BT illegally ran a line along our property and wants to charge us to remove it?!?

alanwan

iniltous wrote: »

I would think that BT have failed to understand the point you are trying to make, if BT have served a neighbouring property by attaching their cable to your property, in the period that you have owned it ( so not before you became the owner ) then BT have no right to do so without your permission and you can ask for it to be removed at no expense to you, BT would have to remove it, if that were your wish ( i think they have 3 months to comply) or more likely they would offer you a payment (wayleave) to leave it as it is.....if you havent already , you need to contact Openreach, not BT retail, and get the ball rolling, from what you say it looks as if whoever you have been speaking seems to think you want to move a wire that serves your own property, this would indeed be chargable to you.....
Do you have a (non cable) telephone service yourself ? if so are you a BT customer ? or a customer of another service provider ? if you are not a BT customer, then you cannot really have a valid opinion on their customer service , if I were you I would get onto OR
call 0800 581 525 and choose the relevant option (wayleaves)

Yeps called them, supposedly another 3 week wait =s to see what the outcome is...

moonrakerz

alanwan wrote: »

haha, ......... but don't want to risk a visit from the police during tea time

..........but according to your OTT thread title BT have acted "illegally" - so shouldn't you be calling the police ?

alanwan

moonrakerz wrote: »

..........but according to your OTT thread title BT have acted "illegally" - so shouldn't you be calling the police ?

well trespassing and installing things on our private property without our permission which i assume is illegal...:o

grumpyofwhitecross

it might be nice to see a diagram of the dwellings and the route of the cable ? perhaps there was no other way to provide service ? is the cable causing damage to your property ?

moonrakerz

alanwan wrote: »

well trespassing and installing things on our private property without our permission which i assume is illegal...:o

Suggest you look up the meaning of "illegal" :cool:

charleyroo

would not advise the OP to damage the line - it could invoke TRCs for his efforts!

you'd be better off waiting the 3 weeks for a wayleaves officer to come out and assess - as long as it's not keeping you awake at night, or anything...

snab

There's no point complaining to BT, as mentioned above you need to speak to Openreach. They maintain the lines between the exchange and your socket no matter who your service provider is.

There's also no point complaining to your neighbour or their letting agent as they will probably have had no input into where the cable to their property goes unless they've told the engineer that they owned your property as well. The engineer will more than likely have made the decision to use that route across your property based on something he's been told or because there was an existing cable already there and he's replaced it.

If you've already spoken to Wayleaves, you'll get a visit from a surveyor who'll have a look at what you've got on your land and property and decide whether or not you are due any wayleave payment or not. That payment would be dependant on you entering into an agreement with Openreach to keep the equipment in place. He won't be able to give you any indication of whether or not it can be removed. You'd need to contact the LPR department within Openreach and ask them about the possibility of getting the cable removed if thats what you want to do.

At the end of the day apart from any potential cost you'll need to consider where the new cable to your neighbour will go. Will they put up a 9m tall telephone pole on the pavement outside your house, will they fly a wire across your garden from another pole and in front of your windows etc.
Is it better to leave it where it is and take any payment that may be offered? Chances are if the cable stays put it'll never need replaced or looked at as its not likely to get damaged there unless someone puts a nail through it or cuts it.