Submitted by bcardarella t3_11bri9g in boston
They marked the a path from the street all the way up to my house. I don't have Comcast. I don't want Comast. How can I prevent them from digging up my lawn?
Submitted by bcardarella t3_11bri9g in boston
They marked the a path from the street all the way up to my house. I don't have Comcast. I don't want Comast. How can I prevent them from digging up my lawn?
Nope, literally marked all the way from the street to the corner of my house where our utilities come in. Not an easement. Note left stated the intention to install Comcast fiber lines which I do not want and have not requested. It's about 200 ft from the street.
You can likely call them and just say you don't want it. But if you deny it now and ever want to switch to their internet, you'll have to pay a hefty sum out of pocket to get connected. Could be an issue for you down the road if you want to sell. Running fiber isn't like laying something like a water or sewer main, it shouldn't require them tearing up a large portion of your lawn. Usually just a small cut that can be covered/hidden again pretty easily.
What blows me away is that they were going to dig a 200ft trench on private property and tear up a front walk way and plant bed without permission. I spoke with the owner of the company Comcast contracted for this work and he said he'd have a supervisor speak with me but it wasn't clear that they don't plan on doing this still. I could wake up to the sound a crew in my yard next week.
I'd be surprised if they have to tear up the walkway. Or really anything. The line they're going to run is very small so they shouldn't have to do a whole lot and it can be ran under the walkway without a lot of hassle. You're house is still probably on some list saying you have Comcast equipment like an ONT in it, even though you're not a customer.
I'd be annoyed too, but it's likely just a case of poorly updated databases. There's probably still Comcast service off the main line at the street so they think it has to be updated with everything else.
Fiber doesn't require a trench. They have a machine that lays it down with just a slit in your lawn.
Ok, I still don't want it.
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What? This doesn't affect anybody else. They're able to upgrade the street line and do whatever work necessary within the setback. Running the additional line to my house is what I'm referring to. It's not necessary and not something I agreed to.
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I'm just a stupid guy on the internet but I think I see both where you and the people you're replying to are coming from, even though his comments are deleted
You don't want your property and plant beds changed without your permission and some assurance they'll be mindful. Meanwhile you'd be shooting yourself in the foot to not get this fiber terminated at your house fo free while it's being offered
Idk man sleep on it, see if you can't get the owner/supervisor of the contractor to agree to not break ground until you're there
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I don’t think it’s a big deal for a future owner to have comcast install it then. If Comcast wants the business, they will.
Wow. That's is some special level of internet rage for a hypothetical situation you just dreamed up.
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I don’t understand why you’re being downvoted.. children that have never owned anything I guess. I wouldn’t want those duckers cutting up my yard or installing their crap either.
I think it comes down to people understanding he’s upset that no one called him and asked and explained what is actually being done, I would also be upset and suspicious.
While on the other hand he’s saying no to something that is free and will be covered up practically instantly after the work is done (many of us know what this entails, while OP believes it to be a traumatic event to his lawn) and that may cost him or someone else much more down the road if he chooses not to allow it.
However everyone is downvoting for their own reasons. It just seems a bit dramatic to me. (I’ve had this done to me)
So you don't own the house?
I do. Sorry, by "owner" I meant owner of the contractor company that Comcast hired to do the work.
OK, then not sure what you meant by owner...the contractor maybe?
Edit: I seem to be getting downvoted for a stupid question - but OP stealth-edited...
Wow
Arthur Dent in America.
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The owner? Are you renting?
Edit - nevermind. Answered elsewhere, op owns.
No. If they do the work anyway you go out there and shut it down immediately. They do not have the right to do that. Most people likely don’t fight or stop them. If they show up and start digging you go out, tell them no and call the cops. It’s that simple. It’s a battle but the principle matters. If it’s that important to you, you have a fight.
You’re not really answering the question. Are you sure there is not an existing easement on your property? Nothing in all the papers you signed when you bought the house? If there’s an existing line as you indicated, it wouldn’t be surprising that they have an easement.
Not sure about Boston, but many cities have generic easements in place for all utilities, and the 2015 Net Neutrality legislation classified broadband as a utility.
There is no easement. I checked for any when I bought the property in 2017.
By "checked for any" do you mean you looked at the title exam for the property? Just because your deed didn't contain easement language doesn't mean that a deed into a prior owner did and somewhere in the chain of title the easement was accidentally omitted. I can't tell you how many deeds I've seen that were just cut & pasted from the last deed without any verification that the property description is accurate.
It was 2017 so I forget which town office it was but I requested to know about any easement claims that may be on the property as part of our due diligence when purchasing. I was told there aren't any and we haven't given permission for any since then.
