BT pole not on my land but slightly blocking access to my drive

Netti9989

Hi we have recently bought a house and there is a telegraph pole at the end of the drive (not on our land) on the pavement where there is a dropped kerb. You can just about get the car on and of the drive but if someone is parked on the opposite side of the road you have no chance of getting the car out. We also would like to extend the drive but the telegraph pole is in the way. The house was built with the drive in 1950's and the pole was installed after this date. Would BT be liable for moving the pole or are will we have to pay for this. If BT are liable what process do i need to go through and has anyone been through anything similar.

Spookieuk

If it's not your land you'll likely have to speak to Openreach directly and cross your fingers. The link is here.

iniltous

It sounds like you would have to pay if you want OR to relocate the pole, and I think these days they ask for a deposit before they even come out and survey and provide a bespoke estimate for the shift, as people would get a survey and then say don't bother when they find out the cost, but obviously Openreach would have had the expense of survey and providing costs etc.
Although your driveway has been in a long time, presumably the pole has also been there a long time, and if it encroached then it presumably should have been dealt at the time the pole was installed.
Perhaps you could post a picture showing the pole and your driveway

Netti9989

I thought this maybe the case. I don't mind paying to have it moved, as if we do we could open up our drive and make more car parking spaces which would obviously benefit us. I just wanted to check if there was any help i could get before i go down the paying alot of money root. We have only bought the property in the last month so i'm guessing they would also use that against us, as we knew it was there when we bought the property.

ic

Netti9989 wrote: »

I thought this maybe the case. I don't mind paying to have it moved

If you do go down this route, please update with the cost of this. Given the standard BT charge to install a line is £130, I imagine disconnecting lots of houses, and rerunning all those cables up a new pole is going to be very expensive.

pete-20-11

It will probably be over £1,000 maybe more these days.