Gigaclear terms include permanent Wayleave

blue-bottle

Before signing up for Gigaclear fibre broadband, I suggest that their Broadband Service
Terms for Residential Customers is given careful consideration, especially the section that allows them to " place apparatus on your property and permits us to keep it there and maintain it. You should ensure that any future purchaser of your property is made aware of the existence of this Wayleave and the position of our apparatus"

You will note that this does not terminate at the end of the contract, and that it is not limited to the hardware required for your connection, so general network infrastructure could be installed and maintained anywhere on your premises and at any time. (There is no separate Wayleave agreement to scope the types of equipment, access required, repair of damage, etc..)

Wayleaves are normally used to permit such things as electricity poles and cables for third parties, and are not required for the customer connection, which is covered by the customer service agreement.

I have checked with Gigaclear, who confirmed that "The wayleave permission as outlined under 2.6 of our residential broadband agreement (attached) is a formality which allows us to keep our apparatus on your land permanently"
and
"We do not have a separate set of terms & conditions for wayleave"

This may be an unfair term, but I have not been able to confirm this yet.

I have contacted Ofcom, who said that the terms are commercial decisions and not something Ofcom can become involved in. (Strange, because they are a regulator under Schedule 3 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, with the power to enforce the law on unfair contract terms and notices. )
I have also contacted the Competition and Markets Authority, where it is in progress.

AndyPK

sneeky

Thanks for letting us know

lashall

Is there any further update on this. I personally spoke to Gigaclear who said they would not attempt to put any equipment on my land other than for my connection. So I said, great no need for it in the contract then, can it be removed......they refused!

lashall

Further update, I spoke to a solicitor around this and though they specialised in commercial wayleaves, they couldn't actually understand the need for a permanent wayleave in a residential broadband connection type situation such as this. I have therefore cancelled my connection.....no fibre for me, not with Gigaclear anyway until this is resolved.

bengalknights

What area are you in?

I could do with some gigabit net

forgotmyname

Put the account into someone elses name who does not own the property?

lee111s

lashall wrote: »

Nose, spite, face-
Hope you are not referring to me. I did not join this forum to trade insults, if you do not have anything constructive to add simply don't it's much easier for all involved.

That was not an insult. If that were my intention, you'd know about it.

lashall

I had thought of that but cannot put broadband in someone else's name as the permanent wayleave can only be granted by property/landowner hence in theory Gigaclear will need to have permission from said person.

blue-bottle

A little more information.
It appears that Gigaclear have a dedicated team for handling Wayleaves in the conventional way (search for gigaclear wayleaves) i.e. a separate written agreement as follows:-

"A wayleave is the consent in writing that allows us to carry out work on privately-owned land. It’s a written legal agreement between Gigaclear and the land/property owner that grants us access to install, maintain or repair our network equipment.
All wayleave agreement queries are now handled by our dedicated projects team. For further information please get in touch at .......(see web page for address)"

I wonder if the Wayleave section in the terms and conditions is a way of slipping this in without the inconvenience and cost of a separate (and properly scoped) agreement (and incidentally not allowing the service UNLESS this is agreed to).

I have not had a response to my emails to the Wayleaves team requesting a proper scope for the agreement. Maybe someone else will have more luck.

blue-bottle

Another minor update. I thought I was making some progress when someone from Internal Sales contacted me to try to get me to sign up, but as soon as I asked about Wayleaves, the responses to my emails stopped. Strange that!

blue-bottle

Another update, but still not very helpful. I tried asking Superfast Berkshire for comments on the Wayleave. (Superfast Berkshire gave Gigaclear the contract). They actually managed to get an answer from Gigaclear, although it did include "As I understand it", so not something to be relied upon, however, the response did state quite clearly that "He either agrees to the Terms and Conditions and receive [sic] a service from us or he will need to seek another supplier".
There is no other supplier, and they know it. That is why they were given the contract in the first place!
Imagine not being allowed to rent a car unless you agree to having a petrol station in your garden so provide fuel for other car users, at some time in the future, maybe, if they decide to.