High Voltage Transmission Tower

[Phil Rice]

I have a picture which is too big a file size to post here, but will be in the report. The pic makes it look like the tower is 100 feet tall and 10 feet from the building (a condo). The pic is misleading, when I stood there and looked at it, I thought it was hard to say for sure if the tower fell over, would it hit the building?

I have not finalized this appraisal yet. I would like to hear comments from anyone who has actually been down this road. My plan is to answer "yes" on vc1i, on vc page 5 refer the reader to comments in the appraisal addendum, which are:

High Voltage Transmission Tower:

The subject project is adjacent to a very tall "tower" that has wires connected to it and appears to be a overhead high-voltage transmission line (see photo). The tower is surrounded by a fence. While standing on the subject property near this fence, I could hear the electricity running thru the transmission lines.

FHA handbook 4150.2 (page 2-10) states that no dwelling or related property improvement may be located within the engineering (designed) fall distance of a high voltage transmission tower. For field analysis, the appraiser may use tower height as the fall distance.

I do not know the height of the tower. I do not know the distance from the tower to the "dwelling or related property improvement". For me to accurately determine the tower height and/or fall distance is outside the scope of this appraisal assignment.

The subject building unit #4 is closest to the tower, and unit #1 is farthest away. I believe that the terminology "dwelling or related property improvement" is subject to interpretation - for example, if the tower were to fall, exactly where would the line be that marked the edge of OK? i.e., exactly how does one determine the distance from the tower to the "dwelling or related property improvement". i.e., measure from exactly what point at the tower to exactly what point at the subject property?

At the tower, is it the center of the tower, or
from the part of the tower that touches the ground and is closest to the building, or
the part of the tower that is closest to the building (could be above ground level)

At the property, is it the property line, or
Hit a parked car but miss the building, or
Hit the building (unit #4) but miss the subject (unit #2), or
Hit the subject (unit #2)

If I interpret the rule correctly I would know where to find both ends of the straight line that that needed to be measured, but it is still outside the scope of this appraisal assignment for me to be able to measure that distance.

Additional facts: Colonial Manor is on the approved list maintained by the HOC or by DE underwriter who has performed a spot condo approval. The past 2 sales within Colonial Manor were both FHA financed.

 

[Rob Bodkin]

Phil,

There was a real good thread on this in the last month or so. Do a search of the HUD forum on transmission lines and you should have volumes of good feedback.

Good luck.

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

Don't count on me here, but I seem to recall reading somewhere on this site that the engineered fall distance or whatever was more or less within the footprint of the tower.

The electric buzzing sound is another story. <_<

 

[hal380]

Hi Phil;

As Rod said, check the archives, this was well covered about 3 Mo's ago. In the meantime, I believe you can call the power company and give them the tower number or location and they can give you the height.

You could always use that Boy Scout technique of comparing shadows of the tower and a known height and interpolate.

Regards

Hal

 

[Judy Whitehead (Florida)]

I don't remember the previous thread, but I did get into this before. The key word here is "engineered fall distance." We have a large powerline going through this county and I made similar comments to what you have when doing my report.

Boy, did that open a can of worms. I ended up talking to the power company, getting an engineer, getting his name, phone number (fingerprints ) and everything I could get, and he told me that even though it was over 100 ft. high it was "engineered" not to fall on the houses that adjoin the right of way. It was engineered to buckle and fall where it was (unless, of course it was hit by a plane or something which would also plow into the houses.)

The mortgage broker, real estate broker and everyone involved said that it was MY duty to find this information out, since I was the one who brought it up!

 

[Restrain]

If it's out in the ROW, make an estimate of the distance to the tower and make the extraordinary assumption that the home is not within the engineered fall area. Further state that such information is not readily available to the appraiser through the normal course of business.

I did that, no problem with the UW.

Roger

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Question: Would the local building authority allow improvements to be built within the fall distance of the tower? We have a major power line running right through the middle of residential areas here and have never had a problem getting loans approved for the houses around the right of way. Are we making a big deal out of nothing?

 

[Phil Rice]

Thanks to all who have replied. Follow up comments/questions:

I did do a search on this topic before I made this post. I found 1 thread, and it was posted about a house that was inbetween 2 towers, asked the question if it applied to the tower or the wire. In my case, there is no doubt, it is the tower. One person had a post that was very bitter -- said he had done many FHA reviews where appraisers had ignored this kind of problem, and FHA did nothing about it. In my post above, I point out that there have been 2 recent FHA purchases on this property, so in my mind, someone else should have already dealt with this issue, right?

R Strahan - what the heck is ROW?

Judy, thanks very much for you comments. I admit to being cynical, and your experience is what I expect to encounter. In my research, I did see something that stated it was the responsibility of HUD/FHA to contact the owner of the tower and obtain a letter that said the tower is not in the engineered fall distance.

Measure the shadow is a good thought. If I had a disto, that might work here. I considered climbing up to the top of the tower with a stop watch and my camera, drop the camera and measure how long it takes to hit the ground, and then look up the formula for gravity to estimate the hight of the tower, but I decided not to do that. (this is a small attempt at humor, not trying to slam anyone)

And as a practical matter, if you read my post, I tried to make it clear that even if I could measure with perfect accuracy, there is the matter of intrepreting the rule. If you just read the rule, it sounds ok, but if you are actually in this situation, you realize that there is a big gap between reading the rule and knowing exactly what to measure. Again, me being cynical, I expect that one of 2 things is going to happen in the end, either:

1) they will make the loan anyway, or
2) everyone will blame me. and even if they make the loan, they will blame me for the delay and "unnecessary" problems encountered.

stay tuned, lets see how this is going to play out

 

[Phil Rice]

Update:

I spoke with tech support at HUD, and it was a big help. My faith in the system has been restored!

The rules have been updated. It is not the height of the tower that matters, it is the easment. In my case, there is a fence around the tower. The fence = easment, and therefore, there is no problem.

 

[Farm Gal]

Phil:

My faith isn't. Make sure you make careful note who you spoke with and precisely what they said.

DID they specify where this change in the rules is noted? I would like to see a reference to a published source myeslf. If they gave it to you please advise.

While you *may* be covered by your citing 'so-and so SAID to do THIS' make sure you note time of day as well as informants name <_< Your tech person's information runs counter to that which has been recieved by other inquirants.

I agree that the 'engineered fall distance' on most modern towers is a small area... but I for one am not doing any waiving of specified regulations without documentation by a responsible third party. (I want to remain "NOT responsible for accidents" you see)

Apparently there IS something in the FAQ's on page 16 but for some reason I can't pull it up on the HUD website anymore...