Is Rover Serious???

For anyone that will be dealing with Rover, you are in store for the laugh of your life. The money they are offering is beyond ridiculous. I'm hearing numbers like one dollar per foot for access and five bucks a foot for an easement. Are they serious? My lawyer is handling the mess, I don't need the headache.

Views: 3942

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by kit on June 2, 2015 at 9:07am

I hope yo have  better sucess than what I have had. My offering is 3 bucks per foot for temp access road and 57 bucks for three lines up front. 24 inch and 2 12 inch..may be two 10 inch..lawyer is handling my headache also but they are not budgeing. Also I have no owner protection provisons and no abandonment clause.

 This was there final offer after three months and no budgeing. OH sorry, they came up 10 bucks....

Permalink Reply by Zack Jameson on June 2, 2015 at 9:57am

With projects of this scope and magnitude. Per foot payments to the landowner should be close to $100 per foot for a 24" inch line and $150 for a 36" pipeline. See what "power" having a FERC designation does. They will try to cram it down your throat their way.

Permalink Reply by rmc on June 2, 2015 at 11:57am
They won't try they will
Permalink Reply by rmc on June 2, 2015 at 12:01pm
Be prepared to spend a lot of money in attorney fees and court cost etc
Permalink Reply by Zack Jameson on June 2, 2015 at 1:08pm

I have to check and see if Rover is offering to pay any legal fees for landowners.

Permalink Reply by wvugho on June 2, 2015 at 10:17pm
I believe they will pay for a lawyer to look at you row agreement.
Permalink Reply by Dexter Green on June 2, 2015 at 1:23pm

The strategy is pretty clear.  Pay bottom dollar prices--which the majority will actually accept--and that leaves enough wiggle room to cover the cost of the holdouts.  

Permalink Reply by Zack Jameson on June 2, 2015 at 1:44pm

For sure Dexter.....for sure. Just like the buck a foot for access, a landowner might get them up to ten a foot and he thinks he "got one over" on them and they are laughing behind his back. Folks, in case you haven't realized access can be worth very big money.....actually several hundred thousand in the right situation. They are using the same strategy as with the oil/gas leases which is sign the "easy ones" first then go back and work on the holdouts. Landowners are more educated then a few years ago and hopefully they will put that knowledge to good use now.

Permalink Reply by R on June 2, 2015 at 1:56pm

Protections for landowners

But when pipelines are destined to move forward, the eminent domain process can be much more beneficial to landowners than they expect, Insko said. In court, the companies are held to clearer standards of conduct and must make a case for their valuation of the property.

"The court process can be advantageous for landowners, as opposed to negotiating outside of court," Insko said. "There are not rules or requirements that hold pipeline companies' feet to the fire when it comes to [negotiation] with landowners … [but] once a pipeline company and a landowner go to court … it becomes a legal question. In that way, the eminent domain laws can in some ways be good for landowners."

Emily Krafjack, a property owner and landowner advocate in Pennsylvania, also highlighted the benefits of the legal standards inherent in eminent domain. Krafjack lives in Wyoming County in the state's northern tier, a largely rural area in the Marcellus Shale region. Gas developers have descended on her county and the surrounding jurisdictions, and with gas wells must come gathering lines if the resource is to make it to market.

Gathering lines, however, are not broadly regulated by the federal pipeline safety standards and do not require the FERC approval that transmission lines do, despite often being similar to transmission systems in diameter and pressure. As largely unregulated infrastructure, gathering lines are often not eligible for eminent domain, but companies are also not required to justly compensate landowners for their property when seeking to run the line across private land, Krafjack said in a recent interview.

More than 7,500 gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania since unconventional development began in the Marcellus Shale about a decade ago, and landowners in the region have been inundated with company requests to run gathering lines across private property — a negotiation process average landowners were ill-prepared to tackle, Krafjack said.

"The early agreements were not very good financially or in provisions. … People weren't prepared to understand the process," said Krafjack, who has implored her fellow landowners to incorporate safety and record-keeping standards in addition to financial terms into the contracts they sign with gathering-line builders. "Landmen constantly coming, negotiating, dealing with lawyers — it's a full-time job to handle all this stewardship of the land, and then you're trying to farm on top of it."

Krafjack said she realizes that property owners dealing with eminent-domain-empowered pipelines are limited in their decision-making power in many ways but noted that the legal requirements placed on the settlements are clearer.

"Yes, their hands are tied, but they're safer," she said. "I think it's a lot more complicated having no regulation than it is when there's regulation."

Nicolle Snyder Bagnell, a partner with the law firm Reed Smith LLP, said eminent domain law is intended to set the stage for fair compensation and clear communication among parties.

"Both the state and federal procedure were created to protect both the pipeline company and the landowners," Bagnell, who counsels energy clients in the Appalachian shale industry, said in a recent interview. "The procedure is there to make sure that everyone is able to receive the benefits of the pipeline being constructed."

The process leading up to eminent domain authorization also takes into consideration safety and environmental concerns when it comes to pipeline routing and in that way further protects the public good, multiple stakeholders said. For instance, the soundest route may not always be the most popular, Weimer noted.

"Through the FERC process, they try to pick the safest, most environmentally friendly route, and then they kind of stick to it. Without eminent domain, it may be that [the builders] are not always picking the most environmentally friendly route, because they have to pick a route that people agree to," Weimer said.

Krafjack said she has seen gathering line developers encounter landowners who unyieldingly object to the infrastructure, and ultimately the builders install extra miles of pipe to circumvent stubborn property owners.

Insko said he believes this may be true for some transmission line routing, as well.

"Pipeline companies want the path of least resistance, and for a long time, the path of least resistance meant the shortest route. … Increasingly, though, the path of least resistance is the path where they get the least pushback from locals," he said.

https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article.aspx?cdid=A-30726280-10044

Permalink Reply by kit on June 2, 2015 at 2:00pm

Dear Jack, When you refer to access, does that include temporary access? I am def trying to gather as much information as possible, I am educating myself, even though my attorney is handling the stituation, but all he can do is get me the best possible deal he can work out, however the decision comes down to me signing. The ball is in my court and I want to be able to make an educated decision. The temp access road is to put in the pipeline row of course. So my attorney is telling me around 8 bucks a foot,(should be getting but attorneys are kinda new to this area so I am wondering if maybe I should be investigating more. How do I determine the best price to ask for my this access road they are calling temporary. At first they were offering a buck a foot. Now my attorney has them up to a couple bucks a foot. This message board has equiped me so much, so I hope I can now can have understanding on what they are trying to accomplish with this access road they call temporary.

Permalink Reply by Zack Jameson on June 2, 2015 at 2:55pm

An access road is just that, a road which could be either temporary or permanent which enables them to get to the R.O.W. to do their work. Compensation for this access road shouldn't be taken lightly. They have to have access to do the work and this is where the landowner can get well compensated. Your land will be torn up during construction of the pipeline. Get paid well for this valuable access and the resulting (timber) damage. Don't let them fool you by their offering a paltry sum for access. It is valuable to them and the landowner should be paid big money for it. 

0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on June 2, 2015 at 3:47pm

Based on past visits by pipeline landmen that claimed they needed a ROW across every landowner in Columbiana and Carroll County for a non existent pipelines, make sure these people actually represent the Rover Pipeline and aren't just going ahead of the pipeline picking up ROW contracts.

You know what I always say about your potential wealth "Money Brings Out The Worst In People".

RSS

© 2024   Created by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher).   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service