My backyard has a 7.5’ easement in the backyard. No underground lines except the lateral service that comes to my house. I want to build a fence but and put a 10’x10’ shed back there and I don’t want to leave the easement space unused. There is a ATT node on the corner of the yard back there and I was talking to a work crew once and they told me that I would be safe with a fence and shed and even pouring concrete because there are you underground lines there. They said that they have never seen concrete cut up or fence torn down. They would reroute the lines as needed. I checked on a permit to build the fence and it does ask if the fence is being built in an easement but it didn’t say that it was prohibited.

Should I play it safe and stay off the 7.5’?

read the easement language.  

i wouldnt dig in the easement.  I would put a  shed on it, but not on concrete... use a skid base on a few concrete blocks.


something like this

this.

Also fences are ok.  At least around here.

7.5' seems wide for a generic residential easement.  They only encroach 3' into my yard.

Skidable shed and fence gates crossing the easement. Worse case, you could drag the shed out of the way and open the gates for access.

YMMV.

FPNI

It’s all in the contract language. Every company has a different one.

The survey says that the easement does not effect the lot. Whatever that means.

This is what I was thinking. If any need came up I could drag it out of the easement.

Been out of the business for a few years now but when I worked for a fiber splicing company in Florida years ago I responded to lines torn down and poles broken due to lines running from rear area (yards) across street to rear area (yards). Power lines were also down. FPL (power company) couldn't get to the pole in the yard at about 2am. They tied ropes to the fence in the SIDE yard and pulled it down with a bucket truck and then shoved a smaller shed out of the way with a "crawler" (pole setter) and drove thru the yard with both it and the bucket truck to set pole and re hang power lines. I was a bit surprised. They were pretty ruthless and quick about it. I was still working on restoring the fiber about daybreak when the owner/renter came home. She was stunned, they were gone.