Utility Lines

I’m sure this is not a situation that is unique to Martha’s Vineyard; it may just happen here more often.  Utility lines.  Who owns them?  You might assume your local utility company NStar or National Grid, and in many cases that will be true.  But, and I know this from personal experience, this may not be the case.  A couple of years ago, the power went out on our street.  Calling NStar revealed that the power coming into our home was provided by NStar but on a line that was privately owned, by us!  A call to a private electrician resulted in a long process (2 days with no running water, power, etc.) of them tracing the line with detectors and then finding the break.  Once the repair was done and we had power on, we had a large(!) bill to contend with - $5500!  It then fell upon us to collect a pro-rata share from our neighbors who are also on this line.  We don’t have a road association and, in the end, most of our neighbors came through with their payment in a timely way.  I contacted NStar to see if they would like to take over the line and the response was - no.  Our line doesn’t feed any areas other than our dead end private road, so no thank you.  The electrician told us to expect more outages as the line, which is now 30 years old, continues to show its age by failing at the deteriorating couplings.  The price to replace the line?  Over $10,000!  What does this have to do with real estate?  Well, if you’re buying a home - ask the question - Are the utility lines that service this property privately owned?  If the answer is yes, then there are more questions to be asked and answered.  How many properties are serviced by this utility line?  How old is the equipment?  Is there a road association that collects money for outages and repairs?  This is one more question to ask an owner when they are offering their property for sale and you are interested in buying it.  Be informed.