My question involves real estate located in the State of: NC
I recently bought my first home at the end of last year and have run into an issue with my town wanting to purchase some of my property to expand their current 15' easement on my property. It's a .37 acre lot in an old subdivision. The plans shared with me by an engineer I spoke with show they want to buy about 1200 sq. ft. of land. The story is there is already a water substation and a road on the 30' easement which my neighbor and I split. The property line runs at about a 110 degree from the front to back on the right side of my property. The access road starts on my neighbors property and finishes at the substation on mine. It seems the town's plan involves using the rest of the back right corner of my yard by perhaps purchasing an odd shaped piece 10x60x28x63 (WxL's around) which will pretty much take everything I do not have squarely fenced within my current backyard fence. There is already have a 10' easement along the back of the property as well, but this isn't used for anything and is cover in tall trees and clearly is not in their purchase plan. The current substation doesn't appear significantly use any of it.
I managed to get the town engineer on the project to share the survey and substation plans with me. The problem I have is the new substation will definitely be much larger and obviously extend closer to my house. Their easement will probably end about 10-15' from the back corner of my house, which is where the master bedroom is located. This will definitely hurt the curb appeal of my property, probably result in more noise and cause more vibrations (which some vibrations can be already be detected at a very small level when I'm in bed and have my ear in the pillow). The current substation does not have a generator on site, nor does it have a grinder. Both of which I see in the new plans. Both will be closer to my house than the current station. Maybe I'm overreacting, but a grinder seems like it would cause more vibrations when running. Granted, I know very little about water substations. I also see plans for "future odor control". All of this worries me.
Lastly, this whole project cuts down the useful space I have because it will have a chain-link fence around it. Nothing says class like chain-link! So, the station will now be closer to the back corner of my house and pretty much stops all the plans I had to revitalize the backyard the previous owners left me with. The fenced in backyard has a lot of tall pine trees and their capture of that land outside my fence probably limits the ability for someone to remove those trees. I'm not sure someone will try to drop a 100' pine tree in a 15 foot window between a house and a fenced in easement without great cost. I am even doubtful they would be able to get a crane close enough to get to some of the trees without working over some of the new substation.
My questions are:
1. Can I refuse to let them buy it? Will they just take it anyway? It seems these plans have been in motion for a while and they were waiting to spring it on me closer to the building date. I just managed to stumble upon it when I offhandedly mentioned their current substation's easement violation.
2. If I must take a deal, what are some of the things I can negotiate into their purchase? I was thinking of asking them to pay the property tax for that little bit of land. It's only .026 acres, but they're acquiring the permanent use of 7% of my total land.
3. How much can home depreciation count into this? Can I try to negotiate what the future value and use of that land is worth to me? Pain and suffering during the installation of the new substation which will definitely cause some noise pollution. It is going in in 2 phases and they will have pump service 24 hrs during the construction of the new substation, I see a request in the plans for the temporary pumps to not be over 55 decibels measured from 7 meters away. The problem is my bedroom window is closer than that.
4. I have a Mortgage Certification Credit. Therefore, I get hit with penalties if I sell my property before I have lived there 9 years. The value of the credit they said is something like $18k, and the penalties are assessed as year 0 0%, 1 yr 20%, 2 yr 40%, 3 yr 60%, 4 yr 80%, 5yr 80%, 6 yr 60%, 7 yr 40 %, 8 yr 20%. Therefore, if I take their deal and this turns out to be a nightmare to live with due to unexpected noise, smell, whatever, I have to live with it or get hit with a sizeable tax penalty for claiming the MCC and then selling before year 9. Can I use this somehow?
Some other notable details/background: The city placed the small water substation in that back corner a long time ago. Our house is one of the oldest in the oldest neighborhood in that area and it might predate that. The city apparently didn't survey well when the station was put in because the left-hand corner of current substation's concrete slab sits 3-4 feet past the easement on my property. The control panel for the station is entirely on my property, along with the 4 trees they planted to beautify the fenced in station.
When I purchased the house, I had a survey done and noticed this violation, but really didn't care because it is just a few feet beyond the easement. That said, I brought up this easement violation with the town when I contacted the city this winter about the mobile generator they parked on my grass for 3 weeks next to the easement (not on their gravel easement road). They were expecting an ice storm and this station doesn't have a backup generator; therefore, they bring one out during power outages and park it on the gravel road. I only brought up the easement violation in passing because I wanted to know if they were alright with me ripping out the trees planted in my yard. I wanted to know my options because I hoped to fence in the rest of my backyard that was near the easement. My current fence is about 30 feet from their easement in the far back of the yard and 15 feet from the front part where my backyard begins.
At this time the city said someone would get back to me and the next day I was contacted by one of their engineers who mentioned they already had plans to revamp that station and I would be contacted by their real estate group about purchasing a little more of my property to expand the easement in a couple of months. Fast forward two months and I notice surveying stakes have been placed in my yard sectioning off a good bit near the substation. I wait a bit and there is no contact so I call and discuss what's going on. I convince the engineer on the project to send me the survey and substation's plans, and I am now worried I will have a huge eyesore starting about 15 feet past my house and all that it may bring. I just bought this house and I've already been screwed with by ATT fiber tearing up the front yard and putting a junction box in the damn center of my front yard. Now this. Any ideas on my rights to tell them to pound sand, or how I can extract the most cash out of what will likely be a miserable situation.
