"Hello, 911? Yes, there is a major gas leak that requires emergency service, but the HOA is preventing access. Can you come remove the gate and arrest the entire HOA board? See you in 15? K, thanks."
I would have just called out the local Fire Marshall and it would not be long at all before he lawfully forces compliance and access to the gas pipe. A leaky gas pipe is a fire hazard and 100% within the authority of the Fire Marshall to investigate and order repairs be done on. A fire Marshall can order gas to be shut off to a whole neighborhood if needed until a gas line is repaired. He may even be able to order that electricity and other possible sources of ignition are shut off too in order to prevent fires and explosions from someone flipping a light switch. They can even force evacuations from multiple houses until the issue is resolved if they believe that the residents of those homes are in danger. Also they will not let some HOA prick push them around because interfering with them is an arrestable offense!!
Seriously. You know who you don't f@$# with? Fire safety people. They have some big, huge, honkin, and destructive toys (usually used in order to save people). A pad lock barely gets a slight chuckle out of the greenest firefighter on the force. And fire Marshalls are people you do NOT want to mess with.
This gas line situation was a serious hazard and if reported to the fire department, police department, utility office something would have been done. The HOA cannot knowingly allow a potential fire, explosion, property damage or possibly a death. A nonmember of the HOA is always going to be treated like the enemy. I find it hard to believe that the utility workers didn't report this and get the manager involved, the police and the HOA to let them know they were liable for any mishap.
Yes simplest would have been for the gas company to simply cut off the area, as a safety measure because of them being unable to access the leak. the entire area calling in, and being told the real reason is the HOA and to take it up with them, would have resulted in a new board within a week, as every homeowner was at the door of the president with pitchforks, and tar and feathers.
Get the Fire Marshall and Fire Department on the HOA's back you will see *ALL* of their smugness go away very quickly!! The HOA was just being petty and trying to use that to force him to join. I am glad he fought the HOA and did not. Not all HOA communities are horrible places but I am aware that if I ever move into one I must be careful and make sure that it is not one of those ones run by a bunch of scofflaws!
Here's what I would do call the emergency number report a gas leak active and ask for the fire and police because the HOA was not allowing the gas company to fix the leak so you want it's board to be charged with attempted murder and destruction of the property.
His sewer pipe "solution" is stupid. That's a shortcut to a lawsuit. Calling the fire department and police should have been done before the gas company techs left his property.
I met an electric power supervisor in Sydney. He carried a pair of bolt cutters in his ute for just this sort of thing. In the story the gas technicians should have just cut the padlock (or called the utility's locksmith) and left the HOA to pound sand. It was an emergency. The HOA had no claim or rights over the easement. The easement land (servient tenement) belongs to the particular owners of the land and these owners are bound to allow utility access to the easement in accordance with the easement documents registered on the respective titles. The HOA does not get a look in unless specifically mentioned in these documents and then must still abide by terms of the easement. This is even more so if the various utilities are specifically named as the 'dominent tenement' of the easement. And utilities will not be corporately bullied. For utilities facing lawsuits it is just another day at the office just like anyone trying to take on the IRS or other tax authority.
In Latvia if there is some restrictions to a gas line (not only mains, but even inside a house!) for inspections/repairs: police is called immideately and thing like gates is demolished. Leaving ones who made restrictuons with demolishing bills and high fines for restricting critical infrastructures.
I would have visited every house in the area warning them of the immediate danger, possible explosion risk etc, then stood back and waited for the members to panic about possible damage to their expensive houses!
Call the Fire Department first since this is a SAFETY ISSUE regarding a Gas Line. Turn to the crew.... ask them if they have a sledge hammer that he could borrow..... have them take pictures of HIM doing the deed.
The term "Easement" is a legal term. That is a contract between the purchaser of any property and the utility. The property owner has zero ability to interfere with the Utility's access ever. The Utility has the absolute right to demolish any structure interfering with their access. So, the HOA has zero authority here.
The gas pipe is the property of the gas company and it would have been their responsibility to get access to it and repair it if there was a leak. All they needed to do was called the police and have the lock cut. Also, there would never be a sewer drainage on a private property that someone could block. If there was all that sewage would be dump on to his property. The might be an access port, but you wouldn't be able to cap the pipe from there.
Alex, I’ll take “things that never happened” for $1,000. It’s simply not the ways happen in real life. Utility easements can’t legally be blocked. The HOA cannot block access at any time. The utility company has fully legal authority to cut the lock , enter the easement, and do their repairs. And they all know this. The HOA would never get a legal permit to build such a fence and lock it without easement owners being given full access.
