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SnakeEater
- Cranky Member
posted: Jul. 1, 2009 @ 6:06p 
Stop whining!! Hire an attorney and an engineer to monitor the work. Take a vacation until the mess is finished. Stop whining!!
George
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nwmsu
- Thrifty Member
posted: Jul. 1, 2009 @ 8:06p
Would you rather the City not do a thing and let raw sewage flow into your house that starts in your showers in the lowest level of your house and spreads like wild fire everywhere bringing with it a smell that is flowery fresh? Easy up on it. Wait until they are done then complain. Call the Public Works Director, let him/her know you are uneasy about what is going on. My lord, people here saying attorney up, this is what is wrong with our country. It all is in this thread. Take a chill pill, call, communicate since the phone works both ways and wait to see what the end result is. |
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wp746911
- Senior Member
posted: Jul. 1, 2009 @ 8:14p
Lappie has good advice- I would think one of your best 'friendly' contacts would be your city council member. Not sure about where you live but in Houston I've had great luck with them- they (or one of their staff) contacts me the next day with helpful advice. They are practical, explaining very nicely the 'why things are the way they are' if something can't be changed, and if they can be changed, they fight for me and will work with the city. Try that. Otherwise, just give up. I still don't know why you value those bushes so much. I had a 50 year old oak tree get ripped in half my hurricane IKE- act of god I know but just got out my chain saw, spent a full day cutting it up, and moved on with my life. |
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clbencemunns
- Thrifty Member
posted: Jul. 1, 2009 @ 9:13p
City put brand new sewer in my neighborhood a year ago. They dug up the whole neighborhood, and the side of the road they dug up happened to be my side. I had a very large maple tree maybe 5-6ft from the road/fence. It was in rough shape (part of an adjoining lot we'd very recently bought). Said tree ended up having a main root where they were digging the trench. Somehow, the tree ended up with a huge crack, right up the middle of the tree. Needless to say, I was peeeeeeved off. It was close to our house, and had it come crashing down the right way, it would have hit our house. DH and I discussed it at length, and chose to speak directly with the contracters. DH is very pleasant and always keeps his cool. We figured if he schmoozed the actual workers, we would have a much better chance of getting it handled, rather than immediately calling the city to go over their head. It worked like a charm. Luckily, we weren't that attached to the tree. Within days, they cut it down, hauled off the entire thing, AND dug out the stump and smoothed it back out. Later, when they put in the stub lines into everyone's yards, they spent hours cutting my beautiful grass into sod strips, and very carefully opening my chain link fence. They perfectly put back my sod and fence ASAP. When they paved the road, they also dumped and smoothed extra rock into most of my driveway. Everyone else in the neighborhood got generic, hauled in sod that mostly died off, and fences slightly more damaged. My advice? Be real nice, joke around, offer a drink/snack, and make some buddies with the contactors. They'll be able to fix you up (if they're so inclined). Call their bosses first, and they won't like you as much. |
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Rayout
- Senior Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 10:36a
Well at least they are paying for the work. A few years back when I was working in St. Paul, MN they were replacing the sewers and redoing the streets in various neighborhoods. Traffic was a crawl and people could barely go to work. Lots of nice trees were taken down. The kicker: the neighborhood had to pay for it. Each house on a street being repaired received an additional bill of $1000+ over their property taxes. |
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Lappie
- Ancient Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 12:12p
Rayout said:Well at least they are paying for the work. A few years back when I was working in St. Paul, MN they were replacing the sewers and redoing the streets in various neighborhoods. Traffic was a crawl and people could barely go to work. Lots of nice trees were taken down. The kicker: the neighborhood had to pay for it. Each house on a street being repaired received an additional bill of $1000+ over their property taxes. Oh I bet he is paying for it on his bill in some way shape or form. These projects are not free. |
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Gadgetgeek
- New Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 1:24p
I work for a major Title insurance underwriter and it sounds like you might be able to filed a claim on your owner title insurance policy. First you need to look at your policy under Sch B-II to see if the sewer easement was listed an exception to you coverage. if this land is a platted subdivision the easement might be shown on the plat map and your title insurance policy probably will take exception to any "matter shown on the Plat"
Now if the Easement is not on your property, then the utility company HAS TO get you to sign a temporary construction easement and within that temp easement will be the terms of the repairs of anything damaged during construction. |
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therat84
- Addicted Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 4:05p
just fall in the hole and sue the city..duhhhh..they never sent you the letter! now run and fall in! |
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hiroler
- Addicted Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 6:09p
dstoneburg said:Many of the neighbors decided ( 20+ years ago ) that they wanted the land and built fences blocking the easement. The bulldozers came and blew through everyones fences, they also trimmed my 30 year old arborvitaes to near stick and bones. aahhahahahahaha...hahaha ahhh hahahahahahaha...man i'm rofl over here...Thanks. |
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dstoneburg
- Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 6:15p
hiroler said:dstoneburg said:Many of the neighbors decided ( 20+ years ago ) that they wanted the land and built fences blocking the easement. The bulldozers came and blew through everyones fences, they also trimmed my 30 year old arborvitaes to near stick and bones.
