Overhead power line compensation.

lincslass69

xclare wrote: »

Hi All,
We have just purchased a property with a wooden electrical pole in the garden and 4 wires coming from it over our property. I have emailed uk power networks regarding claiming but I'm just wondering if people who have had pay-outs could give me a guide of the sort of money you can get ? Are we talking £10's or £1,000's? Thank you

Hi Clare

I work for a electricity distribution company. I’d recommend contacting them directly and saying you’ve just bought the property. From what you’re describing I wouldn’t expect too much.

M_Lloyd

Clare. Your compensation entitlement will depend on what right you wish to give away to the electricity company. If you get a lump sum payout they will ask for a 99yr wayleave or permanent easement, thus sterilising the area covered by the pole and overhead lines. An annual payment will only be a couple of ££, but they take an annual wayleave in return. Consult with your local Chartered Surveyor or Land Agent.

redseadiver

Hi, advice please.
I have just received one of the letters that many of you have so I am trying to understand quite what this is for.
I have a couple of fields and I have wooden power lines in those and WPD pay me £100 a year for those. I understood this letter was suggesting I could renegotiate this rate, but reading this thread my inference is that this is nothing to do with the payment for the poles in my fields (which are separate from my house) but this may be because there is an electricity line crossing over my garden. Is this right?
Currently the power company will trim the trees in my hedges to prevent damage to the power line - if I take the money then would I then be responsible for this prevention work?

The company that contacted me is Sherwill Drake Forbes. They guarantee minimum payment of £1,250 AFTER their 20% fee is deducted.

I am unlikely to use them there is some serious research to be done first, once I understand what it is they are offering to renegotiate for me.

Thanks in advance!

[Deleted User]

redseadiver wrote: »

The company that contacted me is CMC..CMC CMC. They guarantee minimum payment of £1,250 AFTER their 20% fee is deducted.

None of these companies do anything you cannot do yourself alone and for free. Contact your electricity supplier and do your own "renegotiation". Don't be suckered into paying anyone to put a stamp on the envelope containing a complaint you can easily make yourself.

redseadiver

I'm not intending to get them to do anything I am trying atm to establish IF this is payable just for a power line crossing over my domestic garden or if this applies to the poles that I get a 6 monthly wayleave payment for in my fields or indeed both?

redseadiver

I contacted WPD and they said this claim could only be for the low power cable which crosses my garden. They offer £200 for a 15 year wayleave agreement and will pay £150 as an enhanced payment for the past 6 years because I could have been claiming this for the last 20 years. I thought they only paid if you had the poles in the land as in my fields - but these figures are hardly life changing I'll see if I can do any further digging into the claims of getting four figure settlements but it doesnt look like it. Still £350 is a nice bonus

M_Lloyd

Contact your local Land Agent (Chartered Surveyor), they will do all the hard negotiating for you. WPD will pay their fee. Land Agents have a wealth of experience in these cases and comparables to negotiate the best deal for you. You were originally contacted by the 'claims' companies who target localities from an electricity database of people of have apparatus on their land.

TwmSionCati

You were originally contacted by the 'claims' companies who target localities from an electricity database of people of have apparatus on their land.

Yes, and by using a list of standard wayleave settlements they’re able to collect the cash without any negotiation at all in 90 per cent of cases.

The other day I was contacted by Sherwill Drake Forbes, who said “eligible clients should receive a minimum of £1520 after our fee is deducted from the negotiated wayleave settlement”, their fee being 20% plus VAT — which means the settlement would have to be £2000. How could they be so precise? Simples! — the electricity database and the list.

Just to check, I sent my DNO (Western Power Distribution) a two-line email asking if there’s a settlement in my case (a single pole-mounted transformer in a discreet corner of the garden and 50-odd yards of 11kV cable overflying). Within a few hours the emailed response was that there isn’t but I could have a 14-year one for £2000; or annual wayleave payments of £45 indefinitely plus 6 years’-worth of back-payments; or a ‘negotiated settlement’.

Since my case is bog-standard the settlement obviously wouldn’t be any higher if negotiated; and £900 over 14 years didn’t seem nearly as attractive as £2000 instantly.

More exactly: “within 14 days of completion of the agreement”; contrast SDF’s offer: “within 6-12 months from the time of instruction” — during all of which time my settlement would be racking up interest that I’ld never see!

Contact your local Land Agent (Chartered Surveyor), they will do all the hard negotiating for you.

Quite un-necessary in the vast majority of cases.


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Church9

Mister_G wrote: »

I am in a similar situation to some of the other posters on here.

I have a three wire overhead 11kV line running over about 95% of my property, including oversailing the house. There is also a pole and stay wire in my garden.

I am currently negotiating with the agents acting on behalf of the DNO and they have offered 2.25% of the property value for a permanent easement.

I feel that this figure is on the low side and would be interested to see what others have settled at for a similar situation.

First this was an extremely informative thread so thanks to all who have contributed.

Mister G did you ever settle your claim and if so would you be able to say at what percentage?

TwmSionCati

Yes, an extremely informative thread.

Mister G was offered 2.25% of the property value for a permanent easement. I was offered 0.8% for wayleave for 20 years (including the back-payment): thus for 2.25% they’ld get wayleave for only 56 years, not permanently. I accepted.

Of course, our cases may be dissimilar. Mine is commonplace: an overhead 11kV line runs to a transformer mounted on a stayed pole in the garden, from which 250V lines run to my house and a neighbour’s. Mister G has the overhead 11kV line and the stayed pole in the garden but doesn’t mention the transformer or the 250V line(s).

It’s odd that he’s been offered an easement at all: I wasn’t offered one, and it seems from earlier posts that most DNOs only offer them for equipment rated 33kV and higher.


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