5:00 report a gas leak to all relevant authorities and that lock and gate will vanish faster than it was constructed. And probably the HOA will receive a hefty fine
Just contact the utilities services. They DO have easements established; the HOA can pound sand, but the HOA can't stop the construction. I THINK THIS STORY NEEDS EXCLUSION.
I would have insisted the gate be permanently removed with a written agreement that they would leave me alone and not block any access before removing the w.
Evidently the majority of HOA residents are happy with their HOA's because a majority of them could actually vote the HOA null and void. Putting up with the overreach and dictatorial attitude of the HOA board lies on their refusal to take some action.
For a problem like this you could also involve the Fire Marshall. He will just cut the lock with bolt cutters and let the utility crew in and issue massive fines to the HOA for blocking it!
20:10 I don't really understand why it is such a long fight? Why don't the local authorities just *forcefuy* unlock and remove that gate as it was placed illegally? Can't be that difficult to act quickly
If there is a utility easement, no one has the authority to block the utilities access, even on private property. And if it's a gas leak, any gas company I have dealt with would have tore the fence down. Gas leaks are no joke. But then again this is just a story with no basis in reality.
Wether a h o a or a private property public utiltys have a right to maintain the services they have run through other people's property, and unless the utilty really doesn't have a recorrded easement the utility can still tclaim prescriptive easement.
I would contact their insurance company who would have to foot the bill if anything went wrong - they would soon change things - but you can't win against stupid, Rules for teh guidence of wise men & the obdience of fools
Seeing how this channel is "StoryTeller" and probably just tall tales, I will not take too much offense to doing this... This entire story is FAKE. Gas Lines (as depicted in this story) are a SERIOUS enough issue that even with the gas company coming to correct the issue the SAME DAY, they HAD to leave a representative ON SITE from the moment they inspected through the end of the repair. I had exactly this issue happen to me in NJ. Leak by the meter, but they didn't install the curbside shutoff on the main line (apparently we were ~4 years early when the development went in. There was a scheduled fix happening the next year, but that was over 20 years after the development was built). As there was an ACTIVE ISSUE, there is NO WAY it would have taken even two days to get a crew out there. MAYBE if it was in an uninhabited area, but certainly NOT in a populated residential area that would have an HOA. And even beyond that, there would have been NOTHING that would have stopped them from just cutting the lock. Heck, I could see them justifying RAMMING THE GATE WITH A TRUCK TO REMOVE IT. None of this BS that takes multiple days would have been permitted. PERIOD. And that is to say: 1 - This would all be COMPLETE Day 1. 2 - NOTHING would have stopped that fix from happening. 3 - Police, Fire, OR THE UTILITY ITSELF could have removed that lock and/or entire gate and there would be NOTHING the HOA could do to stop it. 4 - If I was that non-HOA member, I would have just cut the lock myself. HOA has a problem with that? Sue me. See where that ends up in court. And this is so simple a story to point out the numerous irregularities, that I just cannot even say I enjoyed the fable. Just having these works of FICTION on the internet make people think that these stories are real, and support their own crackpot ideas they try to pull in the future. (YES. I could easily see some stupid HOA boardmember "reading" this and thinking they have the right to do this too). Just thinking that a Utility company experienced in NATURAL GAS LINES would throw their hands up and say "Nothing I can do" is BEYOND INFURIATING to me. That is the equivalent of a powderkeg BOMB in the middle of a residential neighborhood able to LEVEL SEVERAL BUILDINGS and able to go off at ANY MOMENT.
All the guy had to do was go to the city or county. When they hear it they would force the HOA to open/unblock in a very quick way. Having access and blocking a sewer line. That is highly illegal. This whole story is garbage.
What a BS story. It is a UTILITY Right-of-Way. Any Utility company having a utility in the Right-of-Way has the right of access and should therefore also have the right to remove any obstruction preventing their legal right.
"Hello, 911? Yes, there is a major gas leak that requires emergency service, but the HOA is preventing access. Can you come remove the gate and arrest the entire HOA board? See you in 15? K, thanks."
If there's a gas leak they can legally break the gate. Totally unbelievable.
I would have just called out the local Fire Marshall and it would not be long at all before he lawfully forces compliance and access to the gas pipe. A leaky gas pipe is a fire hazard and 100% within the authority of the Fire Marshall to investigate and order repairs be done on. A fire Marshall can order gas to be shut off to a whole neighborhood if needed until a gas line is repaired. He may even be able to order that electricity and other possible sources of ignition are shut off too in order to prevent fires and explosions from someone flipping a light switch. They can even force evacuations from multiple houses until the issue is resolved if they believe that the residents of those homes are in danger. Also they will not let some HOA prick push them around because interfering with them is an arrestable offense!!
Seriously. You know who you don't f@$# with? Fire safety people. They have some big, huge, honkin, and destructive toys (usually used in order to save people). A pad lock barely gets a slight chuckle out of the greenest firefighter on the force. And fire Marshalls are people you do NOT want to mess with.
