BT openreach dig

jamlal

Hello all, we moved to a new house just over a year ago and had Virgin broadband for the past year, I've now tried to switch to BT internet.

It appears the previous owners during their renovations have removed the BT line to the property. Looking at the neighbours houses, we can see where their lines come up into a cable trunking with metal wall fixings... we have the wall fixings but no cables!

The BT engineer #1 (the fella that just installs the sockets) came & installed the sockets in our house, but said he couldn't help get a phone line into our property passed it to another engineer #2, that also couldn't help. Engineer #2 took lots of photos and passed it onto the 'underground team' in order to connect our house to the phone line that are under a manhole cover 10m away down the street on the pavement.

That was 3 weeks ago now...I've called BT for an update numerous times. I understand it was passed to the dig team (Openreach I presume) who now have planning permission from the local council to dig up the street and that it was passed to contractors & will be completed within the next 5 days. Only they won't / can't tell what is going to happen and on which day (as I'd like to be at home)? Just that BT will call a day later to check it's all happened... is this normal?

So my few questions are -

• Are they going to dig up the pavement & my driveway to lay a phone line down? Or can they push a new phone through existing ducts? Are there even existing ducts? (This is the conversation I'd like to be home for...) How do I find out?
  
• Can they dig up my driveway without me being at home (and with 2 cars on the driveway)?
  
• What is their code of conduct for 'putting right' the work done to dig up my driveway? I'm guessing they wont replant my flower beds, but would they cement back paving slabs?
  
• How do I sign off I'm happy with the work if I don't even know when it will happen & i'll be away at work?
  
• Who covers the cost for this? (My BT broadband connection came with 'free installation' but I assume that was fella #1 adding a socket!)

Appreciate any guidance / advice from those that know more about this than me... Getting quite nervous about come home to find my driveway dug up!

Thanks
JamLal

DUTR

New as in new build? Or new to you?
The surveyor would have assessed the work required for minimal disruption and you would be informed of what is to be done by the service provider.

jamlal

New to us - it's a fairly old house (1910 ish) that the previous owners 'renovated'.

It's had a BT line in the past & showed up in the online tools as having a line (they dont realise some got rid of the connection!)

DUTR

jamlal wrote: »

New to us - it's a fairly old house (1910 ish) that the previous owners 'renovated'.

It's had a BT line in the past & showed up in the online tools as having a line (they dont realise some got rid of the connection!)

So along the street aren't other properties using overhead connections?

DCFC79

Take the 5 day period off from work so your there.

If they do need to dig up the driveway they should put it to how it was before they dug it up.