They were working on something for a neighbor's house and next thing you see, they're BULLDOZING our front yard. This happened maybe 2 months ago and at first, we thought it'd be no big problem because it will grow back. With all this rain lately, our front yard is absolutely disgusting and filthy. Mud is everywhere. It's getting tracked into our house from shoes (we take them off at the door now) but it also just looks so aesthetically displeasing. Are they allowed to just dig it up and then put all the mud back, then leave???? It's so infuriating because of course it is only our house. This happened years ago when we first moved in as well but I think I recall them actually compensating us and offering to fix it then repaved our driveway way for free.
Can DTE just dig up your front yard without even letting you know?
DiscussionBoth Condumers and DTE will have easements across all properties they service.
If they didn't, they would get sued by any number of people.
Most folks dont realize how little of their property is actually only theirs. If you want to get technical, none of it is ever yours, and you're just renting it from your township/city/ state - but whatever.
I work for a big cable company and I gave up trying to explain easements to people. This woman went ballistic on me because we had to set up a power supply box near the pole due to an auto accident involving the pole. Told us she wanted it moved cause it’s in her front yard. Newp.
I had a neighbor that threatened to sue me for the condition of the telephone junction box in my yard because she said it brought down the value of her property. I had nothing to do with how it was damaged (car went off the road before I moved in from what I was told). I had even called the number on the tag, but they didn't care at all.
Im in real estate - no one understands how to read a survey, nor do they understand title work.
It's sad, really - people just agree to all sorts of stuff in their day to day lives that they dont understand and then bitch about it later.
Working with HOAs in a simmilar capacity with boards that are equally competent is... a joy
I would rather never again in my life
I work in the title industry, underwriting to be specific. Even the people who work in title don't understand title. I'm slightly exaggerating but you get the picture.
Lol- im a motgage trainer. Reading title commitments is a training im scheduling now. Schedule A = 15min training Schedule B= 15 hour training
I don't disagree with you since I'm already aware that they can do pretty much whatever they want, but its not hard to atleast make it LOOK nice after its done. My family rarely ever complains and we take a lot of shit that most people would never. Like our next door neighbors today just had contracted a company to take a tree down and our entire yard is full of weeds, pieces of wood, and leaves but it's fine it's an easy clean up. I swear out of our whole block, it seems to always just be us getting the rough end of the stick 😭
Do whatever you need to do to improve the electricity and power throughout the city and if you have to do so by digging our front yard, then just let us know beforehand, tell us how you're going to fix it afterwards, and youre fine. The least you can do is patch it up so we're not having mud just getting everywhere and making our entire front yard look nasty which gets worse everytime it rains.
Point is- it's only partially 'your front yard' you agreed to that. You cant really not agree to it (or else you wont get electricity/gas) but you agreed to buy a property with an easement that gives public utilities the right to service their 'equipment' (above and subsurface).
They dont have any obligation to notify you or beautify their easement unless you have a separate agreement with them. A lot of them will if you complain, but i doubt any of them will out of the goodness of their heart.
This isn't anything against you - this is SOP
Explain, because I don't believe paying taxes is equivalent to renting.
Don’t pay them and see what happens…
You’ll eventually be evicted, the property seized and auctioned off.
The outcome sounds like what happens to non-paying renters.
From another perspective that would be stealing because you're enjoying the benefits of our roads, parks, schools, libraries, police, fire, etc etc without contributing.
Taxes are not rent. The government does not own your property. Ownership includes the ability to sell the property. You can do that and keep the profit. Short of easements and emergency services, you can exclude people from your property. A government has to go through due process to seize property and auction it for no payment of taxes.
Yep. Don't pay your taxes? Bye bye property.
I'm just mad that Consumers planted better and faster growing grass that's a different color than the rest of my lawn and I have to mow more frequently because those patches grow twice as fast as the rest of my crappy lawn.
BWL killed multiple species of endangered plants in my yard and just covered the garden bed with grass. Three years of work just down the drain.
You built upon the easement?
Also, never grow anything but grass upon where your utilities enter/exit your home (water, gas, sewer, sometimes electric)
Nope they just drove and parked large equipment over my front yard while working in the hell strip. The entire yard is clearly not turf grass so why they thought that was a fine fix (complete with that shit plastic netting) is beyond me.
Well they can't exactly park in the street either...
Your yard is your territory, they should fix that.
The netting is for the straw seed mix to not wash away in the rain.
I was asking about the garden bed above
They will not level your yard. Toss some seed and straw and bounce. They had 3 holes in my yard for 2 months. I had to call multiple times to have it fixed. Fuck DTE is right.
I would insist on them installing sod and not throwing down contractor grade seed. If they dug up your yard, then expect the soil to settle over time and create a dip. Make a point of being a giant pain in the butt until its done correct.
It's not your yard though, it's the companies easement land.
Fuck DTE! My sentiments exactly.
heavy on that last line!!! literally the worst company ever
City worker here
We do the same things for water mains, sewers, and service lines.
As others have stated they are allowed to (we usually notify if we can) but most of the time the focus is getting services back on as quickly and safely as possible.
Normally the mess is left well into spring/summer as they wait for the fill material to settle before they topsoil and seed. They probably have a long list of properties they need to revisit and touch up. I can’t say how long it will be but we’re usually not “caught up” on winter repairs till around late May-June. Always worth calling and politely asking, pictures help as well.
