Secondary Electrical Easement Dispute

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sjeakins

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Hi,

I'm new to the forum and have filed a small claims/General District Court action schedule for 3/31 on the following:

I own a landlocked piece of property on "top" of 2 other lots. For brevity, lets say lots 3 and 5 are divided with a N/S property line and my lot (4) is mostly on too of 5 (the E lot). There is an easement from the end of the street (south end of the property line) to my lot over lot 5 but lot 3 adjoins the easment. It is classified as a "Private Road" in the CC&Rs.

We are building our own house. Three years ago we installed the electicity (yes it has been that long - but I digress). At the time, the home on lot 3 (the W lot) was completed and lot 5 had not been sold.

We belong to an electric co-op. They do not have rights of way, but those are granted at the time the electical is installed. The co-op does not dig the trench, but does have specifications regarding the depth of the trench. You dig - they lay the line.

It was roughly 1500 feet from the street to where we sited our transformer on our lot. The cost to trench was $2.25 per foot.

Last year lot 5 sold. 6 weeks ago, he tied into our trench to get his electricity and refuses to share in the cost. The co-op told him there was no issue with this. The site of his transforme is located 1300 feet from the street.

Our CC&Rs are sparse, but here is the literal article:
Developer shall install at its expense the primary electric and telephone utility service lines and the Purchaser of Lot shall install secondary electric and telephone utility service lines running from the aforesaid primary lines to their respective lots; and each purchaser shall bear the expense thereof. Purchasers of Lots within the Development shall consent to the dedication of utility easements if requested to do so by the Developer.
I live in VA.

I am going to ask the court to cause him to install his own electrical at his own expense.

Please advise, and TIA.

Sandy
 
It's not your choice; the co-op is the party who will make the decision.
 
Look, I'm sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but we're out three grand and I just can't believe there's no remedy.

I focus on this:
running from the aforesaid primary lines to their respective lots

And on this:
each purchaser shall bear the expense thereof
We ALWAYS thought that our neighbor would have to get his own electricity and pay for it based on the CC&Rs.

We spent $3,000 in construction aid and joined the electric co-op.

when lot 5 started to build, the co-op gave them access at the top of the easement, effectively doing an end-run around article 9 - each purchaser shall bear the expense thereof. We're out 3 grand and, of course, the new builders are gloating about it.

When I spoke to the co-op, she said she was aware of the cc&rs but simply wasn't going to run a second line.

We had no idea (and were not informed) this could happen when we joined the co-op. We had no idea that the CC&Rs could be discarded like that.

Do we have any remedy at all (Unjust Enrichment)?


Thanks again,

Sandy
 
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