The Big Question: Eversource

1

Do you think Eversource has been sufficiently transparent when it comes to private versus public ownership of power lines?

Reply:

I don’t think Eversource has been transparent about telling folks their power lines are private, but they do not shoulder all the responsibility.  Developers and real estate salespeople who didn’t tell home purchasers that along with buying their house, they were also taking on the burden of maintaining the power lines are also complicit. Developers made the decision to use their own materials and contractors, rather than the utilities’, because it saved them money.  Yet the homeowner, who received no financial benefit from this arrangement, now must bear the financial burden of the developer’s decision.  The cost of maintaining and upgrading power lines are not insignificant and the fact that it is not mandatory to disclose this to home buyers borders on fraud.

Maria Black

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1 COMMENT

  1. I understand the frustration and the need to blame someone. But real estate sales people are not title searchers. They are not trained, nor are they expected to know how to make this type of determination. Some of these documents, if they exist at all, are buried in the land records. Oftentimes, there is nothing in the title that would even reveal that the utility lines are private. We can’t expect real estate agents to shoulder the responsibility for this. The developers often left no paper trail regarding who installled the lines. I think the utility company needs to step up and figure out how they are going to rectify this dilemma.

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