BT about to dig up our drive and garden - please help!

angelfire

Hi, I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place or not but could really do with some help or advice.

My partner has just answered the door to a man from BT Openreach asking to dig up part of our drive/garden in order to fix the next door neighbour's broadband/phone. The guy has drawn a diagram on a piece of paper showing what he wants to do - said it won't be today but he doesn't know when - sometime in the new year. He's 'said' he'll make good the drive and garden but has given no paperwork confirming this.

My partner has signed this piece of paper, thereby allowing this work to go ahead.

This has all happened while I've been upstairs and now, understandably I'm worried. We've tried calling BT, got passed around form pillar to post and as yet have been unable to speak to anyone regarding the matter, other than one person who's said we should have been sent formal paperwork, rather than this bloke just coming and asking for a signature.

Can anyone help me? I don't even know where to start with who to ring or anything.

Any help or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated as at the minute I'm frightened of leaving the house in case my driveway is all dug up when I return!

angelfire

Anyone? Should I move my post to another board perhaps?

derrick

E-mail address for Ian Livingston, BT's CEO; -
[EMAIL="ian.livingston@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL]

ic

Why don't they dig up your neighbours garden? I guess you live in a newish estate where they don't have poles with the cables high above the road?

angelfire

derrick wrote: »

E-mail address for Ian Livingston, BT's CEO; -
[EMAIL="ian.livingston@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL]

Many thanks, I've emailed the address you've given - hopefully someone will now help us. Feel like a prisoner in my own home now as i'm frightened I'll not be able to access my own property when I get back. i'm also four months pregnant and don't exactly need this stress right now. Quite frankly, I'm furious with my partner!

ic

Have you tried the form on the openreach site? http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/loadInitializedReason.do

Ring numbers on the BT site will get you through to people who only deal with landline accounts, not the network itself.

globalds

I would take plenty of pictures of the area prior to any work being done .....Just in case the remedial work is not satisfactory.

angelfire

ic wrote: »

Why don't they dig up your neighbours garden? I guess you live in a newish estate where they don't have poles with the cables high above the road?

We believe that they've requested permission from the neighbours on both sides - so the neighbour who's having the problems (on one side), and our neighbour on the other side. all I can assume is that whatever they want to do with the lines extends further than the garden of the neighbour who is having the problems.

The houses were built in the early 80's so I'm unsure what set-up BT have. We don't even have a BT line ourselves, were' with Virgin.

Belnahua

Utilities do have an automatic right to dig up your property if there is an existing service in place. And some gardens have a service strip, which can be dug up at any time for repair/replacement or installation of new services.

They do have an obligation to restore as was found. However it can take several weeks as they like to leave the ground to settle before full reinstatement. If you insist they make good the same day, the ground will sink, and they will not be obligated to do any futher corrective work, as you insisted they do the reinstatement early.

Be nice to them, and the job tends to be better!

27col

Just make sure that you have a full set of photos taken before the work starts.. Incidentally, it is unlikely that they will do more than the absolute minimum of digging that they need in order to do the job. Excavations cost money and they will want to keep them to a minimum.