...Oconomowoc Homeowner Pat Voss bought a lot in a new development called Lakeridge West in 2002. It was graded for a walkout basement, and backed up to a nature preserve.
Two years after she moved in Voss got a letter from the gas company about a 20 ft. easement that cut right through her yard. Buried a few feet underground was a pair of high pressure gas pipelines.
Big honkers, too: a 16" and a 12".
The next letter was from the developer, Former Congressman Mark Neumann, explaining that errors had been made...Voss' neighbor Warren Mutsch says, "If they had been disclosed we would have never bought the property."
Voss says, "Nothing was marked on the plats. Nothing was indicated. There were no easements. There was nothing telling us as buyers there was anything on this property."
If Neumann wasn't aware of the pipes, he certainly should have been. When his company bought the land in 2002, the easement was listed. Before dirt started moving WE Energies warned Neumann to watch out for a pair of high pressure gas mains.
When Neumann submitted his final plat to the City of Oconomowoc for approval, the pipes were somehow left off.
Chicago Title paid out bunches of moneys to neighbors for the missing easement-markers.Typically, easements are recorded on the (old-fashioned) abstract of title to a given plot of land. I have no idea what the abstracts said (if they even exist, although they should, in the Courthouse.)
Should they have been platted? Dunno.
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Platted? Dunno, either. But they should certainly have been marked. Federal regulations require it, I believe. Someone may be headed for some hefty Fed fines.
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