What to Do About a Leaning or Damaged Utility Pole on Your Property in Texas

If there's a leaning, cracked, or damaged utility pole on or near your property, you're not alone in wondering what to do about it. Across rural Texas, landowners deal with aging poles, storm-damaged infrastructure, and overgrown vegetation touching power lines — often with no clear path to get the problem documented and resolved.

Here's what you need to know: who's responsible, what your rights are, and how to report the problem in a way that actually gets tracked.

Who Owns the Pole?

In almost every case, the utility company owns the pole — not you. Even though it's on your property, the utility holds an easement that gives them the legal right to install and maintain poles, wires, and equipment within a defined corridor. Your property deed or closing documents may reference this easement, and the utility's records will confirm it.

The owning utility is responsible for inspecting the pole, maintaining safe clearance around vegetation, and replacing damaged hardware. If you're not sure which utility owns the pole, look for markings on the pole itself — many have metal tags or stamps with the utility's name and a pole number. If there are no markings, call 811 or check the AcreSeal coverage map to identify the utility serving your area.

Why It Matters More Now: Texas HB 144

In June 2025, Texas signed House Bill 144 into law; it took effect September 1, 2025, and the PUCT's implementing rule (16 TAC Sec. 25.63) would set a January 1, 2027 filing date. For the first time, every electric cooperative, investor-owned utility, and municipally owned utility in Texas is required to submit a pole management plan to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) by January 1, 2027.

One of the required plan elements in Sec. 38.103 — specifically subsection (b)(5) — requires utilities to have documented processes for receiving and responding to complaints from landowners about pole condition. This isn't optional. It's a regulatory mandate, and the PUCT has contracted Guidehouse, a $5.7 billion global consulting firm, to review every submission.

What this means for you as a landowner: your complaint belongs to a process HB 144 requires your utility to have documented (Tex. Util. Code §38.103(b)(5)). If you report a damaged pole and the utility fails to document its response, that is a gap in the complaint-handling process its plan has to describe. Being precise about the limit: §38.103(d) has the commission review the plan against its stated objectives, not any individual complaint — so what a documented report gives you is a durable record of what you reported and when, not standing before the PUCT.

How to Report a Utility Pole Problem

You have three options, and they're not equally effective.

The first option is to call your utility's customer service line. This is the traditional path. The representative logs your call, and someone may or may not follow up. The problem: phone calls don't create verifiable evidence. There's no timestamped record that you reported the issue on a specific date, no photo of the pole's condition, and no way to prove the utility acknowledged your complaint within their stated response window.

The second option is to file a complaint with the PUCT. You can contact the PUCT directly at (512) 936-7120 or through their website. This escalates the issue to the state regulator. The PUCT investigates complaints and can require the utility to act. This is effective for serious safety concerns but can be slow — the PUCT handles thousands of complaints across all utility types.

The third option is to document the problem with photo and GPS evidence using a digital reporting tool. This is the approach that creates the strongest record. When you submit a report with a timestamped photo, your device's GPS coordinates, and a written description, you've created evidence that exists independently of the utility's internal records. If the utility says “we never received a complaint,” your documented submission proves otherwise.

If the issue isn't the pole's condition but its location — a pole in the wrong place rather than a leaning or damaged one — the path is different. See how to get a utility pole moved for the relocation request process, cost, and timeline.

AcreSeal's public reporting portal at acreseal.com/report lets you do this in about 60 seconds from your phone. No account required. No app to download. You take a photo of the pole, confirm your location, describe the problem in plain English (Spanish is also supported), and submit. You get a complaint ID and a link to track the status. AcreSeal recomputes the SHA-256 of your photo on our server and locks it alongside your GPS fix and the creation time — the database rejects any later edit to them, so a change after the fact is detectable rather than silent. What that does not prove is the time: an independent, third-party timestamp only covers reports a utility has sealed into a work order.

What Happens After You Report

If the utility responsible for the pole has registered AcreSeal to receive reports, they are notified automatically with the pole's location, your photos, and the severity classification. If they have not, your report is still preserved, and you can hand the link to anyone. Texas HB 144 Sec. 38.103(b)(5) requires a utility's plan to document how it responds to landowner complaints, and (b)(4) has the utility state its own inspection timeline — neither sets a deadline for your report.

You can check the status of your report at any time using your complaint ID. When the utility dispatches an inspector, updates the status, or closes the complaint, the record updates — and every change is logged in the same tamper-evident evidence chain as your original submission.

What If the Utility Doesn't Respond?

If your utility fails to address a documented complaint, you have regulatory recourse. The PUCT oversees all electric utilities in Texas, and HB 144 specifically requires utilities to demonstrate their complaint response processes during the Guidehouse review. A pattern of unresolved complaints — especially ones with photographic evidence and timestamps — is exactly the kind of documentation gap that triggers regulatory scrutiny.

You can also contact your state representative or senator. The Smokehouse Creek Fire in February 2024 — caused by a decayed utility pole that had been flagged for replacement but never documented with verifiable evidence — is the reason HB 144 exists. Legislators who voted for HB 144 are paying attention to whether it's working.

Your Rights as a Landowner

Texas landowners have the right to safe utility infrastructure on or near their property. If a utility pole is leaning, cracked, sparking, or has vegetation growing into the power lines, you have the right to report it and expect a documented response. Under HB 144, utilities can no longer treat landowner complaints as informal suggestions — they're regulatory obligations.

You also have the right to know what's happening with your complaint. Status tracking, documented timelines, and verifiable records aren't luxuries — they're the standard that HB 144 requires. If your utility can't provide them, that's a compliance gap they'll need to explain to Guidehouse.

Report a Pole Problem Now

If you see a damaged or dangerous utility pole on or near your property, document it now. The AcreSeal landowner reporting portal walks you through it — no account needed, works from your phone, takes 60 seconds. Your report enters a forensic evidence chain, and feeds the complaint-handling process Texas HB 144 requires your utility's plan to document.