I feel for the city workers who have to deal with property owners. My county had to do some work on culverts in our area because we had some serious erosion issues after two successive "100 year flooding events". They sent me some kind of a contract to buy an easement to enlarge the culvert on my frontage and I didn't really understand it so I called to ask a question or two. At one point it clicked what was going on and I said "so what you are telling me is the county is going to spend about 20 thousand dollars to improve my property by minimizing the likelihood of it flooding and you are going to pay me 1 thousand dollars so you can do it." The guy laughed and said "yes, that is it, but you'd be surprised by how many people get angry about it."
I work for a “wealthy” city. I try to be polite but we often get snide remarks from home owners. Today I’m fixing plow damage and already had a very unhappy home owner come out and voice his dissatisfaction about his yard being damaged every year…
They will eventually lay new sod, they completely tore up North End (Detroit) and are slowly putting their work back together.
Although their road patches are offensively bad.
Sod?
When they redid my gas line, they eventually came around with some seed.
I ended up putting seed, Pennmulch, and starter fert down myself.
This is correct, I was remembering incorrectly
You have to ask utility companies for sod. By default they'll toss some seed on it.
It depends on the permits that the municipality give to the utility. Dearborn requires sod, Detroit is just seed and straw.
They aren't going to do lawn repairs until the weather is better for it. Consumers wont do any lawn repair until after april 15th for instance
DTE just leveled and seeded my lawn today after damaging it months ago.
You mean they didn't seed it in the winter?
DTE seeded it April 3. I responded to a comment saying that consumers wouldn’t seed until April 15.
Apologies, had the other comment minimized. Makes sense in context now.
Yea that checks out
Give them a week. If nothing happens, call them. They probably hire a contractor to do that kind of work. Being spring, it’s probably too wet to do any landscaping job.
It's very possible that they will be back at some point this spring to do the touch-up landscaping. They're not going to do that in the winter time.
Not exactly grass planting time of year yet.
Actually, it is. Fall, and then spring, are some of the best times to plant.
They'll level it out, topsoil it, and hydroseed it when they're done.
Yes.
They will.
It’s your responsibility to follow up for repairs.
It sucks, but they’ll do a good job of repairing it.
we take them off at the door now
there's the real problem, what kind of monster are you?
I shouldve said I take them off at the door now because everyone in my family always have (we're Middle Eastern so go figure lol), but I would be too lazy to sometimes. I know I'm horrible but to be fair, our front door leads right up the stairs to my room so I was not like walking with my shoes throughout the entire house either (which id never do) and I cleaned and mopped the stairs and my room frequently
Call 313-270-9240, this is the restoration hot line, leave a message and they typically get back to you in a few days. DTE does complete restoration anytime something is dug up, sometimes parts are missing to complete the full job so they bandaid it until parts come in. Weather isn’t too favorable right now but DTE has many contractors for hard and soft surface resto. Should come soon ~ 30 days is my guess.
How far into your property did they go? They dont have to tell you at all if it's only a few feet from the road.
They’re supposed to let you know before they do work on your property even when it’s on the easement, but Consumers did the exact same thing to me with no warning. I called and bitched until they sent me to their restoration department. It might take a few calls to get the right person, but insist on them fixing what they messed up. They ended up scheduling someone to come out and place new soil and set down seed blankets for me. Hopefully this will work with DTE too. Good luck.
Most work in the easement does not require customer Notification, especially if it is in road right of way.
If DTE won't respond, or is lacking in their efforts, contact Michigan LARA.
You can file a complaint, and from experience you'll get a response quickly.
This is a great opportunity to switch to a pollinator garden out front! (But yes, you should call DTE and complain to get them to either give you money, or do the work to return it to it's previous state).
DTE made repairs in our neighborhood and was nice enough to contract a landscaping company to come and fill their 6' x 8' hole with dirt full of glass and weeds. That was fun to correct.
Yes, heck I can dig up your front yard without letting you know. It’s easy with heavy equipment! Now what can you do about it after is a different question.
DTE can dig up my ASS!
😏
First, call DTE and tell them your yards a mess and they need to restore it to as good or better than they found it. Document who you talked to, the date and time. What they said they would do. Next, tell them IF it's not fixed ASAP, you will be calling the MPSC. (Michigan Public Service Commission). As soon as they hear MPSC, they will jump as high and fast as they can to fix it.
They get fined over customer complaints and non compliance issues.
They “trimmed” my maple tree . . . And by trimmed, I mean cleaved in half. They literally cut 50% of the branches off, facing the wires.
Don’t plant it under/near power lines if you don’t want it trimmed. Or continue to suffer the consequences of downed limbs on lines resulting in a power outage.
It was there when we bought the house.
Getting just big enough to touch the wires.
Just saying.
They could have cut that side a little less, is all
It’s easier to trim it back far enough that don’t have to revisit it every year.
They have easement rights and have full access to their underground wires.
With that being said, they are supposed to make a “best effort” to repair what they mess up. Call in and file a complaint about mud and destroyed grass. They “should” send a contracted company out to smooth the ground, put down seed and hay.
After that, their job is done.
Also, fuck DTE.