Bt installed next doors phone line on our property without permission

J1905

Hi all,

I’m seeking some advice on a matter, Bt came yesterday as apparently my neighbour had complained to them her landline wasn’t working and I walked home to find a bt installer nailing a cable into our wall. Now ever since we moved into the house there has always been a small white box just round the corner from the front door with a dirty white cable running up our wall out of sight, across our side gates which joins with our neighbours side gate and into there property. Now we’ve never had a problem with this as it was always there and it was pretty much out of sight. However the new cable he was happily nailing into our wall without permission was a lot thicker and shiny black so a lot more visibly than the old one. I told him to stop and explain what he was doing without permission. He gave some excuse about us giving permission to our neighbour to install on the property, which we didn’t, the neighbour asked us if it was ok for her son to take a look at the white box to see if the cable had come loose and that was all we spoke about, no installation. so me and the installer spoke and since we didn’t want our neighbour to be without a phone we gave permission for him to attach the cable he’d been nailing to the wall to the white box without nailing any more clips to the wall providing bt came back to remove it and install a line into my neighbours property without running through ours, we aren’t a customer of Bt and at the end of the day hammering holes in our house without permission every time our neighbour has an issue with there service is completely unacceptable. So the installer promised he would put in a work order to get it done within a couple of weeks and finished connecting the cable to the box. Now what I want to know and I’m hoping someone here has experience in the area is what legal rights do I have in the matter ? At the end of the day someone has come onto my property without my permission and hammered holes into my wall again without permission and to be honest I feel downright violated.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

iniltous

If a previous occupant/owner of your property gave a wayleave to what's now know as Openreach , to connect a cable to your property to serve a neighbouring property , then part of the wayleave allows OR access to it for maintenance etc....you probably should try and find out if such a wayleave exists, if it doesn't, you can request that the cable is removed, if it does exist, then there is nothing much you can do about it, the wayleave endures through changes of ownership.

It wasn't a BT engineer , it was an Openreach engineer ( or contractor working on their behalf) and unless you either have Virgin Media or no 'landline' at all, then although you may not be a BT customer yourself, the chances are that whatever company you do use, is a customer of Openreach, in fact it's entirely possible that your neighbour isn't a BT customer either, and you just assumed they are, in the same way you assumed the engineer was from BT.
There must be some physical barrier that requires your neighbour's service to go via your property as if it were possible to serve that property directly , rather than via your property then they would.
If no wayleave exists and you insist the wires are removed, I don't suppose that will do much for you neighbourly relationship, the chances are , a good neighbourly relationship is why the wire was 'allowed' to be placed on your property in the first place, after all , even if it were 'informal' and no wayleave exists, a previous 'owner' of your property must have said it was OK.
Presumably the old cable had weathered and was less visually obtrusive, but if it's now faulty and needs to be replaced, it cannot be replaced with 'old' cable, it (obviously) would be new cable and although it may stick out like a sore thumb initially , in time it too will weather and become less 'visible'

[Deleted User]

J1905 wrote: »

...and to be honest I feel downright violated.

Yeah, of course you do.

J1905

iniltous wrote: »

If a previous occupant/owner of your property gave a wayleave to what's now know as Openreach , to connect a cable to your property to serve a neighbouring property , then part of the wayleave allows OR access to it for maintenance etc....you probably should try and find out if such a wayleave exists, if it doesn't, you can request that the cable is removed, if it does exist, then there is nothing much you can do about it, the wayleave endures through changes of ownership.

It wasn't a BT engineer , it was an Openreach engineer ( or contractor working on their behalf) and unless you either have Virgin Media or no 'landline' at all, then although you may not be a BT customer yourself, the chances are that whatever company you do use, is a customer of Openreach, in fact it's entirely possible that your neighbour isn't a BT customer either, and you just assumed they are, in the same way you assumed the engineer was from BT.
There must be some physical barrier that requires your neighbour's service to go via your property as if it were possible to serve that property directly , rather than via your property then they would.
If no wayleave exists and you insist the wires are removed, I don't suppose that will do much for you neighbourly relationship, the chances are , a good neighbourly relationship is why the wire was 'allowed' to be placed on your property in the first place, after all , even if it were 'informal' and no wayleave exists, a previous 'owner' of your property must have said it was OK.
Presumably the old cable had weathered and was less visually obtrusive, but if it's now faulty and needs to be replaced, it cannot be replaced with 'old' cable, it (obviously) would be new cable and although it may stick out like a sore thumb initially , in time it too will weather and become less 'visible'

Hey thanks for your reply,

The relationship with the neighbour is the only reason i let the installer finish connecting the cable without putting any more clips in as shes fairly old and i didnt want her to be without her phone, i know shes with BT since she told me last week. As for the cable im aware it cant be replaced with another old cable which is pretty obvious, but our wall it brick from bottom to halfway up where it changes to red tiles, and the old one was tucked under this, however the installer has put the new shiny black cable about a quarter of the way down from the top of the black section making it insanely noticeable. If permission had been sought from my neighbour and the installer and theyd made an effort to conceal the cable then i might not have such an issue. But the fact is someone has happily started hammering clips into my property without consulting me first and clearly with no care as to how it'll affect me. As for a physical barrier preventing them from installing a direct line the installer told me that it would be easy enough for them to install a direct line he just didnt have the tools and manpower to do it himself. So it seems to me this was openreach being cheap and lazy way back when the line was installed in the first place and rather than replacing the cheap workmanship now they are just going to repeat the same mistake and are happy to deface my property without permission to do it.

J1905

Also yes we are with virgin media, left BT in the dust around 8 - 10 years ago after appalling service.

JJ_Egan

You need to find out if their is a Wayleave and you need to report to the police that you have been violated .

iniltous

Is you neighbour's property fed by an overhead cable that in effect goes from telegraph pole to your property then to theirs ?, are either you or your neighbour's property bungalows , or both at least 2 storey's and are they detached from each other ?
There are a couple of issues, why would they run a cable to your home to service a neighbour if it were not neccesary, if it were easy to do then the 'engineer ' probably would have just connected your neighbour directly rather that enter your property boundary with all the complications that entails,my suspicion would be it's not easily done.
Is there a wayleave that allows access , when the original work as done , permission ( wayleave) should have been sought, if one was obtained , it becomes something you took over when you moved in.
If it's not neccesarily the method of service its the 'quality' of the work then your neighbour can get their provider to get OR to return and re do any unsatisfactory work.
As far as 'BT' is concerned, your neighbour may or may not be a BT Consumer customer, but in the same way that you said the engineer was a BT engineer when they were not, your neighbour could ( for example) be a Talk Talk customer, TT say they will sent round an engineer and they (much like you) call the person a BT engineer