Substation

ccain2355

Hi at the moment I am in the process of buying a house and part of the garden is leased by manweb and they have permission to build a substation. They haven't done as yet but they could do.

I was wondering if anybody else had been in this situation and what they did to resolve it ?

Did you buy them out the lease?
Buy the land back or was it a straight no and manweb continued to lease the land?

Please help, would appreciate any advice anybody has

G_M

How long ago was the lease to manweb granted?

If 20 years, they may have forgotton it and have no further interest. So likely to agree to sell.

If a year or two, then chances are they'll either have plans for it, or want to keep their options open, so unlikely to sell.

Ask them?

ccain2355

Thanks for your response
They have a 99 year lease and there is still 50 years left, we are still waitin on a response from them but just wondered if people had been in a similar situation and what they did

G_M

If thy haven't got round to building their substation after 49 years, my guess is they aren't interested!

Indeed, the needs of electricity companies 49 years ago were not the same as today. I'd guess they have far less need for substations these days due to bigger pylons, better quality cables carrying far greater power levels.

So your issue will be bureaucracy and inertia, rather then an intention to build on your land.

ccain2355

Thanks, we just aren't sure weather to proceed with sale until we have all the answers although the seller has reduced the accepted offer by 5 grand but we are unsure what we should do, as if they do build we lose quite a lot of the garden :-(

C_Mababejive

Look on the bright side. If they do build the substation,you will be close enough to get free electric by winding a big inductive coil.

ccain2355

Yes indeed ha but just hoping someone has been in the same situation who knows what to do, as it's a big commitment

thegirlintheattic

I personally wouldn't touch it without getting in touch with the company and finding out how much they want to buy them out.

---lee---

I can't imagine that the electricity company would want to sell it, but you can always ask. If this is important to you, it would be worthwhile establishing this before you buy. If they did allow you to buy it, you would have to pay their legal fees as well as your own in addition to the cost of the land, so it may be expensive.
From their point of view, it makes sense to retain the land. As long as they retain the land they have the ability to build a substation at any time should the estate develop or expand in such a way that one is required. They may also have easements on surrounding properties to allow them to route cables to it.

If they don't own the land, it would be much harder for them to buy a suitable plot in the future and go through the hassle and expense of negotiating cable runs.
If this is a small plot of land, the type of substation they are likely to build would be a final distribution one. These are small unobtrusive units approximately the size of a garage that are used to supply up to a few hundred homes. They are normally supplied by 11kv underground cables and contain a transformer to lower the voltage and some switchgear.

---lee---

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Look on the bright side. If they do build the substation,you will be close enough to get free electric by winding a big inductive coil.

AKA as electricity theft. This is no different to tapping a cable directly. Both activities are illegal and dangerous.

G_M

---lee--- wrote: »

AKA as electricity theft. This is no different to tapping a cable directly. Both activities are illegal and dangerous.

I think C_M was....:rotfl: