By 
ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) – On a Thursday night time in January, dinner plans weren’t going properly for Sharon Hamala.
The rooster was carried out, however as Hamala was making an attempt to prepare dinner broccoli, the fuel vary wouldn’t ignite.
“Didn’t come on,” the Spherical Rock resident stated. “Let me strive once more. Didn’t come on.”
Then it hit her.
“Oh, no. They hit the fuel line,” she recalled.
Hamala stated she ran to the entrance door and confirmed with the Spectrum crew digging close to her home a fuel line was ruptured.
She stated the crew, putting in fiber optic strains for high-speed web, cellular and TV service, informed her earlier on the identical day they’d hit her sprinkler line. However this time, she stated, they didn’t notify her.
“I instantly thought, ‘Oh my gosh, the home goes to explode,’” she stated.
Hamala had a late rooster and broccoli dinner that January night time, however what nonetheless eats at her, she stated, was the dearth of communication in what might have been a harmful state of affairs.
“They didn’t inform us. They by no means apologized. Nothing,” she stated.
In response, Spectrum stated the harm to the fuel line occurred within the public proper of approach and the crew instantly referred to as 911. Nevertheless, it didn’t understand it had broken a service line resulting in Hamala’s dwelling, as a substitute of a mainline, till after the repairs had been underway.
Edwin Co lives just a few doorways down from Hamala and witnessed the fallout.
“The firefighters got here, evacuated everybody,” he stated. “They needed to like stroll out of their home as a result of they couldn’t begin their automotive as a result of an ignition might set a fireplace, I assume.”
Nobody was harm and Co didn’t must evacuate, however he confirmed KXAN Investigator Mike Rush the rut in his yard the place he stated crews needed to dig to make repairs on the fuel line.
Weeks later, Co stated he had one other downside with a Spectrum crew.
“Our sink began to bubble up after which we couldn’t flush our bathrooms,” he stated.
Co stated the crew broke his sewage line. He stated he paid a plumber to repair it and Spectrum reimbursed him.
“I don’t know if this occurs in different subdivisions,” he stated.
Seems, it did.
‘Water popping out on the easement’
When Ryan Ford turned on his sprinkler system outdoors his dwelling in Leander, as a substitute of spraying, the water close to the curb gushed into the road.
There have been sprinkler line breaks he attributed to Spectrum doing work in his neighborhood.
“They popped a whole line which left a flood of water popping out on the easement,” Ford stated.
Ford’s Spectrum expertise began in December 2023. He stated he was out of city when his doorbell app went off.
The video reveals what he described as “this gadget, this ditch witch, they had been backing it up and placing down some plywood and stuff within the yard.”
Ford stated his house owner’s affiliation warned him there can be building whereas Spectrum put in fiber optic strains however he didn’t anticipate the work to be so up shut and private.
“My understanding was that they had been really going to be engaged on the easement not in the midst of my entrance yard,” he stated.
Spectrum informed KXAN Investigates it distributes door hangers to inform householders of building work. Ford stated the corporate by no means notified him or requested for permission to come back into his yard.
“Didn’t get any sort of notification. Nothing,” he stated.
After KXAN Investigator Mike Rush met with Ford, Ford stated Spectrum got here the identical day and stuck the sprinkler system he’d been ready for them to restore for greater than two months.
In accordance with Spectrum, its contractor crew engaged on Ford’s garden shouldn’t have been on his property with out permission and was educated on correct practices for this sort of mission.
Spectrum, which is owned by Constitution Communications, wouldn’t converse on digicam, however in a press release to KXAN Investigates, a spokesperson wrote, “We apologize for the problems arising from our broadband community growth into these neighborhoods. Our native management and mission crews are working with residents and the house owner’s affiliation to resolve residents’ issues to their satisfaction.”
Central Texas HOA response
The Crystal Falls House owner’s Affiliation, which Ford is a part of, stated “The continued Spectrum work has been difficult.”
In a statement to KXAN, the board of administrators wrote Spectrum’s communication has been “very restricted” with the HOA because the affiliation acquired studies from householders of “disruptions to important companies like energy and various web service strains” that aren’t at all times corrected promptly and effectively. For these working remotely, it’s a state of affairs the HOA wrote has “affected householders’ employment.”
A spokesperson for Co and Hamala’s Spherical Rock house owner’s affiliation, Highlands at Mayfield Ranch, wrote to KXAN the mission was “not one undertaken nor agreed to by the Affiliation however commenced via Spectrum’s easement rights.” The spokesperson added the HOA has “assurances by Spectrum that they are going to make all required repairs.”
Spectrum informed KXAN, in response to the issues, it’s made management adjustments inside its contractors engaged on this mission and has already resolved a number of buyer points as it really works as shortly as attainable to handle others.
Spectrum stated it has the required metropolis and county permits to do the work in these areas of Leander and Spherical Rock.
Each house owner’s associations informed KXAN they don’t have any authority to approve or deny work carried out on easements and don’t have any energy to require utility corporations to make repairs to householders’ properties.
Nevertheless, Leander stated metropolis workers members are discussing attainable ordinance updates to offer town ‘improved enforcement skill’ following questions and feedback from residents about utility corporations basically. Proper now, town solely permits work inside an easement and doesn’t have the authority to take motion in opposition to a utility supplier for harm, in order that’s as much as the property proprietor, a spokesperson for town stated.
A Williamson County spokesperson informed KXAN state legislation solely permits the county to problem permits when telecommunications work entails reducing into or crossing a county highway, not for public utility easements.