He Should have called The Fire Department. They have a right to cut the lock by law for public safty.
he should have called the cops on HOA for blocking a utility easement
The police had authority to order the gate opened immediately. If they refused the fire dept could cut the lock and issue a fine to the HOA.
@ cops where too chicken to challenge hoa
Fire department, not police, that would have ended this quickly, they would have removed the gate
The HOA could face heavy fines and imprisonment for blocking a public utility easement
This gas line situation was a serious hazard and if reported to the fire department, police department, utility office something would have been done. The HOA cannot knowingly allow a potential fire, explosion, property damage or possibly a death. A nonmember of the HOA is always going to be treated like the enemy. I find it hard to believe that the utility workers didn't report this and get the manager involved, the police and the HOA to let them know they were liable for any mishap.
Yes simplest would have been for the gas company to simply cut off the area, as a safety measure because of them being unable to access the leak. the entire area calling in, and being told the real reason is the HOA and to take it up with them, would have resulted in a new board within a week, as every homeowner was at the door of the president with pitchforks, and tar and feathers.
Get the Fire Marshall and Fire Department on the HOA's back you will see *ALL* of their smugness go away very quickly!! The HOA was just being petty and trying to use that to force him to join. I am glad he fought the HOA and did not. Not all HOA communities are horrible places but I am aware that if I ever move into one I must be careful and make sure that it is not one of those ones run by a bunch of scofflaws!
Here's what I would do call the emergency number report a gas leak active and ask for the fire and police because the HOA was not allowing the gas company to fix the leak so you want it's board to be charged with attempted murder and destruction of the property.
His sewer pipe "solution" is stupid. That's a shortcut to a lawsuit. Calling the fire department and police should have been done before the gas company techs left his property.
I met an electric power supervisor in Sydney. He carried a pair of bolt cutters in his ute for just this sort of thing. In the story the gas technicians should have just cut the padlock (or called the utility's locksmith) and left the HOA to pound sand. It was an emergency. The HOA had no claim or rights over the easement. The easement land (servient tenement) belongs to the particular owners of the land and these owners are bound to allow utility access to the easement in accordance with the easement documents registered on the respective titles. The HOA does not get a look in unless specifically mentioned in these documents and then must still abide by terms of the easement. This is even more so if the various utilities are specifically named as the 'dominent tenement' of the easement. And utilities will not be corporately bullied. For utilities facing lawsuits it is just another day at the office just like anyone trying to take on the IRS or other tax authority.
JFC.
Have the gas company turn off the gas.
The HOA residents will get the gas fault fixed ASAP!
In Latvia if there is some restrictions to a gas line (not only mains, but even inside a house!) for inspections/repairs: police is called immideately and thing like gates is demolished. Leaving ones who made restrictuons with demolishing bills and high fines for restricting critical infrastructures.
This is just common sense.
Those easements have a lot of power. The easement most likely was made way before the HOA. Another reason not to be in a HOA.
The Gas Company should've handled this not the home owner, cause it's a Public Health n Safety issue.
I would have visited every house in the area warning them of the immediate danger, possible explosion risk etc, then stood back and waited for the members to panic about possible damage to their expensive houses!
I've never seen a utility work crew that wouldn't just plow through any BS 'private additions' to the utility easement.
Call the Fire Department first since this is a SAFETY ISSUE regarding a Gas Line. Turn to the crew.... ask them if they have a sledge hammer that he could borrow..... have them take pictures of HIM doing the deed.
I would have figured out how to shut off the gas to the HOA community and let them figure out what that smell is
He should have called the people who supply the gas.
The fire department will take care of that for you.
This is dumb. The utilities of everywhere deal with this on the daily. The gas company owns the line. Cut the lock and toss it.
The term "Easement" is a legal term. That is a contract between the purchaser of any property and the utility. The property owner has zero ability to interfere with the Utility's access ever. The Utility has the absolute right to demolish any structure interfering with their access. So, the HOA has zero authority here.
The gas pipe is the property of the gas company and it would have been their responsibility to get access to it and repair it if there was a leak. All they needed to do was called the police and have the lock cut.
Also, there would never be a sewer drainage on a private property that someone could block. If there was all that sewage would be dump on to his property. The might be an access port, but you wouldn't be able to cap the pipe from there.
Alex, I’ll take “things that never happened” for $1,000. It’s simply not the ways happen in real life.
Utility easements can’t legally be blocked. The HOA cannot block access at any time. The utility company has fully legal authority to cut the lock , enter the easement, and do their repairs. And they all know this. The HOA would never get a legal permit to build such a fence and lock it without easement owners being given full access.
