2023 West Virginia Code › Chapter 31G. Broadband Enhancement and Expansion Policies › Article 4. Make-Ready Pole Access › §31G-4-2. Attachment to Third Party Facilities

(a) Upon approval of an Attachment Application, an Attacher may relocate or alter the attachments or facilities of any Pre-Existing Third Party User as may be necessary to accommodate an Attachers attachment using Pole Owner approved contractors; provided, however, that an Attacher will not effectuate a relocation or alteration of a Pre-Existing Third Party Users facilities that causes or would reasonably be expected to cause a customer outage without first providing 45 days prior written notice to the Pre-Existing Third Party User, in order to permit the Pre-Existing Third Party User to relocate its facilities on its own.
(b) In the event the Pre-Existing Third Party Users of such other facilities fail to transfer or rearrange their facilities within 45 days from receipt of notice of relocation or alteration of a Pre-Existing Third Party Users facilities that causes or would reasonably be expected to cause a customer outage, an Attacher may undertake such work.
(c) Within 30 days of the completion of any relocation or alteration, an Attacher shall send notice of the move and as-built reports to the Pre-Existing Third Party User and the owner of all poles or other structures on which such relocations or alterations were made. The as-built reports shall include a unique field label identifier, and an address or coordinates.
(d) Upon receipt of the as-built reports, the Pre-Existing Third Party User and pole or structure owner(s) may conduct an inspection within 14 days at an Attachers expense. An Attacher shall pay the actual, reasonable, and documented expenses incurred by the Pre-Existing Third Party User and pole or structure owner for the inspection. If any such relocation or alteration results in the facilities of the Pre-Existing Third Party User on the pole or other structure failing to conform with the applicable safety Pole Owners standards, the Pre-Existing Third Party User shall, within seven days of the inspection, notify an Attacher of such failure to conform.
(e) In a notice, the Pre-Existing Third Party User may elect to either:
(1) Perform the correction itself and bill the Attacher for the actual, reasonable and documented costs of the correction, or
(2) Instruct the Attacher to correct such conditions at Attachers expense. Any post-inspection corrections performed by the Attacher must be completed within 30 days of such notification.
(f) As a condition of exercising the ability to relocate, rearrange, or alter a Pre-Existing Third Party Users facilities pursuant to this section, an Attacher shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the owner or owners of all poles or other structures on which such relocation, rearrangement or alteration takes place, the affiliates of such owner or owners, and the officers, directors and employees of such owner or owners and their affiliates, each being deemed an Indemnitee, from and against all third party damage, loss, claim, demand, suit, liability, penalty or forfeiture of every kind and nature, including, but not limited to, costs and expenses of defending against the same, payment of any settlement or judgment therefor and reasonable attorneys fees, that are actually and reasonably incurred by an Indemnitee, by reason of any claim by an affected Pre-Existing Third Party User or any person or entity claiming through such Pre-Existing Third Party User arising from such relocation, rearrangement or alteration.
(g) All work performed must be in accordance with applicable codes, as defined in section one of this article, including, but not limited to, the National Electrical Safety Code:
Provided
, That the variances to applicable codes and to private agreements as set forth in 31G-6-1 of this code shall apply to this section.
(h) In the event an ILEC accepts payment for make-ready work, and fails to perform that work within 45 days, the ILEC which has been paid and which has failed to perform the work, shall immediately return and refund the moneys paid for that work which was not completed. Failure to return those funds within 14 calendar days shall be cause for a fine, payable to the Public Service Commission, equal to the amount of the payment and a cause of action in circuit court for return of the payment and is subject to treble damages, reasonable attorneys fees, and any applicable court costs. Good-cause and good-faith efforts to have performed the work shall be a defense against the imposition of any fine:
Provided
, That the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to any make-ready work where a pole replacement is necessary.