ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) – On a Thursday night in January, dinner plans were not going well for Sharon Hamala.
The chicken was done, but as Hamala was attempting to cook broccoli, the gas range wouldn’t ignite.
“Didn’t come on,” the Round Rock resident said. “Let me try again. Didn’t come on.”
Then it hit her.
“Oh, no. They hit the gas line,” she recalled.
Hamala said she ran to the front door and confirmed with the Spectrum crew digging near her house a gas line was ruptured.
She said the crew, installing fiber optic lines for high-speed internet, mobile and TV service, told her earlier on the same day they had hit her sprinkler line. But this time, she said, they did not notify her.
“I immediately thought, ‘Oh my gosh, the house is going to blow up,’” she said.
Hamala had a late chicken and broccoli dinner that January night, but what still eats at her, she said, was the lack of communication in what could have been a dangerous situation.
“They didn’t tell us. They never apologized. Nothing,” she said.
In response, Spectrum said the damage to the gas line happened in the public right of way and the crew immediately called 911. However, it did not know it had damaged a service line leading to Hamala’s home, instead of a mainline, until after the repairs were underway.
Edwin Co lives a few doors down from Hamala and witnessed the fallout.
“The firefighters came, evacuated everyone,” he said. “They had to like walk out of their house because they couldn’t start their car because an ignition could set a fire, I guess.”
No one was hurt and Co didn’t have to evacuate, but he showed KXAN Investigator Mike Rush the rut in his yard where he said crews had to dig to make repairs on the gas line.
Weeks later, Co said he had another problem with a Spectrum crew.
“Our sink started to bubble up and then we couldn’t flush our toilets,” he said.
Co said the crew broke his sewage line. He said he paid a plumber to fix it and Spectrum reimbursed him.
“I don’t know if this happens in other subdivisions,” he said.
Turns out, it did.
‘Water coming out on the easement’
When Ryan Ford turned on his sprinkler system outside his home in Leander, instead of spraying, the water near the curb gushed into the street.
There were sprinkler line breaks he attributed to Spectrum doing work in his neighborhood.
“They popped an entire line which left a flood of water coming out on the easement,” Ford said.
Ford’s Spectrum experience started in December 2023. He said he was out of town when his doorbell app went off.
The video shows what he described as “this device, this ditch witch, they were backing it up and putting down some plywood and stuff in the yard.”
Ford said his homeowner’s association warned him there would be construction while Spectrum installed fiber optic lines but he didn’t expect the work to be so up close and personal.
“My understanding was that they were actually going to be working on the easement not in the middle of my front yard,” he said.
Spectrum told KXAN Investigates it distributes door hangers to notify homeowners of construction work. Ford said the company never notified him or asked for permission to come into his yard.
“Didn’t get any kind of notification. Nothing,” he said.
After KXAN Investigator Mike Rush met with Ford, Ford said Spectrum came the same day and fixed the sprinkler system he’d been waiting for them to repair for more than two months.
According to Spectrum, its contractor crew working on Ford’s lawn should not have been on his property without permission and was educated on proper practices for this type of project.
Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications, would not speak on camera, but in a statement to KXAN Investigates, a spokesperson wrote, “We apologize for the issues arising from our broadband network expansion into these neighborhoods. Our local leadership and project crews are working with residents and the homeowner’s association to resolve residents’ concerns to their satisfaction.”
Central Texas HOA response
The Crystal Falls Homeowner’s Association, which Ford is part of, said “The continued Spectrum work has been challenging.”
In a statement to KXAN, the board of directors wrote Spectrum’s communication has been “very limited” with the HOA as the association received reports from homeowners of “disruptions to essential services like power and alternative internet service lines” that aren’t always corrected promptly and efficiently. For those working remotely, it’s a situation the HOA wrote has “affected homeowners’ employment.”
A spokesperson for Co and Hamala’s Round Rock homeowner’s association, Highlands at Mayfield Ranch, wrote to KXAN the project was “not one undertaken nor agreed to by the Association but commenced through Spectrum’s easement rights.” The spokesperson added the HOA has “assurances by Spectrum that they will make all required repairs.”
Spectrum told KXAN, in response to the problems, it’s made leadership changes within its contractors working on this project and has already resolved several customer issues as it works as quickly as possible to address others.
Spectrum said it has the required city and county permits to do the work in those areas of Leander and Round Rock.
Both homeowner’s associations told KXAN they have no authority to approve or deny work done on easements and have no power to require utility companies to make repairs to homeowners’ properties.
However, Leander said city staff members are discussing possible ordinance updates to give the city ‘improved enforcement ability’ following questions and comments from residents about utility companies in general. Right now, the city only permits work within an easement and does not have the authority to take action against a utility provider for damage, so that’s up to the property owner, a spokesperson for the city said.
A Williamson County spokesperson told KXAN state law only allows the county to issue permits when telecommunications work involves cutting into or crossing a county road, not for public utility easements.