cuts' sort of thing.

 

[Pirate]

I wouldn't do it. Five years from now they want to run a sewer line, or this or that, and they go to court and say, well your honor, we already have a water line running through there......................

 

[txdon]

My parents were forced to grant permission of a pipeline easement through their property. One farmer took the oil company to court with a jury and won!!! But - the judge overturned the verdict and granted the easement. You just cannot win.

10 years later they widen the easement and added another pipeline. Yesterday they were notified by certified mail that there will be a third pipe laid.

Several months ago I was out with my grapple pulling out an old fence on the easement and noticed a plane overhead, about an hour later a pipeline representative showed up on the property investigating what I was doing on "their" easement.

So OP, Ken45101, what did you do?