Location: Cleveland, TN
So I just purchased a new construction home in a new development in Tennessee where I have lived all my life. I knew prior to purchasing tat there were orange flags marking an AT&T fiber line, or so it seemed. The yard is smaller but my we would like to put a small in-ground pool in our back yard.
I opened an “811” before you dig ticket with Tennessee. Within 24 hours I got a call from AT&T essentially being a very rude and saying I cannot put a pool in my back yard because their “fiber transmission line” runs through my back yard and the person claimed AT&T has a 16ft easement on my property and that I can’t build anywhere within 16ft of that fiber line. Basically leading me to believe they owned a 16ft easement on both sides.
I obtained my plot map for my property and discovered that the very rear property line of my plot, which meets the “community park” property line is where this 16ft easement is marked as beginning. It then goes 16ft towards my home and the end of that easement as I measured by hand is where ATT has its orange flags. Well, if you measure ANOTHER 7ft towards my home from the end of that easement you will hit the large orange markers that ATT has just installed in my yard as well as the paint markings for the location of the fiber line that they came out and marked after my 811 request.
This 7 foot of additional space runs directly into the area where our 4ft wide concrete surrounding the pool was supposed to be. Oddly enough, my concrete patio complete with a roof and attached to my home permanently is built only about 2 feet from this cable marking. maybe less and the home across the street from me is built about 3-4 feet from the cable markings.
So what gives? Was ATT supposed to place the fiber line within the easement or are they in the right for placing it the 7 or so feet past that and into my property? What rights do I have to build my pool assuming excavating should be another 3.5-4 feet away from their line? If they are in the wrong and I wish to utilize my property legally can I require them to move this cable into the easement area at their expense?