Gas Line thur Farm land = Price

I need some help from anyone who has Natural Gas Line going across your farm land. Here in Vermont they are putting in a gas line from Burlington to Middlebury to service that town. They are using a "Certificate of Public Good" which means Eminent Domain which the state has now granted. That mean they can go where they want (like a new highway) and you can not stop them. The Court take the land for a right - a -way. They do have to pay land owners a "Fair Market Value".
Right now they have offered $4.00 per foot. What should we get???
Any help would be great. Also, we can not get on this line!!

David Pidgeon

Too bad your state has Eminent Domain, They offer Me 10.00 per foot here in NW. Pa. I settled for 20.00 A foot. If I would of said No Gas line here! They would of had to go around Me.

Talk to a good lawyer if you can find one. Gas/petroleum people put snakes to shame. Their price can be negotiated. Make sure there are clauses in the contract that they will restore your ground to pre-pipeline condition. Don"t sign off until you are satisfied.

My cousin in up-state Pa when offered a low ball wnet to court and forced a really fair market value price. The key was the statement "fair Market Value"

(quoted from post at 14:07:39 03/26/14) Talk to a good lawyer if you can find one. Gas/petroleum people put snakes to shame. Their price can be negotiated. Make sure there are clauses in the contract that they will restore your ground to pre-pipeline condition. Don"t sign off until you are satisfied.

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es, it can be negotiated. We ultimately received more than 3X their initial offer.

Ditto on the lawyer and restoring ground to prepipeline condition. I would also specify what type of grass to seed back so you don't end up with whatever is cheaper.

For a 2 inch line I got $7.50 per foot. That was about 10 years ago. They started at $1 per foot. I live in west central Arkansas. This is pasture land and nothing to do with a town.

I have a line thru my place. Was there when I bought it. I suppose the former owners got the $$$. Put in mid 80's I think.

I just had this discussion with my neighbor. An elderly farmer, gas line will be run across his fields under the high tension power line, which is a right a way, he dosent currently plow and probably never could correct? He gets no payment because of it's placement yet they use his ground and he still pays the taxes on it.

Friend of the family had a similar problem with his farm. They wanted to put a gas line through and he didn't want it. Told them no and while they were getting lined up to take him to court he did some research and hired a lawyer. Knowing the law and having an attorney he got codicils on the ROW. He got to specify what kind of vegetation they had to put back when they were done, got a pretty good description of the site work they had to do before and after (made them remove top soil & store it, do their thing and then put the top soil back), prohibited them from having anything that came out of the ground in the way of pipes, pumps, posts and such, and made sure the ROW was exclusive (meaning they couldn't sell or lease the ROW to other entities) and the gas company wasn't able to cross or work in a planted field without paying damages prior to their entry. He was really happy he took the trouble, when they installed the gas line they wanted to cross wheat fields that were planted, they had to pay up or come back later (they paid), about 7 years after the gas line was installed the gas company leased the ROW to the power company for an electric line, the crew installing the poles and power lines had a rude awakening when they got to his farm, the sheriff got involved and explained the meaning of the phrase "criminal trespass" power companies lawyers looked at the ROW documents and couldn't do anything without renegotiating a new easement. They ended up running the power line around the friend's farm.

Your ammunition for getting the best price for your right-of-way is credible proof of fair market value. If you purchased your property recently, that's going to be the basis for FMV. If not, you need to start doing research on recent land sales in your area.

It's not surprising that you can't get connected to the line. But once the line is in place, there's a much better chance you'll get a local line. Depends a lot on how many potential customers are in the area.

Make sure you put down to how deep the line must be and allow only one line in row..Make sure that one line can only be used for what it is put in for...you have rights on these..tell them you subsoil with a dozer and run 4 ft deep

I agree about checking on land values around you. This happened to us about 15 years ago. I was able to get double per acre of ROW from what they originally offered by doing a little research. I found them to be very reasonable as long as I was. Keep in mind; they are coming through, if you try for the moon, they will just turn it over to the Lawyers and condemn your property. Don't let that happen.

I don't have a gas line on my property but I am a ROW foreman and clean up foreman for a pipeline contractor. Sounds like you might be limited on price per foot but you can still be very picky about stipulations....
1. When clearing goes through...
A. No brush disposed of on property.
B. If you want the wood for logs or fire wood specify where you want it stacked, make it easy for yourself.
C. If there is any trees, ponds, sheds etc. that you want to save be specific about going around them and not damaging them, if they are damaged have a price already known that the gas company will pay to replace them(think very high)!
D. Let them know that getting off of there ROW is unacceptable.
2. When the ROW crew goes trough...(dirt work building road for rest of spread)
A. All topsoil down to 12" removed and stock piled.
B. no one gets off ROW for any reason.
3. Every crew going through needs to stay on the Row.
4. When the cleanup crew comes through...
A. Subsoil gets put back to original shape before topsoil is touched.
B. Topsoil needs soil samples and fertilizer and limed accordingly.
C. Grass seed drilled in or broadcast to your liking.
D. You pick the seed what ever you want ( I have sowed very expensive seed that was not there before but it's in the contract)
F. Don't let them " mud it in " in the cleanup if its muddy they just have to wait!
G. Make them rip your ground to get rid of compaction before putting down topsoil.
H. If you need to get heavy equipment across the line tell them you want a crossing for heavy equipment.
I. Make sure all erosion control (silt fence, straw bales etc.) comes out ASAP this is usually after they get 70% coverage on grass.
J. If you have fences make them with as good or better materials than is there now. Be specific 2" tube gates X gauge, woven wire, 8" hedge posts etc. you get the idea. Have them put gats in their ROW so they have access in the future without cutting fences or going around them.
K. There is a lot of rock that goes in road approaches, they have to haul it off, if you have a barn lot or ditch needing filled tell them you want all you can get (this might be way more than you want sometimes 100's of loads) but stock pile it and sale it later. It's been done before!
5. Make sure they only get permission for the line they are doing now, all future lines need to renegotiate! I just worked on a line last year in Ohio that 50 years ago the owner signed a agreement and had multiple lines in the contract, the new owner got literally $30 for crossing him (we all felt bad for him but that was the gas companies doing not ours).
6. Remember the people working on it are humans trying to make a living... The gas company is who you need to deal with get the land mans name and number deal with him and him only. The people out there are not supposed to make deals (even though we do try to help out all we can... Remember I would have to pay trucks to haul off all that rock if I can't find someone to take it)
7. Make them have 4' of cover min. on the line all the way across you property not just in the fields. (Usually 3' is ok in wooded areas, and sometimes 2' feet in rock,)
You don't have to be a horses rear but be very firm in you demands. I have seen people get money for everytime a company get off the ROW....$500 hundred the first time, $1000 the second etc... I have also seen a guy give them the ROW but charge them $xxx per foot for getting off the ROW (he used that money to go hunting in Alaska, he is a retired pipeliner!)

Hope all of his helps some of this is just standard stuff and is done this way anyway but some of it isn't. Get all of your demands IN WRITING AND SIGNED with the land man. BE VERY SPECIFIC ABOUT EVERYTHING, DON'T LEAVE ANYTHING TO VERBAL AGREEMENTS. Once the contract is signed it's to late, and the land man usually forgets who you are!

Yeah, he can fight it except that there's EMINENT DOMAIN in effect here, and if he fights too hard he'll end up with SQUAT.

Many thanks to all who took time to answer my question. Aside from $ per foot how much do you think this will de-value the sale down the road of my farm?? I think this should be look at.

David Pidgeon