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Then you may have some recourse. You might have already done this, but you can see lots of discussion of Xfinity easements here:
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/search?q=Easement
I’d probably start there, their support folks seem relatively responsive.
Easements run with the land. Where my bird lawyers at?
> the 2015 Net Neutrality legislation classified broadband as a utility
Trump-era FCC rolled back that I think...not sure if they rolled back only parts of it, or all of it..
If it’s to the corner of your house where utilities come in, there may be a utility easement.
Whether they marked anything doesn't have anything to do with an easement nor does the location of the origin and destination mean that something is/is not an easement.
A utility easement can be implied - that is, not written and recorded at the land registry - because the presence of something (like existing utility lines) implies that an easement must have been intended whether or not it was recorded. For utilities like Comcast, these are permanent/perpetual easements because utilities are public services.
If they don't have existing lines, then, yes, you can force them to seek an easement.
If they do have existing lines and the easement was just never recorded, you can negotiate with them still. For example, you can ask for some standard of how they return the property to you after add their lines. At my family house, we had asked them to use matching sod instead of just patching things over which they happily did.
How do you know this for sure? Have you looked this up in city records? Utility companies often have broad access easements.
I’m going to double check on Monday when town hall opens.
I would check your county registry of deeds for any recorded easements. All should be accessible online.
The county handles the registry of deeds, which is where any recorded easement would be. Suffolk County Registry of Deeds is searchable online. I would be fairly shocked if there wasn’t a utility easement that Comcast is entitled to use. I also think you’re being shortsighted, those easements normally require them to put the yard back the way they found it as long as you haven’t built, like, an in ground pool in the way.
This happened with my house is PA. They came through after securing a franchise with the township. They have a machine that cuts a slit and buries the cable, if they have to bore under a path that's easy too.
When they do these initial buildouts it's free. If someone in the future wants a line, they'll have to pay for it. You're better off on the long run letting them run it, especially if it's their crew. You don't want a buyer giving you grief over it when selling it a few years from now.
every property has a utility easement, they can trim a tree on your property or do whatever else is necessary without your express permission
Not fiber though? I don’t think Comcast offers any fiber optics services, just coax cable. So they just want to install a new coax line?
They run fiber for businesses but are starting to roll out residential fiber. Here’s a press rerelease for a town in Connecticut.
Do they run fiber for businesses through the yards of private residences?
I literally said they are running fiber for residential now..
Sorry. Reading is hard lol
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Honestly? Let them do it.
Even if you don’t want Comcast service today you definitely want to have the option in the future. If only so you can use that as leverage against Verizon or whoever.
The trench will be tiny and the grass will regrow over it in a week or two at most.
> Honestly? Let them do it.
I'm not letting a company decide that they will dig in my yard. If they want to ask, and I get to choose, fine. But, just leaving a note after they decided it, no. Just no. Never.
Ever heard the term "Easement"?
Yes. I lived next to the commuter rail. The MBTA had rights to pass through my yard to get to the tracks. That was stipulated in the P&S. The OP said there wasn't that stipulation in theirs.
Regular utility easements are so dead common they wouldn’t need to be explicitly listed in the purchase and sale. It’s on the buyer to do their own due diligence as concerns easements. It sounds like the OP didn’t even pay for a real title search, or if they did didn’t understand it…
Might still be worth looking up with the city.
Also, “fiber ready” is an upgrade and selling point on the Josie as opposed to outdated “cable/internet ready”
Spoken like a Comcast employee. Fuck Comcast
I'm just going Starlink when my Verizon contract is up anyway. Also, the property is very flat and it was a huge pita getting the grade right for drainage. I'd prefer not to deal with a sagging line down the property that will just collect water
Starlink user here up at my cabin in Maine where I have a full remote job. Even in an uncontested area it’s expensive and unreliable if latency and persistent connectivity matters
And you have no recourse over how they manage the dish — for a year my dish pointed in a certain direction so we cleared trees, rented a boom lift and raised the dish to the highest point on our roofline ….
… then less than a week later starlink pushed out a east coast update that repointed dishes to a new direction causing me to go from 0% obstruction with perfect signal to 2% obstruction with brief outages every 2 minutes on average. I’m fucked until I can rent a lift and take down a different tree
And this is in semi rural Maine — your sky view and local cell is gonna much worse in any urban location
The basic deal is starlink is great ONLY if you literally have no other options. Any fixed line broadband option is going to be 100x better
I pay for a business grade Verizon FIOS circuit at my boston spot for a reason heh
Its insane how they were able to rebrand satellite internet for rural areas into something people actually think they should have
It shows the importance of choosing the right name. Starlink is a masterpiece in eight letters.
They will microtrench. As in it’ll be a machine with what is effectively a saw blade.
Starlink is good for remote locations where there is no option of fiber. In dense areas it’s not as good because wireless spectrum is shared.
I mean, it's his lawn. You're entitled to your opinions of it, but personally, sounds to me like he wants both of us off it.
Out of curiosity, why Starlink? Their LEO satellite service is generally more expensive and less consistent than Fios, so just wondering if there was a reason for the swap
Dude what?! Starlink is over $100 PER month
Jesus if someone showed up and said they wanted to upgrade my house’s utility infrastructure why, I don’t know WHAT I’d do!
Accept it?
Do you know how to read?
No.
But they want to upgrade the lines and increase the value of his house
Without asking permission. A major conglomerate decided for OP that they could make this change. You're cool with a company making decisions for your property by telling you what they're doing instead of asking you?
To add value to my home with zero work by me? Sure am
Having a comcast fiber drop adds absolutely zero value to a homes resale. If comcast wanted to redo this man’s kitchen then you’d have a deal. If the next owners want the piece of shit that is comcast, then they can request an install.
Quicken loans(and many other lenders) say they conducted a study and access to fiber internet can increase your homes value by an average of 3.1%
In todays world many businesses are adding work from home positions. While many high paying positions need access to employees sporadically. It does not come to a surprise that internet access makes a home more valuable as it’s become and “essential” part of life.
It’s very typical for people to believe the only things that add value are updating a bathroom/kitchen but home values go way beyond that.
What background do you have to make this claim?
That’s not about having access to multiple (corporations) fiber drops. It’s about having access (at all).
Also if you’re going to put supposed studies and quotes then provide a link.
Or you can look it up because I’m not going to reference the dozens of lenders that do the study. It’s honestly what you should have done before commenting.
Again, What is the background that you have to make such claim?
I’ll start with mine, Realtor-investor-contractor..
In other words, you made it up and/or didn’t understand what you were reading. Sounds good.
https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/fiber-internet-can-increase-your-home-value/amp
Here you go buddy. I’m sorry you don’t know how to use the internet. Also this is about having access to fiber. If OP denies there won’t be access. It’s sad instead of admitting you’re wrong you have to claim I “made it up”. Get real.
I’ll ask one more time since you keep ignoring it. What background do you have to make such claim?
I see you’re an EMT as well. Wow man, you’re a real jackoff-of-all-trades, huh. Realtor, contractor, investor, EMT, what other job titles can I find in your comment history?
Every comment you’ve made on Reddit is claiming to be an expert of whatever bullshit you’re spewing. Reality is you’re just a lonely boy living in your moms basement.
“The study, funded in part by Fiber to the Home Council Americas”
The whole article you reference says just what I did. That having access, ie. living in an area that has high speed internet availability. Nothing to support your claim that having multiple companies access points increases home value.
The man’s already got Fios. He’s already got your supposed 3.1%. He has no reason to allow Comcast on HIS LAND.
Nice, typical sore loser who tries to come at someone personally instead of bringing facts and experience to the table. Here we go…
DM me and I’ll give you my social media and you can figure me out for yourself. I became an EMT during the pandemic to help out. And in case you didn’t know becoming an EMT required schooling. (In case you didn’t know there is a shortage in EMT’s in Boston, they don’t make good money but definitely an important part of our infrastructure, maybe you can get certified so you can help out during the outbreak and learn a bit about health while helping your community instead of arguing with them and spewing opinions about things you have no experience in).
Who are you to tell me what I have and haven’t done?
Where did I ever claim to be an expert in anything.
Where did I say he needed comcast? I said he needs access to fiber internet which he doesn’t have without a fiber lines. Sure he has ACCESS the same way I have access to a gas line IF I PAY FOR IT. A buyer will and can use that as a point of negotiation.
You need to grow up and stop trying to be right. You’re literally saying I claimed things I never claimed or said. And you’re misconstruing things to try to make your point. You’re investigating my page knowing nothing about my background and honestly man seems kind of sick that you’re trying to come at me personally to make your point.
You know so little about real estate you can’t realize that I’m not a jack of all trades I’m just well licensed and certified as an investor. If you knew anything about what you were saying you wouldn’t have commented on a subject you have no professional experience in. A jack of all trades would be a contractor who claims he knows tile, carpentry etc. i just hire the right people… it’s called contracting. I buy and sell my own homes why not save 2-6% on ever sale by not having to pay sales commissions.
You’re just mad I gave you what you were asking for. You make false claims to defend yourself. Calling me a boy? All you need is my name yet you’re going off about things that I am and have said that aren’t even true. Learn to take a loss.
DM ME AND ILL SHOW YOU ALL MY CREDENTIALS. You’re a try hard.
I guess you don’t know the concept of aging and having various occupations throughout your life to broaden your skillset. Luckily I do and don’t have to go around trying to tell others how their job works and spewing information I know nothing about. Luckily I broadened my skills and grew through life.
Next time try to discuss with facts. And try to be even slightly experienced in things you try to educate others in. I’m all set with responding to you.
Also since you’re stalking, you’ll find I also was a financial planner, crazy how it all connects as an investor whos an aspiring philanthropist. Yup I do 3D printing too cause wouldn’t it be great if I could 3D print homes and Im also back to school to become a licensed engineer. You’re making me blush because you find it impossible to be me.
If anything your biggest take away from this should be that you should continue to educate yourself beyond the bare minimum.
Found the Comcast employee.
What’s your objection to this? Obviously it’s your property and do whatever you like, cheers. Simply curious as it seems to be a minor inconvenience for a higher resale value.
> What’s your objection to this?
My objection would be that I didn't ask for, nor approve, any change to my existing property.
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And Verizon fios is utter trash compared to Comcast fiber.
This is the most nonsensical thing I have read today and I hate both companies.
How? I’m very happy with fios
I’ve had the opposite experience. Every Comcast connection I’ve had at the four places I’ve had it have been garbage, but fios has actually been pretty good at the three locations I’ve lived with it.
Cheers?
Yes
Seems pretty passive aggressive for no reason. Why be that way?
It’s not.
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Cool man. Hey now though really fuck off. I was asking a question. Cheers means either right on, enjoy the drink or goodbye. In what world is cheers, right after encouraging you to do whatever you want, passive aggressive?
You must only have assholes around you in life if you’re just that expectant to take shit from a stranger
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Did you just call this guy out because you don’t know slang like three times and then get mad when he finally took offense? Like 4 different comments from other people and 25 downvotes on this one thread telling you you’re being sensitive isn’t getting through, eh?
Lmao I didn’t detect any passive aggressiveness at all dude, if anything I thought the “cheers” was nice
Lolll; you sure are a pill.
It’s a term of endearment, quite common in the British Isles and several other parts of the Anglosphere
Brits out, sorry not sorry, we fought two wars over it
This is one angry dude here. Lots of aggressive comments.
Eh, I'd have some questions as the owner too. Who is Comcast subbing this out to? When is the work being done?
Wouldn't fight it outright, but I'd want to be there when it's happening.
Taking a bet he lives in Wellesley and sleeps with a loaded gun in his nightstand
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You’re completely overreacting
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Just FYI may not be the best idea to act like a total asshole online and have your username follow the first initial + last name format.
Hahaha but his face perfectly matches this weird little meltdown
It’s SO on brand 😂😂
Are you sure they're actually digging? We moved to a part of western NC that had no cable. When they installed it, they used a piece of equipment like a sewing machine. It shoved the cable underground with no actual digging. We couldn't even tell where they put it.
Note they left indicated so.
Who do you have for internet/cable?
Verizon Fios, prior owner had Comcast coax but we re did the property in 2018 and upgraded our electric from the street and removed the Comcast line.
So you already have a fiber drop!
Not sure if this is still the case, but landlines through FiOS used to 100 percent recognize old rotary dial phones. If you even have the landline option, its fun to use old phones.
Still true. We have Verizon FiOS and the wall-mounted rotary phone in our kitchen works fine.
Niiiiiice
Just absolutely huuuuge NIMBY energy emanating from this post btw.
I think technically it's his front yard that he's concerned about. It's NIMFY energy.
What’s nimby?
Not in my backyard
Ty
NIMFY
This is funny and should be higher
leave it up to r/boston to mald in the comments about a guy that doesn't want a company telling him they're digging up his yard without permission to install something he didn't ask for, lol.
The only legit replies I've seen are the ones pointing out the possibility of a utility easement. I need to find out if this is the case or not on Monday. Everyone else is clearly out of their mind if they think it is OK to just let any company onto private property to do whatever they want without permission. It's clear they're not homeowners and have no idea wtf they're talking about.
Or they are homeowners and realize how often this happens, in a highly populated and dense city? If you are really concerned, just contact an attorney or your local city councilor.
So you're ok with companies just doing work on private property without permission?
