pop quiz

I've had a very educational day.  I thought I'd share some of my new found knowledge with the rest of you.  A little background info.: we just had a new fence built.  Not my first choice of purchases for our tax return, but unfortunately our old fence was rotting away, and in order to preserve my husband's sanity, and our marriage, we had someone else do the work.

Anyway, so on to the pop quiz:

1) When the "people" come out and spray to mark utilities do they mark:
a) ALL gas, cable, water, and electric lines on the property b) only the utility lines that the utility companies own  c) only the utility lines that are outside the fence

2) Who is the legal owner of the utility lines going from the utility meters to the house?
a) the homeowner  b) the city  c) the utility company

3) In the event that one of the posts of the new fence is placed directly on top of a gas line, causing a gas leak, who is the appropriate person to call to fix it?
a) the utility company  b) a plumber  c) the fence company that did the damage

4) After the repair is done, who is responsible for footing the HUGE bill?
a) the homeowner  b) the fence company  c) the utility company


Answers:

1) b- when the people (in our area the company is digtess) come to spray utilities they will only spray the lines that the utility company actually owns.  Which lines are these?  See question 2.

2) a- did you know that you own the gas line running from the gas meter to your home?  The utility company owns the main line going to the meter, but you own the line from the meter to your home. Due to the fact that you are the owner of this line it is YOUR responsibility to know where the line runs in your yard, and therefore to mark these lines for any construction projects, even if you didn't build the house and you have no idea where the lines run.

3) b- I didn't know this, but plumbers are in fact the appropriate people for fixing gas leaks.

4) a- due to the fact that we OWN the gas line that the fence post punctured and we did not mark it properly we are in fact responsible for paying for the repair.  Not gonna lie, it's a big bill.  I'm very excited to get our next gas bill as well, since we have apparently been leaking gas at an impressive rate for well over a week!

I hope you learned a lot from this utility lesson.  I hope it can help you avoid some hefty repairs in the future.  We will be doing anything possible to get the fence company to take responsibility for this, but since we did not properly mark our park of the utility line, evidently that makes it our fault.