Overhead power line compensation.

krystaltitch

Hi I am new to this site and 67 years old so a bit of a technophobe so please accept my apologies if I get it wrong. I have power lines attached to a wooden pole. The pole is on my side of the fence and the lines pass along the bottom of the rear garden. I spoke to Western recently and the man said they were high powered lines. My husband has checked the pole but cannot see the voltage. I had breast cancer in 1993 . I used to enjoy the bottom of the garden with the sound of running water from the waterfall and pond and spent a lot of time there. We originally thought that these lines were telephone lines as shrubs growing up the pole obscured the warning sign. My son got his kite caught on the wires . The kite wrapped itself round the wires so my husband said he would not be able to get it down. About a month later I noticed a man with yellow gloves and special equipment removing the kite. Then we had bad snow which affected the lines, so tension wire were fitted to the pole which are really unsightly. After I had breast cancer I requested that the lines be removed and I was sent a plan, not sure about the time scale , probably 1995 to 2000. The costs was £12000. The lines were to be put underground past three properties altogether. I would have paid this but it was a lot of money which we did not have and would have had to add to our mortgage. My husband was not in agreement, so that was that. I now wish to have the lines removed and I am in no way interested in compensation as I would not want any future occupiers to be lumbered with them with no way out. I have asked Western and am now waiting for their quotation. The pole is about 50 feet from my lounge window and is at eye level when sat on the settee. This is because the rear garden drops away . I have had cancer investigations recently and I am worried. My husband does not understand why I never go in the garden. What is my position on having the lines placed underground?

underwood1

krystaltitch, sorry to hear about your health issues. When we bought our house, we were concerned about the negative health problems, we had heard muted in the past, regarding overhead power lines. After much research, we found that the only possible 'issue' was with childhood leukemia and that was only where there was a high concentration of pylons, although it did state that there was still insufficient data to link this directly.

If I were you, I would enjoy your garden, we love ours and often sit beneath either the 1 power line or the 3 power lines. In the last 3 years our health has been the best it has been for years, we do not even get colds! There is often more direct electric current in a house, with its many appliances/lights etc which would cause more harm than sitting in the fresh air listening to the running water.

Good luck with your health.

krystaltitch

Underwood1 thank you for your re-assuring words. I had read about the link to leukemia in children. I have this worry that when we downsize in the future, this being a large five bed roomed house that a family with small children will move in. My sister and I had children around the same age so she would spend a lot of time at my house because the children loved to play in the large garden. Unfortunately my nephew developed leukemia and whilst he had this he contracted chicken pox and we nearly lost him. He was only 4 years old and I would not want any child to go through what my nephew went through. My children were fine so it could be that my nephew was unlucky. However I feel that even though there is a slight risk if I can pursue this with the electricity board at a cost to no one else but myself I will have peace of mind not only for myself but for future families. I will enjoy my garden this summer as you advised. Thank you..

mobilejo

underwood1 wrote: »

Hi Mobilejo

We have in the garden approx 25m from the house a pole, which has a metal cross piece at the top, which supports 3 wires, these run across the entire garden and connect to the neighbours double pole which contains a large grey square box.

In the front garden we have a pole with a single wire, which runs across the front garden and connects to the neigbours pole, which has two further wires one runs to the neighbours house and feeds both them and us our electric, the other wire runs across the road and services the other 2 neighbouring properties. As to the wires strength, Western power tree surgeons removed trees interfering with it las year and they said the wire was carrying 30,000 volts? but this may not be correct, we do not know for sure. But it too draws its power from the other neighbours double pole with the grey box!

In the back you have a high voltage line and wooden pylon - these can be worth £000's but there are numerous factors to be taken into account in determining the value of the claim. I'm no expert in those so I can't say what you should be looking for. If you do it alone, you're at the mercy of the electricity company. If they offered you 30% less than it's worth, how would you know? If you wanted to convince them that the claim is worth more, what comparables would you provide to justify your case? This is probably why they like to deal with claimants directly

The one at the front sounds like a low voltage pole - these are the ones worth a few hundred at most. You can go it alone with those but it appears that most companies aren't charging a fee for dealing with those in any event.

Keep_pedalling

Please don't believe everything you read on the Internet especially regards health issues. There is absolutely no evidence that power lines cause cancer.

bims

I am currently self representing myself with negotiations with WPD over a claim relating to HV lines over our garden, a wooden pole with transformer and stays and then around 100m of LV underground cabling going down along our driveway. What I'm finding hard to come by is comparisions of other settlements as their initial offer is somewhat way off what we would consider acceptable, I.e. around 20% of what we would accept. Anyone have access to other settlements or guidelines used to make offers and what the initial offer is as a % of final offer etc?

kabadi

bims, any update on what you got or got offered? This could help others with the same question you had.

Benjamin_Lenton

It's a bit of minefield claiming compensation for powerlines. I am a Chartered Surveyor from a firm based in Cambridge that specialises in this work. I won't mention our name or website links as it is probably in breach of MSE terms and I would rather this post isn't removed. Instead I set out some general alround info below which might help.

Claims companies
These vary in terms of the personal service they offer. Some do or do not inspect your property.

Low voltage wood pole lines
These supply 240v directly your neighbour's home and probably run across your garden or drive. The line may also serve your own property. I wouldn't advise entering into anything other than an annual wayleave here. This gives you the right to an annual payment from the electricity company which are standard payments. If you enter into a 15 year or 25 year wayleave you might struggle to extend your home or get the line removed as you might not be able to terminate the agreement and get the line altered in such an event. In general I don't think the one off 15 or 25 year payments are enough to warrant the process and you are better just obtaining an annual wayleave payment and you must ensure you can terminate any such agreement.

High voltage wood pole lines
These can, in certain instances, give rise to larger, one off payments depending on the impact and other factors. Figures can be £1,500 to much more than £10,000. However, various aspects require expert negotiation to get a correct settlement. You certainly cannot rely on the electricity company to provide a fair offer. Please remember that they are a profit making Plc with shareholders to look after.

High voltage steel pylon lines
These give rise to the largest possible payments. The vast majority of these claims have been done though. This is why claims companies are now trying to do settlements on low voltage wood pole lines.

Disclaimer: please do not take my advice above as suitable for your specific circumstances. You should seek proffessional advice from someone working in this field to assess the best option for you.

CHRISTOPHER_GREEN

Dear All,

The Broadbent company got my wife to sign what is no doubt their standard instruction form. They have come up with a proposed settlement for a large pylon in our field. The net compensation amount is around £4k. We don't think that this is enough to sign away any rights that we may have forever (although I agree that the power company is probably never ever going to remove the tower). We would like to decline the 'offer; ad the Broadbent company now want to hit us for his 18% of the amount plus an additional fee that he would have received from the power company. So we are in a position where we either have to accept the £4k or pay +/- £2k.
We feel terribly entrapped by this firm, we don't think that they've done a particularly stunning job but need to pay a lot of money because of it.
Any advice?

Benjamin_Lenton

Some firms do lock you in in this way. My preference is for the client to be able to choose whether or not to complete the process without an abortive fee.