If they have an easement or similar legal instrument then it’s not without permission. That said, I do love once upon a time in the west
I agree, which is what I'm going to double check on Monday. But as I've already stated in this thread when I bought the property I did an audit and there were no easements attached and I have not agreed to any since. But I'm going to ask specifically for utility easements. At the moment to the best of my knowledge there are none.
I hear you, and I read that. I won’t re-hash what’s already been said, but on the off chance you don’t, and they still give you trouble, perhaps consider an attorney.
Redditors? Homeowners? I love a good fantasy tale every now and then too but cmon that's just unrealistic.
Because they're not digging up his yard, it's not like the old days where they had to put in a huge trench and rip up his lawn. It's a microtrench, it's essentially an imperceptible saw blade slice.
I wonder if their update is part of their proposed 10G I've seen in commercials. I don't know anything beyond this unfortunately.
Just pave over your lawn before they dig.
They likely are replacing the lines at the street, but are required to have all utilities marked before they can dig (811), and the survey companies usually mark from the street to the house by default.
Ok but that doesn't explain the note they left saying they were digging up his lawn
OP hasn't shown us the note - he's probably misinterpreting what they are doing.
The lines for the street run under his lawn
Ask them for a free year or discounts if you switch over.
Claymore mines
You can’t. They have a utility right of way
So much energy spent on a nothingburger. How do you get through life, man?
I told them "no" on the phone when we decided it would just be easier to switch to Verizon. They knocked on our door the next day anyway and said they were ready to go. I said "we don't even have Comcast."
We've had Verizon since in bought in 2017. From what I understand Comcast needs to do work on the street to upgrade their coax to customers in the neighborhood. That's fine with me. They're using the crew that is already here to now force installation of fiber from the street to the house when there isn't any to make future customer acquisition easier. That's not fine with me. Everyone in this thread saying that Comcast is doing this out of the goodness of their heart is a fucking moron. They're doing it so they can try to sell me service. It's a loss leader.
They reseed/replant your lawn after digging it up. I used to be a gas laborer for National Grid, installing natural gas pipes in the ground. Whenever we excavated someone's lawn, to install/replace a pipe, we were legally required to replace it back to the way it was before we dug it up. There might be a cable or something in the ground that needs to be replaced rather than installed.
I know this, but what is particular about our property is that the grade is barely above the street. We've spent three years getting the drainage right and preventing the front yard from turning into a swimming pool. Trenching through that and putting everything back together presents a risk of now having to go through this all again.
But none of that matters. If they don't have an easement and I don't want them doing any work that is where it should stop. They shouldn't just presuem the right to dig someone's property without permission. Leaving a note on our door while we're gone is not permission.
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Easy. You can’t.
If it hasn’t been marked out by dig-safe it’s not going to happen.
I'd just let them do it... but you can also buy your own paint for chaos.
A circle with a cross, and a right angle with 2 arrows should work. Do it in yellow or green for extra fun.
The only real answer here is contact a lawyer. He will investigate, tell you the facts and explain your options (not one of those tv advertising PI lawyers). You want an expert in property law.
Look, it's extremely easy to stop them. A fence. Some caution tape. Calling the cops on them after they start digging. An inconveniently placed car. Removing the flags. Some fake DigSafe markers. A cease-and-desist. Snow fort. Vicious dog. Vicious dog with a gun. Singing telegram. Impromptu archery tournament. Overly curious moose. Claymores (the swords). Claymores (not the swords). Overgrown Roomba. Filming for Furious 11. Cometary fragment impact.
Back in the early 2000s when Fios first came out, the cost to install fiber optic was about 4-5k per house. They went down the neighborhoods in Braintree installing fiber optic to every house. By you whining about your lawn being dug up, you're adding extra cost by having the crew come back at a later date when the crew will already be working on your street
I’m willing to bet that OP is the sort of person that would complain about FiOS being available to his neighbor but not to him.
I’m also willing to bet that the town/city required Comcast to make the same service available to everyone in the town as part of the conditions of their franchise agreement. And that’s why they’re pulling fiber everywhere.
Oh fuck off already, you do what you want with your home and I'll keep Comcast the fuck away from mine.
You’re gunna have to commit a serious crime
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How fast can you build a fence?
Not faster than they can remove it and dig
Tell them to go fuck themselves
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shovels
Miniex
🤯
Easements (plus shovels)
Put a No Trespassing violators will be prosecuted sign out in plain sight.
Doesn’t apply to utilities
Your kidding I didn't know that
Yeah. Utilizes are “for the greater good” so you don’t win in that case. “Harm one to save thousands”
Icy-Neck-2422 t1_j9zev2r wrote
Is it within an easement?