house damage

Saint_Chris

I'm not sure if this is the right board, but i'll give it a go.

A couple of years ago, my friend purchased her council house, it's the 2nd in a row of 6 houses, so classed as a terrace.
It was double glazed, but last year she had white cladding under the downstairs and upstairs window, also she had a facia board under the guttering and new plastic guttering.

She's come home from work today and some cable tv company or telephone company have connected wiring all along the white facia under the guttering, it's going all the way along the 1st 4 houses and going into the 5th.

She is upset as she is paying a mortgage for this house and says that this thick black cable is now clipped to the white, and it looks awful.

I've told her that she need to go and ask the neighbour who's house the wire is going into and ask them, which firm they used, contact them, and tell them your not happy with the damage to your property.

She says that before she had it cladded there were loads of wires going along all of the houses, with cable tv etc, she's not sure if they are in use now, but the guy who did the front of the house, said it wasn't a problem, and put the cladding over it.

I said that this is wrong and nobody can just come along and nail a wire over your property

Am I right or wrong?

thanks

G_M

First off - does she own the freehold or is the property leasehold?

Many ex-council will be leasehold in which case

a) your friend may have needed permission to install the fascia etc
b) the council (if it was them) as freeholders may be able to install cabling

She'd have to read her lease.

Of course, if she owns the freehold, ignore this!

Saint_Chris

thanks for that

I'm not sure, I will speak to her tomorrow and see what is what.

Edwardia

These companies put stuff up as they want. Sky assumes that the customer has permission to put a dish up using neighbours' garden and hang dish over neighbours' roof when they don't. So if you come home and find one over your roof or attached to side of your house don't waste time trying to get neighbour to move it.

Get on to Escalation dept at Sky, tell them it's trespassing, you want it moved immediately. They will move it without charging subscriber in first 2 weeks. Once it's been there a year the dish belongs to subscriber and Sky won't do a thing. Police can charge you with criminal damage if you try and do it yourself even though it was put up without permission and shouldn't be there.

So returning to cable company think your friend needs to check if there are easements on her deeds to find out if other people in terrace have right to run cabling. Putting stuff under cladding doesn't seem practical - what if the cabling goes wrong ? I had to have my broadband cabling replaced for example.