The home owner can get it trimmed.

If Oncor does the trimming, or butchering, they will only get the parts near the lines and will cut it back much further than you would expect.

I deal with this frequently in my town in the fire service. Much of our town has VERY old infrastructure and has bare conductors downstream of the transformers. It's not at all uncommon for us to get called out for arcing and tree fires especially on windy days or humid/foggy mornings.

AEP will come out and trim the offending branches. Their line crews come out and do it and the majority of the time they only trim the offending branches, leaving the next 100's of feet of line hopelessly entangled in branches.
If you just need them trimmed far enough back that you feel safe doing the rest of the work yourself you might have some luck with the line owner.

Now... If you injure or kill yourself, or shut down the power to half the city, you did NOT get this advice from me. Just use a fiberglass pole saw to trim back the offending branches, then do the rest of the trimming as you would with your preferred combination of ladders and chainsaws.

I recently asked my local utility about this. If the line is insulated going to the house it is not an safety/reliability issue and falls on the homeowner. If the line is not insulated, the utility will take care of trimming the tree.

A few years ago a branch broke and was hanging on the feeder line from the main pole to the house. My experience was that CenterPoint would cut the branches along the main power line, but the home owner would be responsible for the line from the pole to the house. However, before cutting the feeder line CenterPoint will disconnect the feeder line from the main line. If you schedule a crew to disconnect the line, it can take a day or two. And then you might be without power fora day or two for them to reconnect. I ended up just cutting it rather than risking being without power for a couple days.

Last year a wind storm broke a limb in my neighbor's hackberry that landed on my feed to my house. I have a messenger cable with insulated wires. Here in San Antonio CPS Energy came and cut the limb off the and left it in my yard, but it was up to me cut it up and haul it off.

Every utility is different, but most IOU's (investor owned util) will only protect their asset, i.e. the distribution lines. The service line from the transformer to the breaker box on the house is the responsibilty of the homeowner. Older service taps may be open wire secondaries (3 parallel wires); most newer service taps are thickly insulated black wires. If its coming off a transformer, it's a service line.
Some of the rural co-ops are a little more helpful with their customers, and some will trim the trees around a service line as a service to the homeowner. In any case, I would have the seller take care of the problem before i signed on the dotted line. Which electric company is it?

U need to do it or pay someone to do it. If anybody associated with the line company does it they will destroy the tree

Per NESC Code which every Electric Utility is supposed to follow no matter if it's COOP, Municipal, or IOU, the utility is responsible for the service wire to the top of the weather head including the meter. Home owner is responsible for anything below the meter.

They will butcher the hell out of that tree.

Reach out to a Centerpoint Arborist and tell them you would like them to trim your tree to the ANSI A300 standards. Also if it a Oak they need to follow the Oak Wilt prevention protocols. No stub cuts, make proper cuts, sanitize all cutting equipment with Lysol and paint the cuts for any oaks.

Yes for sure be onsite. Centerpoint should have a certified ISA Arborist or Certified Forester to oversee the proper tree trimming. Also ask for a copy of their pruning standards

Always get the seller to give money for closing cost to cover repairs and have it done yourself if you can

You want center point to do the pruning. You do not want to assume any liability doing this yourself. I'm urban forestry consultant and served as expert witness on the three large fires that occurred in 2008, 2011, and 2015. Also work as contract city forester for several cities inside 610 loop in Houston and work with the center point foresters on regular basis there. I recommend you call them and ask them to prune the tree. Since the first fire in 2008 most utility companies have adopted a zero tolerance policy of vegetation in their aerial utility easements. Yes the tree will not look like the perfect shade tree...but fire risk is mitigated. We had tree to wire arc inside loop about 7-8 years ago that burned down wooden privacy fences before fire department got there and put it out. Most of the center point foresters are ISA certified arborist and will do all they can to make proper pruning cuts...but they are also limited on making proper cuts if that would require reaching beyond their legal easement. Oak wilt concerns are not as big an issue here in Houston as Austin and San Antonio.

If we are able to get everyone to plant the right tree in the right place most of the tree utility line issues will be mitigated. But with 5000 square foot urban lots that becomes a challenge.

Call the local center point service center. They will prune the tree and haul off debris.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Now... If you injure or kill yourself, or shut down the power to half the city, you did NOT get this advice from me. Just use a fiberglass pole saw to trim back the offending branches, then do the rest of the trimming as you would with your preferred combination of ladders and chainsaws.

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If you ever see a fire, there's no need to call the fire department. All you need is a hose, some rubber boots, a thick coat and a Dalmatian. Just get in there and spray water on it. You need absolutely no other information about what you're getting into, what to be aware of, clearances, or any other training. Fire, like 13,000 volts of electricity, is pretty straightforward.

OSHA Law requires a non qualified Electric Utility person to maintain a minimum 20 foot clearance of any distribution Powerline.

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=37

13,000 volts? Pish... I prefer the 65,000 in my back yard. Whole lot more fun to be had there. I've watched what that line can do when it's been on the ground on two separate occasions.

When 100ft of it was down, it laid there quietly sizzling. When it was repaired, there was a long black streak in the grass when marking where it lay. When only a few feet of it was touching the ground beyond where it was draped across a car. The car was on fire and the line was jumping 2 ft in the air blowing softball sized holes in the ground.

I stood there, with my hose, my rubber (and leather) boots, and my thick coat (along with the accompanying trousers and the rest of my PPE). I didn't have a dalmatian with me and didn't feel the stray mutt was a good substitute so we all waited on the bumper of the big shiny red truck for AEP to go over to the substation and shut that line down.


As for the OP's trees I speculate the utility will make their first cuts by hand with a fiberglass pole saw to clear the lines then the rest can be done conventionally. If this were his service drop (either insulated or uninsulated) he'd be safe making his cuts a few feet away from the wire with proper tools.

Must of had a mis-coordination with their Breaker or they had a relay not working in the Sub as it should have opened up under fault. We set all our protective devices to 1A3B Curve with sequence coordination and to trip on three shots to lock out.

Lol at some of the comments

If we had trees that tall here, I'd swear that was in Beeville, TX. That's a pretty standard trimming job on an AEP line. Poles might be too new though.