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| At least double the cost of the ground. Maybe more, you have to deal with it for ever.
Make them put a fence on the construction easement BEFORE ANYTHING starts, that keeps everyone where they belong. Fence can come out when they are done, sometimes they will leave it and you can take it down if you need wire.
If livestock might ever be involved make them provide you with an insurance policy holding you harmless if they leave a gate open and livestock cause damage as well as paying you for damage to livestock and ground if they do work on the line.
Require a 24/7 phone number to call if there are ever problems.
Check to see if they want an easement that allows them to run fiber optics. Read the fine print, they like to hide it under a clause to allow them to use the line for communication and will try and convince you it is only for their internal use, but it is not. Communications makes it much more valuable to them and affects what they can force on you.
Never take an offer less than what you want, don't be afraid to go to condemnation. IF they have communication hidden in there somewhere they CANNOT use condemnation in Kansas because they are not registered as a communication provider.
Do not take their reps word for anything. Sometimes they don't tell him the truth and sometimes he is a very good liar. They even went so far as to hire a woman who claimed to be a neighbor of ours who worked for them to try us after we had turned them down. My Wife says that is a typical negotiating trick, thinking i might not be as hard to deal with talking to a woman. They were wrong. Kept threatening comdemnation over and over, going to sue us for damages, nothing but lie after lie.
In our case the line was already through our land before we bought it. They came to us offering to narrow up the easement for free just to be nice...oh and we will sign a new agreement that had hidden in it the right to use it for communication. Kept trying to tell us it didn't have a communication provision until I pointed out the wording to them. Then they tried to tell us how much of a benefit he narrow easement would be, but backed off when we told them the state of Kansas would force them to narrow it anytime we put the request in writing so they really were not offering anything special. Then they tried to bully us with the threat of condemnation until our Attny informed them that they had no standing to condemn with the communication clause still in the contract because of the way they are registered with the state of Kansas. Once they realized we were not going to be bullied they just quit calling.
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Power Line right a way question?
