phone wire over my roof - need to move it!

inkymink

Due to upcoming re roof and building work, I need to get a phone wire that goes over the roof resited. The phone wire goes to a neighbours house and there is a telegraph pole nearer their house where the wire could be resited. Who is it best to contact regarding this - I have heard BT are notoriously good at ignoring such requests and are likely to charge a lot if and when they do respond. The telegraph pole which the wire is currently connected to is on the pavement which I own - does this make any difference? Any help on this would be great as I don't know where to start!!!

Mankysteve

You contact your neighbour find who there provider is. It'll be open reach who do the work and it'll be expensive no matter what you do.

totalsolutions

I would just say there is a possibility that the phone line may be damaged in your building works program and they need to make urgent arrangements to have the service reconnected as it is trespassing over your property. Then go and cut it down or let the contractors do it for you. Problem solved. Why are you worrying yourself over this ?

Gizmosmum_2

OMG be very careful about what you do with BT I'm currently in a dispute with them about something very similar.:eek:

I was increasing the height of my bungalow and in preparation I asked BT to move the landline from one side of the house to the other. A simple request you might think but after 5 calls around varying parts of the world over as many days I eventually got someone to book this service for me at a cost of £127. Not bad I thought for BT I'd been expecting it to be a lot more expensive.

Of course it was cheap because it wasn't the service I'd asked for and what they'd done was booked a new line completely. :mad: We decided to leave the building work for 12 - 18 months so cancelled the line moving with BT 10 days in advance of their programmed date. And 8 days in advance of their programmed date. And 5 days before when the engineer came to do a site visit. 3 days before I cancelled it again and the night before the programmed move I was reminded again - but I'd been told to ignore that call because obviously it had been cancelled 4 times before. What was wrong with me - did I not believe them! :mad:

You guessed it - 20th July came and went and so did my landline! Their version of cancellation was to cancel my complete service not the booking to move the line from one side of the house to the other. I'm running a new small business from home that's 90% Internet based, pretty crucial to have a landline then.

I won't bore you with the rest of the details, it follows on in a similar vein to the rest. I've been offered £136 compensation for loss of earnings that has equalled in excess of £4,000. I've only asked for a very reasonable £1400 which covers the cost of travel to a friends every day to use her Internet (had to do this for 15 days) and my time travelling. I've lost untold business when the phone was down and the dispute still goes on! I've now been waiting 10 days for the next level of complaint escalation - already been through proactive care etc :rotfl: not sure they quite understand the concept of proactive .....

My recommendation - BT are difficult at the best of times. I'd book the service with them and religiously log every single call to them. I wouldn't do what's suggested by total solutions it just gives BT license to charge you an arm and a leg for doing something that could easily have been foreseen. Be prepared for being cut off just in case they !!!! up like they did with me.

Good luck

ormus

they are not trespassing. the utility companies have certain rights to access land/space/property, so as to supply services to any/all areas.
even as a freeholder you do not own the rights above your property, to say 100000ft!

keystone

Gizmosmum wrote: »

OMG be very careful about what you do with BT I'm currently in a dispute with them about something very similar.:eek:

Very sorry to hear your story but in this case the drop wire concerned is for the neighbours property not the OPs. You highlight one very simple "rule" for dealing with monolithic utilities. Never rely soley on telephone communication. Confirm absolutely everything in writing.

Cheers

keystone

ormus wrote: »

they are not trespassing. the utility companies have certain rights to access land/space/property, so as to supply services to any/all areas.
even as a freeholder you do not own the rights above your property, to say 100000ft!

Quite right.

Cheers

Gizmosmum_2

keystone wrote: »

Very sorry to hear your story but in this case the drop wire concerned is for the neighbours property not the OPs. You highlight one very simple "rule" for dealing with monolithic utilities. Never rely soley on telephone communication. Confirm absolutely everything in writing.

Cheers

Sorry, you're dead right - mention BT at the minute all I see is red mist!! Great to communicate with them in writing - I've informed them that I'm sending my complaint and bill to the CEO.

Of course the tale is still relevant for the poor neighbour ...