Falling Trees and Hopes

Here are the trees on the front lot before they were cut down.











Here are the trees being cut down.

Here is the lot with no trees. Notice the two kind of spindly trees on the neighbor's lot across the fence. We were thinking it might be nice to see those trees fall down in the next big storm on the builder's house. I think the redwood and cedar shielded the other trees a lot during wind storms.

April 28th was an emotion-filled day. The trees on the front lot were cut down and the builder essentially said he’d love to see us in court! Here’s how the day went down.

At 9:00AM, PSE dropped my electrical connection. PSE told me that I should have received 48 hours notice. The builder had called me the previous evening to tell me that my power was going to be turned off tomorrow from 8:30 to 11:30 AM so that the trees can be cut down (turns out that the power was off from 9 to 6, and therefore I didn’t get any work done). Evergreen Tree Experts cut down the redwood and cedar on the front lot.

The builder and I had arranged to meet at 1:30 to talk about the utilities. I teold him that the PoTelCo guy told me that if an easement was set up across the front of the builder’s lot, that the electrical underground connection could be on private land and thus not cost as much. He just nods.

I asked if he got the letter I mailed to him. He said he no longer lives at the Renton address I have for him and that he didn’t get it. I gave the builder a copy of the letter. He read it and then gave it back to me. I tried to give it back to him, but he refused. I asked for his new mailing address and he refused to give it to me and said that his cell phone number is good enough. I shouldn’t have allowed him to give me back the letter, I guess. At least he read it.

The builder told me that we could split the cost of the new water line for my house (half of $700 is $350). I said I would consider it but that I still felt that it was his responsibility to pay for the whole thing. He said that he is an Indian and that it is in his people’s nature to settle these things in court (I have never run across someone who would use their ethnicity as an excuse before and I was a little taken aback). He said that if there was an earthquake and my waterline was damaged (and that the break was on his lot), that I would need his permission to fix the line, that he would not give me that permission, and that I would have to pay to have my line moved so that I could have a water connection. This feels like a veiled threat to me. I still think that the implied (prescriptive) easement would give me access to the line for repair. I need to ask my lawyer about this.

I asked him about the overhead electrical line and how he proposed to move it. He said maybe he wouldn’t move it. I asked him how that is possible since the house he is building is 2 stories. He shrugged his shoulders implying “I don’t know.”

He said I should think about the three options of paying for the moving of the utilities: paying for all, paying for half, or paying for none and to think about the ramifications of each decision. He is willing to split the cost of the water line. He said he is very willing to deal with these issues in court. I told him that if he’ll pay for the utilities to be moved, that he could proceed with his construction sooner. He said he can wait. He said that he has the water line scheduled to be moved on 5-5-06 (Friday next week).

This encounter with the builder was extremely frustrating. I tell my spouse about it and we both end up on edge for the rest of the day (and evening). We discuss just building a fence down our driveway to limit his access to his lot since he uses our driveway for access (for the time being). We could also dig a trench. A trench would not be so obviously aggressive and we could put a water line in it in the future. In the end, we decide that we will try to talk to our lawyer first, but that may not be until Monday.

Oh, the builder also told me (because I asked) that he might move into the house since he wants to live in this area! Of course, if he can get a good price for the house, he’ll sell it. Oh god! My spouse and I don’t want him as a neighbor!

To end this blog-post, here is the redwood on the ground. I counted 65 plus rings on the redwood and 75 on the cedar. They were likely planted when the house was built in 1935. Sad to see them go. So sad.

Comin' up roses

Okay, it should actually be "comin' up pansies," but it just doesn't have the same effect.

There has still been no movement on the lot in front of ours. Which is no big deal- his loss, not ours. Anyway, the weather here has been FABULOUS- it hit 75 today. Now that we actually have a yard, the nice weather makes me want to do yardwork. If only it had had the same effect when I was a kid...my dad would have been overjoyed... So, since the weather was wonderful, we decided to do a bit of gardening. Unfortunately, we didn't have any flowers to plant. Or did we?

I've noticed several pansies growing "wild" on the front lot over the past couple of weeks. There are all different colors, and they're scattered at strange intervals throughout the lot. Since they were going to be bulldozed anyway...

So we planted many lovely pansies in our yard. I am happy. I got to be outside and play in the dirt, not to mention save some flowers' lives.

If it stays warm we can move on to the next phase of house fun time: ripping out walls and redoing electrical wiring.

