Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: telephone pole

The telephone company most likely has an express easement to have a telephone pole on your property. This would have shown up in a preliminary title report.

Were you just curious, or were you planning on cutting it down? Plan on being a persona non grata if you go that way.

Very truly yours,

Re: telephone pole

Utility companies in my experience are very careful never to place any of their facilities on anyone's land unless they have the legal right to do so, usually because they have an easement.

Most developed areas have utility easements set up on the subdivision maps at the time the land was first subdivided. These utility easements are a necessity of obtaining approval of a proposed subdivision. The easements can be used by several kinds of utilities, for example, electric power, telephone, cable, water and sewer services.

I assume your property has water, electric power, etc. services, and possibly you have a land-line telephone. If so, you are getting the benefit of a utility easement, or perhaps several easements, if the lines cross other properties.

Utility easements almost always give the benefitted utilities the right to install, operate and maintain the usual facilities within the easement, including poles, transformers, guy wires, manholes, hydrants and all that stuff.

If the utility doesn't have an easement, it can, if necessary, use the power of eminent domain that all regulated utilities in this state possess, to acquire an easement by condemnation. In my experience, this is rarely done these days, as they prefer to negotiate, but if push comes to shove the utility will find a way legally to istall and maintain the facilities necessary to serve its customers.

For sake of completeness, I should add that there are a few areas where the utilities have agreed, for a price, to put their facilities underground. In those areas, the companies may have surrendered their usual right to install and maintain poles.