Do I have rights to a satellite dish?

2ran

I own a flat on leasehold from the local council. There are around 40 flats in the building and there is a satellite dish on the roof for receiving sky which you connect to via a socket in the wall. Myself and my family wished to view satellite signals from a satellite e.g Hotbird which serves our culture and our language which is very important to us to know what is happening back home and for my children to obviously be exposed to the language and culture in more detail etc. When we put up a dish the council made us remove it quoting that it says in our lease that no dishes may be erected. What I am wondering is whether it is legal for them to refuse me the right to a satellite dish. From doing some research I've seen articles relating that it's a human right to have one and that this means they must allow one but I don't know how true that is. Looking at the lease it also bans pets but their are loads of people with pets in the flats so I know that they don't abide to the lease completely. how do I basically go about getting permission for a satellite dish to be put up?

googler

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The local council forced removal of your previous dish because it contravened the lease. I'm sure they could also have forced removal under local and national planning regulations. These legal constraints are in place for the general good of the populace, to protect their environment from developments that harm the general amenity of the area. As a council tax payer, I think it's right and proper that councils act in accordance with this legislation, and I think I have the right both to the appropriate legislation, and to the national and council apparatus that enforces it.

Please tell us all why your rights should over-rule mine.

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moneyistooshorttomention

I would presume that the satellite dish on the roof is at least relatively hidden from sight.

If you were able to put up an individual satellite dish, then so would everyone else in the building and it would quickly be covered with a "rash" of satellite dishes.

I know you mention the point re pets and that some other people have them. The thing is though that, as I understand it, the point of a no pets rule is so that a pet that is making a nuisance of itself to other people can be removed (eg if a dog is barking and disturbing the neighbours). So, as soon as a noisy dog is making a habit of barking, then the neighbours can complain and the Council will be able to quote the no pets rule to have that dog removed. Presumably, a "live and let live" attitude has developed amongst the residents because none of the pets are making a nuisance of themselves.

I have myself lived in a block of flats, etc, where there was a no pets rule, but I did the same as everyone else and turned a blind eye to all those dogs that mysteriously emerged getting taken for early morning walks because they were quiet and didn't disturb me. If a dog had been barking constantly, then I would have reported it, but no dogs ever did bark...so I didn't perceive that infringement of rules as being a problem to me and just ignored it.

If you decide to complain about these pets in the building (even though they aren't making any noise) then you will soon find yourself very unpopular with your neighbours. So I suggest that you forget about making comments about those pets unless they create a real problem (ie noise or someone has an allergy to them and believed they were buying a home in a pet-free zone in order to protect their health). Any cultural objections to pets will very quickly be dismissed out of hand, because it is part of our culture to have pets and you would make yourself very unpopular all round if you raised cultural objections from another culture in the context of our culture.

Satellite dishes, on the other hand, are highly visible usually and do disturb the visual amenity of a place. A lot of us don't use satellite dishes ourselves and hate the sight of them (as they do muck up the appearance of an area) and that will be why the Council has this rule.

You aren't a special case. Everyone in the block has to be treated equally and you are told equally "No satellite dishes". If your "human rights" were being infringed by not being allowed to have a satellite dish ...then so would everyone else in the blocks be.

I understand wanting to keep in touch with the culture you have come, but this is your culture now and this is your home now and this is the way we do things here. When it comes to abiding by our rules there are no exceptions.

There are downsides to any home we buy for ourselves and the no satellite dish rule is obviously one of the downsides of this particular flat you have bought and, if it feels that important to you, then perhaps you would have been wiser to buy a flat somewhere where this rule didn't apply to anyone.

Old_Git

watch TV on the internet in your own language .

R_P_W

A human right to have a satellite dish???

Heard it all now!

Naf

2ran wrote: »

...I've seen articles relating that it's a human right to have one...

Where?

R_P_W wrote: »

A human right to have a satellite dish???

Heard it all now!

Apparently these days anything someone wants but can't have becomes a 'human right'.
I want £1Million, please - its my human right.
Bollox!

2ran wrote: »

... how do I basically go about getting permission for a satellite dish to be put up?

You don't. Simple.
Your lease says no; you already tried to ignore this & were duly told off for it. You have access to the standard satellite broadcasts for this country (more than most of us get; human right indeed!) and are very welcome to move somewhere you can put up a dish; go visit your country; or stay there.

Better_Days

Given what is currently going on in Syria it is very sad that infringement of human rights is equated with whether or not a satellite dish can be erected.

OP, surely you checked the lease before you signed, and thus would have been aware of the restrictions regarding satellite dishes.

moneyistooshorttomention

Better_Days wrote: »

OP, surely you checked the lease before you signed, and thus would have been aware of the restrictions regarding satellite dishes.

Very true.

When I rented in that block of flats, etc, all those years ago I was shown quite a long list of rules at the outset before I signed.

I can still remember some of them:

- no pets (people still had them....but took care to make sure they were quiet)

- no calor gas heaters (some people did have them and it worried me because of the safety hazard element and I presume they took huge precautions to make sure they were safe, so the rest of us didn't "dob them in" for it)

- no washing lines (one of the more Active residents there was the one who actually told me that the way to deal with this was "As long as washing lines are hidden no-one will complain, so this is how you fix up a washing line or two out of sight down beneath balcony height level outside":rotfl:

and so on....

I was quite clear what the rules were to start with....and which ones had to be abided by and which ones had a "blind eye turned" by everyone. Its not possible to turn a blind eye to a satellite dish.

Dan-Dan

2ran wrote: »

From doing some research I've seen articles relating that it's a human right to have one

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Better_Days

Actually given the cr*p that Sky seem to broadcast at great expense to their subscibers, I would argue that it is a human right not to be exposed to such tripe.

richardw

It's probably easier and cheaper to set something up to watch via the internet rather than drag things out with a legal battle.