Utility Easements and Rights-of-Way: How They Work

Over the last two years, Tachus has grown to pass over 20,000 homes and is now present in several communities within Lake Conroe, The Woodlands, and Kingwood. With each neighborhood we offer our service to, we are a step closer to providing fast and reliable fiber Internet to Houstonians everywhere. However, lighting homes with our service is the final step of a thorough construction and installation process in which we build our fiber network in a community.

If we’ve begun working in your neighborhood, you may soon start to see color coded flags and paint in front of your home, followed shortly by our crews. Construction will always be an uncomfortable process, but our crews and customer support team will make sure it’s as painless as possible. You can rest assured that our crews will never require access to your property or backyard. However, you can expect them to work in the right-of-way in front of your home. Here’s why.

What Are Utility Easements and Rights-of-Way?

An easement is the right to use a portion of someone’s land for a stated purpose, and a utility easement grants utility companies the right to install their lines across a tract of land. A right-of-way allows someone to work in or travel through your property. On any given road on which a public right-of-way exists, the right-of-way includes the road itself as well as the land on either side of it, and often encroaches on private property. The space inhabited by a public right-of-way is used for public travel as well as public utility purposes. Because a property’s right-of-way is centered around the road, it will generally be located in front of your home, while utility easements are typically located in the back of your home. You should be able to find any information concerning easements or rights-of-way included in your land’s deed description. This is what enables our crews to work in front of residents’ homes as they need to. While our crews may be liable for any damages caused, they do have the right to work in or travel across any utility easement or right-of-way on your property under the Texas Utility Code.

What Can I Expect While Tachus Works in My Neighborhood?

Tachus will only ever work in the right-of-way located in front of your home. While other utility companies may require access to your backyard to access your utility easement, Tachus does not. You should only ever expect to see our crews in front of your house. No employee or contractor of Tachus will ever need to gain access to your home or backyard during our construction process.

If you see a construction crew on your front yard, there is no need to worry. They will promptly complete any work in front of your home and move on. If you find that there has been damage to your yard, sprinkler systems, or any other property, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will immediately coordinate repairs. We want our work in your neighborhood to be as quick and painless as possible. It’s our goal to leave your property the way we found it, with the only difference being that it would now have access to our blazing fast fiber Internet.

If you have any problems or concerns with our construction in your area, please feel free to call us at 832.791.1100 or email us at support@tachus.com. Our customer support team will be happy to help you.

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