Thanks in advance,
GJK
I recently bought my first home at the end of last year and have run into an issue with my town wanting to purchase some of my property to expand their current 15' easement on my property. It's a .37 acre lot in an old subdivision. The plans shared with me by an engineer I spoke with show they want to buy about 1200 sq. ft. of land. The story is there is already a water substation and a road on the 30' easement which my neighbor and I split. The property line runs at about a 110 degree from the front to back on the right side of my property. The access road starts on my neighbors property and finishes at the substation on mine. It seems the town's plan involves using the rest of the back right corner of my yard by perhaps purchasing an odd shaped piece 10x60x28x63 (WxL's around) which will pretty much take everything I do not have squarely fenced within my current backyard fence. There is already have a 10' easement along the back of the property as well, but this isn't used for anything and is cover in tall trees and clearly is not in their purchase plan. The current substation doesn't appear significantly use any of it.
I managed to get the town engineer on the project to share the survey and substation plans with me. The problem I have is the new substation will definitely be much larger and obviously extend closer to my house. Their easement will probably end about 10-15' from the back corner of my house, which is where the master bedroom is located. This will definitely hurt the curb appeal of my property, probably result in more noise and cause more vibrations (which some vibrations can be already be detected at a very small level when I'm in bed and have my ear in the pillow). The current substation does not have a generator on site, nor does it have a grinder. Both of which I see in the new plans. Both will be closer to my house than the current station. Maybe I'm overreacting, but a grinder seems like it would cause more vibrations when running. Granted, I know very little about water substations. I also see plans for "future odor control". All of this worries me.
Lastly, this whole project cuts down the useful space I have because it will have a chain-link fence around it. Nothing says class like chain-link! So, the station will now be closer to the back corner of my house and pretty much stops all the plans I had to revitalize the backyard the previous owners left me with. The fenced in backyard has a lot of tall pine trees and their capture of that land outside my fence probably limits the ability for someone to remove those trees. I'm not sure someone will try to drop a 100' pine tree in a 15 foot window between a house and a fenced in easement without great cost. I am even doubtful they would be able to get a crane close enough to get to some of the trees without working over some of the new substation.
My questions are:
1. Can I refuse to let them buy it? Will they just take it anyway? It seems these plans have been in motion for a while and they were waiting to spring it on me closer to the building date. I just managed to stumble upon it when I offhandedly mentioned their current substation's easement violation.
2. If I must take a deal, what are some of the things I can negotiate into their purchase? I was thinking of asking them to pay the property tax for that little bit of land. It's only .026 acres, but they're acquiring the permanent use of 7% of my total land.
3. How much can home depreciation count into this? Can I try to negotiate what the future value and use of that land is worth to me? Pain and suffering during the installation of the new substation which will definitely cause some noise pollution. It is going in in 2 phases and they will have pump service 24 hrs during the construction of the new substation, I see a request in the plans for the temporary pumps to not be over 55 decibels measured from 7 meters away. The problem is my bedroom window is closer than that.
4. I have a Mortgage Certification Credit. Therefore, I get hit with penalties if I sell my property before I have lived there 9 years. The value of the credit they said is something like $18k, and the penalties are assessed as year 0 0%, 1 yr 20%, 2 yr 40%, 3 yr 60%, 4 yr 80%, 5yr 80%, 6 yr 60%, 7 yr 40 %, 8 yr 20%. Therefore, if I take their deal and this turns out to be a nightmare to live with due to unexpected noise, smell, whatever, I have to live with it or get hit with a sizeable tax penalty for claiming the MCC and then selling before year 9. Can I use this somehow?
Some other notable details/background: The city placed the small water substation in that back corner a long time ago. Our house is one of the oldest in the oldest neighborhood in that area and it might predate that. The city apparently didn't survey well when the station was put in because the left-hand corner of current substation's concrete slab sits 3-4 feet past the easement on my property. The control panel for the station is entirely on my property, along with the 4 trees they planted to beautify the fenced in station.
When I purchased the house, I had a survey done and noticed this violation, but really didn't care because it is just a few feet beyond the easement. That said, I brought up this easement violation with the town when I contacted the city this winter about the mobile generator they parked on my grass for 3 weeks next to the easement (not on their gravel easement road). They were expecting an ice storm and this station doesn't have a backup generator; therefore, they bring one out during power outages and park it on the gravel road. I only brought up the easement violation in passing because I wanted to know if they were alright with me ripping out the trees planted in my yard. I wanted to know my options because I hoped to fence in the rest of my backyard that was near the easement. My current fence is about 30 feet from their easement in the far back of the yard and 15 feet from the front part where my backyard begins.
At this time the city said someone would get back to me and the next day I was contacted by one of their engineers who mentioned they already had plans to revamp that station and I would be contacted by their real estate group about purchasing a little more of my property to expand the easement in a couple of months. Fast forward two months and I notice surveying stakes have been placed in my yard sectioning off a good bit near the substation. I wait a bit and there is no contact so I call and discuss what's going on. I convince the engineer on the project to send me the survey and substation's plans, and I am now worried I will have a huge eyesore starting about 15 feet past my house and all that it may bring. I just bought this house and I've already been screwed with by ATT fiber tearing up the front yard and putting a junction box in the damn center of my front yard. Now this. Any ideas on my rights to tell them to pound sand, or how I can extract the most cash out of what will likely be a miserable situation.
Thanks in advance,
GJK
Creation: My Town Wants to Extend Their Easement
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