buried telephone line - no line plant

mh175

Hi,

I recently purchased a property that has been extended to the front. When BT visited my property to activate the line, the engineer found that the builders cut off the telephone box and buried the wire in the ground. BT sent EE (my service provider) a £1700 bill to install a new line. They say that they have to dig the street. EE refused to pay the money and passed me the bill. The previous owner refused to take any blame or send the builder to locate the cable.



I have no idea where the cable used to enter the property and there is no trace of it, e.g. hole in the wall.


Can anyone advise?


Thanks,

AJXX

How did the previous owner access phones/internet?

If the previous owners builders have buried the existing line under the extension then unfortunately you are going to be lumped with the bill as that's not BT's fault.

mh175

The property were purchased by a developer who did the extension and sold it to me, unfortunately. So I'm the first one to live in the property after the extension was done. I was thinking to hire a metal detector from HSS, do you think it would help?

AJXX

Don't see what good a metal detector is going to do? I'm sure BT aren't just going to make up a story about the line being buried under the extension - I'd imagine it's actually going to be a pain in the ar*e for them to dig up the road etc...

I'd say you're stuck and are going to end up footing the bill if you want the line restored. Maybe have a word with the developers?

[Deleted User]

I can't see how anyone is to blame other than the builder. If a service is in the way of his work, he should inform the client that it needs moving, not just bury it.

mh175

Why should be responsible for any work out side my property? If the builder damaged BT's property shouldn't they go after him? How about getting a cable service from Virgin Media, the property never had it before; will they require a payment for installing a cable for the first time?
Thanks for the responses

iniltous

I take it you're in an area served by underground cables/duct rather than overhead via telegraph poles, if your house is similar to neighbouring property's you could ask where their services enter their houses , but it may not help much, if the existing service is now unusable, the excess construction charge of £1700 would be to install duct from the nearest suitable jointbox ( in the road or footpath) to your house and then install cable and joint it into the existing cable network, TBH I have heard in similar cases where the existing cable is tracked/traced to where it goes under your new extension, they then dig down at that point , install a small jointbox and provide a new cable from there to your house, it's still chargeable though , but could be less than £1700,
OR are going to quote worst case scenario charges incase the cable is untraceable, as once they quote it's a fixed price
£1700 may seem a lot, but BT contractors used to charge £30 to £50 per metre of duct laid, and that was more than a decade ago, add in the cost of cable and manpower to connect it all up , soon adds up
You may think it unreasonable that OR don't do it for free, but at a return of about £90 a year it would take 20 years before they saw any profit, and they are a business not a charity

mh175

Thank you very much for the thoughful reply. I will take your advice and look at the neighbours house to see where the services enter their house. The quote I recieved is:
LAD=30 WORKING DAYS
COST=£1187.49
Excess charges will be applicable for this order.
No solutions will be executed until customer agreement is
obtained.
Total Excess Charges are £1187.49 excluding vat.
Survey Charge £255.58
Breakdown of charges items :-
By BT:
Provision of new Small Footway box £704.89 X 1
Duct Footway: 1mts @ £40.56/Metre
Duct Soft: 7mts @ £20.28/Metre = £141.96
Cable in duct: 10m X £4.45 = £44.50

Interestingly, I called ofcom. The advised me to get my services directly from BT as they are obliged to provide every house with services (unlike other providers). They also said that BT have to cover the first £3500 for any installation work. This should make the whole thing free of charge to me. They said that EE are not obliged to pay or even proivde me with a service.

Should I have a go with BT?

Thanks

wiogs

mh175 wrote: »

Thank you very much for the thoughful reply. I will take your advice and look at the neighbours house to see where the services enter their house. The quote I recieved is:
LAD=30 WORKING DAYS
COST=£1187.49
Excess charges will be applicable for this order.
No solutions will be executed until customer agreement is
obtained.
Total Excess Charges are £1187.49 excluding vat.
Survey Charge £255.58
Breakdown of charges items :-
By BT:
Provision of new Small Footway box £704.89 X 1
Duct Footway: 1mts @ £40.56/Metre
Duct Soft: 7mts @ £20.28/Metre = £141.96
Cable in duct: 10m X £4.45 = £44.50

Interestingly, I called ofcom. The advised me to get my services directly from BT as they are obliged to provide every house with services (unlike other providers). They also said that BT have to cover the first £3500 for any installation work. This should make the whole thing free of charge to me. They said that EE are not obliged to pay or even proivde me with a service.

Should I have a go with BT?

Thanks

If what OFCOM say is correct then unless you have a few grand to spare BT would seem the option to select.

money_saving_matt

mh175 wrote: »

Thank you very much for the thoughful reply. I will take your advice and look at the neighbours house to see where the services enter their house. The quote I recieved is:
LAD=30 WORKING DAYS
COST=£1187.49
Excess charges will be applicable for this order.
No solutions will be executed until customer agreement is
obtained.
Total Excess Charges are £1187.49 excluding vat.
Survey Charge £255.58
Breakdown of charges items :-
By BT:
Provision of new Small Footway box £704.89 X 1
Duct Footway: 1mts @ £40.56/Metre
Duct Soft: 7mts @ £20.28/Metre = £141.96
Cable in duct: 10m X £4.45 = £44.50

Interestingly, I called ofcom. The advised me to get my services directly from BT as they are obliged to provide every house with services (unlike other providers). They also said that BT have to cover the first £3500 for any installation work. This should make the whole thing free of charge to me. They said that EE are not obliged to pay or even proivde me with a service.

Should I have a go with BT?

Thanks

What Ofcom have told you is not entirely correct - the Universal Service Obligation (USO) is imposed on Openreach, not BT Retail. Openreach have an obligation to cover the first £3,400 of the cost of providing a narrowband voice service (more details here). Bear in mind that this applies to WLR services only, not LLU.

What this means to you is that if your line is installed by a WLR provider (e.g. BT Retail, Plusnet), all of the £1187.49 should be covered by Openreach.

Retrogamer

mh175 wrote: »

Should I have a go with BT?

Thanks
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I wonder if it's possible to go with BT, they absorb all the costs then leave during the 7/14 day cooling off period that should start once the services have been activated.
That way you can go with a different ISP

money_saving_matt wrote: »

What this means to you is that if your line is installed by a WLR provider (e.g. BT Retail, Plusnet), all of the £1187.49 should be covered by Openreach.

Not sure if this will be covered though as the property has already been provisioned for broadband previously and the costs incurred are to rectify damage to the Openreach property by the previous owners.
Despite the previous owner/s causing the issue, the new owner accepted the property as it was when they purchased it transfering the problem with the buy.