Poole weighs in

Michael Poole (the previous owner) finally called me back this morning. I told him that Dhillon is telling everybody that Poole told him that the utilities would be moved by either the owner of the house (us) or Poole. I said that because I gave the PaTelCo guy Dhillon’s contact info and the PaTelCo guy said Dhillon went off on the utilities (especially the water line). Poole asked for the letter I mailed Dhillon to be emailed to him as well as to have Dhillon’s contact info. I emailed him the letter and Dhillon’s contact info. He said he’d give Dhillon a call and try to find out what was going on.

Mike was really nice on the phone. Our real estate agent led us to believe that he was difficult to work with. So far, that is not my experience. I asked Mike to give me a heads up if he and Dhillon resolve anything.

The PaTelCo guy is also checking into the way this stuff works for me since they do this stuff all the time. Dennis was really nice, too.

On anther note, I was standing in the nook waving to my honey as she drove away this morning (to work). I’m going to miss that. The new house (should it ever get built) will deny me of that simple act. Oh, well.

Waiting once more

Since the letter was sent we haven't heard a peep from Mr. Front Lot Guy. So we really have no idea what's going on there. My spouse didn't have time to try to track him down today, but maybe tomorrow. If not, there's always the weekend or next week. We're not the ones in a hurry to build a house, so we can wait as long as we need to. We also found out from the company that does the installations for the electric company that we don't HAVE to put stuff in the right of way. If the owner of the front lot will give us a 5-ft easement, we don't have to have a contractor do it, and Mr. Front Lot Guy could rent an excavator or trencher and do it himself. But, since we haven't talked to him, we can't tell him that.

Personally, I wonder why he hasn't contacted us. Part of me wonders if he's working on getting his own legal council, although so far every single person has told us he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Who knows what's going on. Everyone else will know as soon as we do. ^_^

Legal-ease

Another benefit of working for a large homebuilder is that I've got resources up wazoo. And that's aside from the half hour of free legal stuff. I chatted up our land development guys, who said it was crazy to think that the utility move was the responsibility of anybody but the builder on the front lot. THEN, after we really needed some good legal help quick (after the half hour was used up), our sales operations manager referred me to a real estate lawyer my company's used in the past. So I called him up on Monday afternoon and he helped us immediately. Tuesday morning he returned our letter, edited, and today we sent the thing out. It was awesome, both the response time and the letter. I am SUPER happy. Hooray for where I work! Hooray for it being quick and easy to get legal assistance!

Anyway, this builder guy is NOT a great fella. At least not in the way he conducts his business. He called us and expected us to meet him in half an hour this past weekend, even though we had plans. Thanks, butt-munch. So we waited. And he didn't show up. We left.

Today he had some guys out to look at taking down the big, beautiful trees. They'd been waiting for the builder guy to show up so they could give him a quote. He never showed. How in the hell does he manage to stay in business? It's a small consolation that he's terrrible with everyone. At least we don't have to take it personally.

Who moves first?

My spouse gets certain perks working for the company that she does. One of them is a free half hour of legal counsel. I called a lawyer yesterday and described the situation. He said he’d do a little research for me. He called back today and said that the law is not clear but that the courts do support asking the question. Huh? In other words, a court would hear the case and not just throw it out (I guess). Well, it was free advice.

I went down the Kenmore City Hall (which is in the middle of a strip mall, by the way) to ask my question (who should pay to have the utilities moved). I may have just pissed off the builder on the front lot. The planning department noticed that the existing water line was not on the builder’s plan and tagged his file with a Do Not Issue Permit Until Resolved sign. I guess it’s official now. Something will happen for real before he starts to build. The woman I spoke with gave me two avenues to go down. One, wait it out (the builder will have to move my utilities himself if order to build, and then try to bill me). Two, work it out (this may be the harder choice). City hall and PSE both felt like the builder on the front lot should pay for (or at least help pay for) moving the utilities. Neither would commit to saying so on paper.

Dhillon (the front lot owner/builder) said that he wants me to pay for and coordinate the moving of the utilities. He told me that Michael Poole (the guy who my spouse and I bought the house from and who split the lot) said he was going to take care of moving the utilities before he sold the lot with the house on it. I am now trying to contact Michael Poole to find out he thinks and if he can offer any advice. Maybe Dhillon should get Michael to pay for all this. That seems fair, but I’m biased.