aahhahahahahaha...hahaha ahhh hahahahahahaha...man i'm rofl over here...Thanks. Just to be clear I did not have a fence or anything blocking the easement, they did also bulldozer over someones that was in the way. |
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hiroler
- Addicted Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 6:28p
Gadgetgeek said:I work for a major Title insurance underwriter and it sounds like you might be able to filed a claim on your owner title insurance policy. First you need to look at your policy under Sch B-II to see if the sewer easement was listed an exception to you coverage. if this land is a platted subdivision the easement might be shown on the plat map and your title insurance policy probably will take exception to any "matter shown on the Plat"
Now if the Easement is not on your property, then the utility company HAS TO get you to sign a temporary construction easement and within that temp easement will be the terms of the repairs of anything damaged during construction. looooooollllll come on guys you're killing me here. There's a f^#$ing sewer line in the hole, so obviously there's either a permanent easement there or that's his lateral. File a claim on your insurance for a couple bushes??!??!?!?!? Are you joking?!? Do what clbencemunns did. DO NOT CALL THE MUNICIPALITY/ENGINEER, OR EVERYONE'S SEWER BILL WILL GO UP. Have a beer with the contractor and ask them nicely. If that doesn't work, ask them for a damage claim form. If that doesn't work, fill the damage claim form out, keep a copy of it, and submit one to the contractor/engineer/sewer authority. The contractor's final application for payment won't get approved until all damage claims are resolved. I may not be a Title insurance underwriter, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. |
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hiroler
- Addicted Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 6:40p
I don't meant to yell at you dstoneburg, I understand your frustration having just purchased the home. I just happen to manage sewer projects for a living and was having flashbacks from this morning when a surveyor doing stakeout told me we have to take down 8 trees in a row. I can't wait for that phone call. |
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Squeezer99
- Addicted Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 9:06p
other then some barricades needed around the hole, i think you're over reacting. Trees grow back or you buy new ones. i'd rather have my toilets flushing then having some trees in my yard. |
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nkha1
- Senior Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2009 @ 10:27p
It's better than having a decaying/broken sewer line smelling up your yard. Never build or plant anything valuable in easements or public rights-of-way. The trenches will be filled and it will either be sodded or seeded. If they had to do work beyond the right-of-way or easement and tear something up or cut something down they will replace it. Anything in an easement or right-of-way is fair game. |
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ezletzpla
- Member
posted: Jul. 4, 2009 @ 9:38a
jackpot... free pool. i'm sure they would even fill it up for you...might not be with water though. |
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newlin99
- Senior Member
posted: Jul. 5, 2009 @ 12:14a
I'm still waiting for the op to post if/when he called anybody from the city about this. Have you talked to the contractors yet? Have you talk to anybody? |
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stiltner
- Senior Member - 1K
posted: Jul. 5, 2009 @ 6:46p
I had a clogged and busted sewer line in my house when I bought it. The previous owner mentioned nothing about not connecting said sewer line back to the city exit when he decided to " fix " it. End result, 2-3 weeks into fixing the house, the smell of fecal matter, and other such lovely scents, spewing from my backyard.
I find things to complain about. Fixing the utilities that provide me a sensible lifestyle is not generally one of them I complain about.
I spent 4 days knee high in human crap fixing a busted sewer line. I would not complain if someone wanted to trade me a tree for that job any day of the week my friend.
And the best advice in this thread came from the subject RE: talk to the contractors, not at them. You never believe how nice the garbage man will haul away trash that the dogs tear up on your curb when you toss him a 12 pk for a X-mas gift every year. You can attract those bee's... etc etc  |
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dstoneburg
- Member
posted: Jul. 6, 2009 @ 3:06a
The contractors have had the weekend off, so as of currently I have done nothing other then document everything and am waiting to see how they intend to fix it rather then jump the gun. |
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