Neighbours aerial advice

Alan_h85

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice, I have a bit of a dispute ongoing with my neighbours. I stay in a maisonette flat, before Christmas I got a new satellite dish fitted. Whilst the engineer was on the roof he cut down a broken aerial that was lying on the roof thinking it was ours. After he had finished the satellite installation he advised my partner he was finished the job and that he had taken down an aerial because it wasn't safe and due to the state it was in he didn't think it was working. Fast forward a few days my neighbour comes knocking at my door telling me he has no tv picture, so I called back the satellite engineer asked if he could come back to reattach the aerial. He came back the next evening to discuss with myself and the neighbour why he can't safely put the aerial back up because of the state of it. Arguments were had back and forth for a few weeks now. I have asked other aerial companies to see if they will put the neighbours aerial back up but knowone will touch it and all think a new aerial will be needed.

My question is should I be paying to put a new aerial up???

Aylesbury_Duck

Yes, you should be. I think it's fairly obvious you should.

If it were the other way around, you'd expect your neighbour to put it right, wouldn't you? Your contractor has made a mistake. You should put your neighbour back in the position they were in, i.e. with a working aerial, and then sort out whether you should be claiming the money back off the aerial installer. Your neighbour shouldn't be being dragged into protracted arguments about it, just put them back to where they were.

LadyDee

Perhaps pay for a new aerial and ask the installer to install it as an act of goodwill?

PasturesNew

The cost of an aerial is tiny. Just do it .... you caused it.

Mojisola

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

If it were the other way around, you'd expect your neighbour to put it right, wouldn't you?

This ^ .............

A_Nice_Englishman

It sounds like the installer who took down the aerial in error is prepared to put a new one up without further charge but not reuse the old one as he considers it unsafe. He'd probably get the blame if reception was unsatisfactory too.

It could be argued that the dispute is purely between the installer and the neighbour but in the interests of neighbourly relations I'd go halves on the cost of the new aerial. The neighbour will be benefit as he'll have an aerial that should last many years and probably better reception than he had before so should pay something in my opinion.

Aylesbury_Duck

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

It sounds like the installer who took down the aerial in error is prepared to put a new one up without further charge but not reuse the old one as he considers it unsafe. He'd probably get the blame if reception was unsatisfactory too.

It could be argued that the dispute is purely between the installer and the neighbour but in the interests of neighbourly relations I'd go halves on the cost of the new aerial. The neighbour will be benefit as he'll have an aerial that should last many years and probably better reception than he had before so should pay something in my opinion.

No. The installer is the OP's agent so the dispute is between OP and the neighbour.

There is the issue of betterment if the neighbour ends up with a new aerial but there's no "should pay something" about it. The neighbour, through no fault of their own, has had their property removed and lost TV reception for over two months whilst OP and his agent squabble about it. Quite frankly it's silly and to expect the neighbour to pay anything at all is darned cheeky.

If the neighbour and OP can come to an agreement on shared costs then that's great, but OP dithering about it for two months or perhaps expecting the neighbour to pay is just daft.

Mistral001

The reason other aerial companies do not want to get involved is because they do not want to get involved with a dispute. That spells trouble to them as they might not get payed or be sued themselves.

You need to get this sorted out with the original installer. If he did not ask you or the neighbour if he could remove the aerial before touching it, whereupon you or the neighbour would have been able to tell him that it was not your aerial, then it is wholly his fault. You must give him the chance to remedy the situation. He probably is insured.

Mistral001

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

No. The installer is the OP's agent so the dispute is between OP and the neighbour.

T.

The installer maybe an agent acting on instructions regarding installing their aerial, but unless the OP actually instructed the installer to remove the neighbour's aerial then he was acting on nobody's instructions with regard to this matter.

He made a mistake. He is a professional and he should have the technical knowledge to know which TV the aerial supplied and if he was not sure he should have asked the question of the OP or the neighbour and made sure before taking the action he did.

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree, the mistake is the installer's. What I don't understand is why this is still dragging on, over two months later. I think OP should pay to have an aerial installed to reinstate his neighbour's TV service and then sort out his own dispute with the installer. OP owns the problem and has a duty to put things right, THEN to sort out who pays what later. I can't understand why the neighbour is getting dragged into lengthy arguments about it.

stator

To get this issue resolved I would suggest you get all parties to agree to the following.


You buy a cheap aerial
The engineer puts it up for free since it was his mistake.



Something like this will do nicely:
https://cpc.farnell.com/vision/118343/aerial-28-log-stub-tuning-4g-lte/dp/AP02458?st=log%20periodic

Pressumably the cable end is still up there somewhere.