5:00 report a gas leak to all relevant authorities and that lock and gate will vanish faster than it was constructed. And probably the HOA will receive a hefty fine
Just contact the utilities services. They DO have easements established; the HOA can pound sand, but the HOA can't stop the construction. I THINK THIS STORY NEEDS EXCLUSION.
Looks like the HOA didn't think this though
I would have insisted the gate be permanently removed with a written agreement that they would leave me alone and not block any access before removing the w.
Evidently the majority of HOA residents are happy with their HOA's because a majority of them could actually vote the HOA null and void. Putting up with the overreach and dictatorial attitude of the HOA board lies on their refusal to take some action.
The gas pipe is already leaking if you can smell gas
5:55 I'm sure the representative is trashtalking.
Gas company do not let them stop by a hoa they tremple hoa
For a problem like this you could also involve the Fire Marshall. He will just cut the lock with bolt cutters and let the utility crew in and issue massive fines to the HOA for blocking it!
The police will enforce utility easement
20:10 I don't really understand why it is such a long fight? Why don't the local authorities just *forcefuy* unlock and remove that gate as it was placed illegally? Can't be that difficult to act quickly
3:20 mistake. Don't try to solve *anything* eith HOAs by yourself get a lawyer *immediately* and let them handle anything
If it were me I would call the police
If there is a utility easement, no one has the authority to block the utilities access, even on private property. And if it's a gas leak, any gas company I have dealt with would have tore the fence down. Gas leaks are no joke. But then again this is just a story with no basis in reality.
I'm calling BS! That's not how easements work ( public or utilitarian).
Wether a h o a or a private property public utiltys have a right to maintain the services they have run through other people's property, and unless the utilty really doesn't have a recorrded easement the utility can still tclaim prescriptive easement.
You need to have your text EDITED by a professional editor.
How in the world do you block a sewer pipe with a cap. How is that even done? Does the sewer system empty into his back yard?
It is a major safety hazard, cut the lock and open the gate to access and do the repairs. See them in court. I hate this timid mind set.
I would contact their insurance company who would have to foot the bill if anything went wrong - they would soon change things - but you can't win against stupid, Rules for teh guidence of wise men & the obdience of fools
BS. Gas company has UNFETTTERED access through the legal easement
Bolt cutter, done
Classic cass of HOA overreach.
Seeing how this channel is "StoryTeller" and probably just tall tales, I will not take too much offense to doing this...
This entire story is FAKE. Gas Lines (as depicted in this story) are a SERIOUS enough issue that even with the gas company coming to correct the issue the SAME DAY, they HAD to leave a representative ON SITE from the moment they inspected through the end of the repair. I had exactly this issue happen to me in NJ. Leak by the meter, but they didn't install the curbside shutoff on the main line (apparently we were ~4 years early when the development went in. There was a scheduled fix happening the next year, but that was over 20 years after the development was built). As there was an ACTIVE ISSUE, there is NO WAY it would have taken even two days to get a crew out there. MAYBE if it was in an uninhabited area, but certainly NOT in a populated residential area that would have an HOA. And even beyond that, there would have been NOTHING that would have stopped them from just cutting the lock. Heck, I could see them justifying RAMMING THE GATE WITH A TRUCK TO REMOVE IT. None of this BS that takes multiple days would have been permitted. PERIOD.
And that is to say: 1 - This would all be COMPLETE Day 1. 2 - NOTHING would have stopped that fix from happening. 3 - Police, Fire, OR THE UTILITY ITSELF could have removed that lock and/or entire gate and there would be NOTHING the HOA could do to stop it. 4 - If I was that non-HOA member, I would have just cut the lock myself. HOA has a problem with that? Sue me. See where that ends up in court.
And this is so simple a story to point out the numerous irregularities, that I just cannot even say I enjoyed the fable. Just having these works of FICTION on the internet make people think that these stories are real, and support their own crackpot ideas they try to pull in the future. (YES. I could easily see some stupid HOA boardmember "reading" this and thinking they have the right to do this too). Just thinking that a Utility company experienced in NATURAL GAS LINES would throw their hands up and say "Nothing I can do" is BEYOND INFURIATING to me. That is the equivalent of a powderkeg BOMB in the middle of a residential neighborhood able to LEVEL SEVERAL BUILDINGS and able to go off at ANY MOMENT.
This is not even true a little bit evenso a nice story to listen to
All the guy had to do was go to the city or county. When they hear it they would force the HOA to open/unblock in a very quick way. Having access and blocking a sewer line. That is highly illegal. This whole story is garbage.
What a BS story. It is a UTILITY Right-of-Way. Any Utility company having a utility in the Right-of-Way has the right of access and should therefore also have the right to remove any obstruction preventing their legal right.