Last Friday there were tree trucks trimming trees around electric lines, I assume for the electric company. A few of the big trucks came back our road and they used a smaller lift to follow lines that go deep into the woods. Around 5 pm one of the workers asked my gf if they could park their lift by our barn, as they were returning on Monday.
Today is Tuesday and the damn thing is still here, killing our grass.
What if they do not return? Suppose a disgruntled employee left the lift and quit his job and now the company has no idea where it is. I’m familiar with maritime law and salvage, but we are on dry land. At some point does this thing become ours? I’ve been playing around, figuring out how to “drive” it and raise/lower the bucket just in case.
I assume you’re having us on a bit, because no rational mind leaps to “abandoned” a mere 24 hours late.
Not a lawyer, but I can read what Google finds. In general, nothing is declared abandoned until serious good-faith efforts to locate and notify the owner have conclusively failed. I have never seen a piece of heavy equipment that didn’t have a label or sticker identifying the owner.
I did note in perusing Google’s rich findings that, for instance, Texas seems to have a statutory rule that 3 years’ time is required for abandoned status, but I didn’t look it over that closely so I don’t know how it’s applied. I mention it as an example of how your jurisdiction’s law might affect the status of that equipment.
But 24 hours? You’re better off figuring out how to harass them into finishing the job (or, less obnoxiously, finding out when they intend to do so) than scheming to punish them by seizing their property.
Yes nowhere near enough time has elapsed for this equipment to be considered abandoned, and you should be contacting whatever company left it there (preferably in writing) before even thinking about seizing it.
The only real-life similar example I have personally seen was when an electric company I hired left a temporary pole and circuit breaker box installed on my property. Due to a disagreement over billing they basically left their equipment and wouldn’t come pick it up. The county advised me to be safe I should send them a letter stating that if they didn’t remove their equipment within X days then I would dispose of it. I did so and the time came and went… I “disposed of it” but disassembling it and keeping the parts.
BUT, a couple hundred $ worth of simple electrical parts and a wood post is much different than a multi-thousand $ piece of heavy equipment. Stashing their equipment away in your barn will likely get you threats of theft within a few days and a visit by your local police.
A little bit, I guess. I’m disappointed that my gf didn’t think to really think about what the tree guy was asking. Does our insurance cover us if a neighbor’s kid climbed on this thing, fell, and died? What if the thing isn’t gone on Monday? Etc. My gf is a pushover, I’m at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum and would have never agreed to the thing sitting here all weekend.
Neither of us recall the name on the tree company trucks. I could look online and contact all the tree services but I’m not going to put that kind of effort into it at this early stage.
Heh, I hadn’t thought of moving it into the barn. That would inconvenience us too much. I have thought about blocking egress just to let them know we weren’t happy about the machinery being left here beyond what had been agreed upon.
Oh well, I’m finished with work for the day and will see if it is still there.
Check the cab and see if there’s a sticker in there somewhere with a phone number. I’ve seen cabs of moving trucks that had the service depot’s phone number prominently posted. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find the same thing.
Perhaps its an alien craft, camouflaged to mimic some terrestrial technology. Has your gf complained of an odd memory loss or strange bodily sensations?
What if you called the police and made a formal complaint that they had parked their equipment on your (or her) property and it was killing the grass. Then it becomes their problem.
Write to them (snail mail) giving them a week to remove it or they will be charged $100 per day. If they don’t remove it, immobilise it in some non-damaging way and refuse to release it until the debt is paid.
I did this once with an old appliance that was supposed to have been removed. They turned up the day they got my letter.
Well, it was still here when I got home from work. I texted a friend who thought he could get it running and he came over. We messed around with it a bit, then he had to run.
I was in the barn filling water buckets just now and a guy came with a trailer to pick it up. I guess he was the same guy who left it Friday, because he asked me who was messing around with it. I admitted it was me, explaining that it was to be gone on Monday, so I was preparing to run it into the woods. He didn’t say anything else.
It’s interest to think about what would have happened had nobody come for it. I wasn’t going to track down the tree company, that’s not my job. I can’t see how just leaving it be would create legal jeopardy for me.
I’m not sure of all the details, but there is a legal process you have to go through for abandoned property that is left on your property. A common example is a car that ends up on your property for various reasons. You can’t just take the car for your own use. You have to contact the authorities who will remove it, try to contact the owners, and then auction it off or something. I think that’s the same for cars left in parking lots. The lot owner can’t just take ownership of the car even if the car has been left for a long time.
Call whichever utility owns the power lines; they’ll know who they hired to clear them. (If you don’t know whose lines they are, your city/county planning office probably knows, as well as whoever regulates utilities in your state.)
There are a couple of specific issues which would present some legal complications here over a generic situation. One is that the person was granted permission to leave the machinery. And two is that in the picture it looks like the machinery is the right-of-way between the power lines and the road. Even though that strip may be your property, utility companies typically have rights to work in an area on either side of power lines. I’m guessing here, it would be within their rights to park a utility vehicle there as long as they like without asking permission.
