That is incredibly insulting. I would make them pay for the insult.

Cap,

Definitely PM me a copy of the proposed easement or post it here. I think any number of us would rather enjoy reading it and generating thoughts as to how you can horse these guys around on it.

This is what I was referring to when I said he should start by saying no thanks.

Great joke!

I think it is correlated, but you just have no idea how they figure the cost. If these lines are supposed to go up for 500 years then the actual cost of installing might be a small consideration to the overall cost. There could be considerations other than cost to them. Trying to figure this all out on your own seems almost impossible. I think you're better off looking up what people have gotten before, figuring out how much you want and working from that.

Thanks everyone for the tips so far. The guy came back out this morning and was rather taken aback that I wasn't going to accept his offer.

The best part of his initial offer was when he came out the 1st time to look at the service I need installed he started the meeting by saying they'd just trade everything I need for free "Won't cost you anything"(the poles, meter base and 200 amp service in trade for the easement). The service install total for everything is $780 and after he got done driving me around and talking about chainsaws and coonhounds he wrote up the paperwork. I obviously didn't sign anything and didn't read it until after he left. It said they'd give me the poles for free but it was still going to cost me $180 for the meterbase and hookup fee. So he tried to cheat me out of $180 right there after verbally offering everything for free.

He came back this morning and we went back up to look at the area and he upped the offer by offering to install a pole up there for free in case I ever want to add electrical service there. Just what I need electrical service 1/2 mile away behind a mountain. They also have a $25 per month minimum charge whether you use electricity or not so he's going to give me a free pole that will cost me $25 per month service charge. Sign me up.

I told him I wasn't really interested in giving them an easement and that I'd just write him a check for the $780, which I did. His final tactic was guilt. He informed me that installing new lines would benefit the whole community, including me, and that if they can't get people to give them the access they need than they just might not put any new lines in at all.

HT,
I did ask for a copy of the easement. He's supposed to send me their "standard agreement". I'll post it when I get it.

awww man, I wanted to know what he said when you countered his $780 with $15K

Alobar,

15k is a crazy low counter. Cap should counter with way higher than that.

Met at a subway station convenient for him. Brought a bottle of wine & four cans of (good) IPA. Either/or would have been fine? But he didn't ask for anything which was nice.

Be careful. These things are permanent and pass along with the property forever. Let me tell you a quick story -

Without going into a ton of detail, I inherited 800 acres that bordered the land I grew up on. Long story, but the neighbor had no children and I was adopted by my aunt and uncle. I've told that story elsewhere so I won't go into the details here. But, the neighbor took a shine to me and treated me like his son. So, when he passed away, I was shocked to learn he left the property to me. Not as shocked as my old man however but that is another story.

Nobody has lived there for over 25 years now. But in the old days, the neighbor had leased out a portion of the back property to the town to use as the town dump. That ended in the late 60's when the town bought their own permanent site and moved the dump. It was bulldozed over and forgotten.

Fast forward to 1998. The town decides they need to clean up that site due to the chemicals that had been dumped there. It was discovered stuff was leaking into the ground water. No biggie right?

That dump is only accessible by the dirt road that traverses the property I grew up on and the property I inherited. And the town has an easement. Makes sense. Except, nobody lives there and that portion of the road was not being maintained.

Anyway, the town sued me, the current owner, forcing me to maintain the road. And it worked. I have to pay every couple of years to have the road graded so the town can continue their clean-up. And those large trucks are not easy on that road.

That has been going on just short of 20 years now. For 20 years, the town has been hauling dump truck after dump truck loads of dirt out of there, cleaning it or doing whatever the hell they are doing to it and then hauling it back. Lord knows when they will be finished.

Ouch!

What is your annual cost for the road?

Thankfully, it is not as much as it could be. Annualized, it’s about $500/year. Avg every 3 years I have it graded. Luckily, a rancher to the west of me has a grader and I pay him to do it at a discount as I have given him grazing rights on my property as it would otherwise go unused.

About once a year, I have a company come in and oil the road to keep dust down. Unfortunately, California regulations are so messed up, I have to use a county approved commercial operator to do that. That is the bulk of the cost now.

It would be less if I had my family participate. The first 3/4 mile is their property. But I count that as repayment for them having to put up with me until they could legally send me packing.

What was the legal basis for you needing to maintain the road?

Not sure I could do it justice. I had already left the state at the time and just hired a lawyer to handle it.

It is actually more complicated and scary than I detailed in my post. The suit also suggested that I should participate financially in the clean-up of the dump. Millions of dollars. More money than I would see in 10 lifetimes. It was nonsense of course. But I incurred a relatively large legal bill with a law firm for them to deal with it. In the end, I agreed to maintain the road for the rest to go away.

The not so funny part, they estimated they would be done with the clean up by 2007. They are still working on it.

Sounds like you need a better attorney.

Sounds like you need a shell company in the Cayman Islands. Set up company, sell the land to them for $10, lease it back for a buck a year. Enjoy watching the local authority trying to find out who actually owns the land now and trying to get money out of them.

Is there a way to configure Tapatalk so that I don’t see lead pictures associated with each thread? I just want to see the damn thread titles, not associated video/gif memes. Tapatalk is awful.

Settings, disable preview photos

pokeraz, where can I read about the inheritance, family relationships etc? Sounds very interesting!

I'm always a little taken aback whenever I come across a sincere post from lbr

I am too, but that worked. Thanks, LBR

I've just got a little cold, should be fine in a few days.

Can a tapatalk post be deleted?

Not from Tapatalk. You'd have to also be logged in to 2p2 on a browser on your phone and do it from there