BT Cable Causing property damage.

trelech

Need some advice. My neighbor's phone line has been installed with it touching my property. It is under quite a bit of tension it comes in flat until it touches then goes down at about 40 degrees. In the wind with it moving it has worn through the plastic edges and damaged a slate on the side of my roof.
This in turn has caused a leak in my attic and my ceiling. So please correct me if I'm wrong but BT owns the line up to the house and it's them that's installed it incorrectly.
Are they liable to repair my house and sort the lines routing?

J_B

By BT, you of course mean Open Reach who are sadly uncontactable - good luck!

trelech

Yea Open reach. Is it that much of a nightmare to get them to change things?

AskAsk

open reach is very slow even in normal times but try to contact them and see if they can adjust the cable in the first instance as you want the problem to go away.  as to claiming damages, that may be difficult but you could try.

trelech

Why is it such a nightmare? They installed the cable touching my property. It's not even attached the engineer has just decided to go straight from the pole to my neighbor's house and use my roof as a tension adjuster.

AskAsk

trelech said:

Why is it such a nightmare? They installed the cable touching my property. It's not even attached the engineer has just decided to go straight from the pole to my neighbor's house and use my roof as a tension adjuster.

because you are talking about open reach.  they are slow and difficult to talk to.  we have had bad experience with them and we never got compensation.

it's like talking to the council, if you have ever experienced that you will know what i mean.

trelech

Yea plenty of times. My other concern is the cable snaps.

AskAsk

trelech said:

Yea plenty of times. My other concern is the cable snaps.

what would happen if the cable snaps?  will the problem go away?

trelech

Well, it would go away. But more that it hits someone.

neilmcl

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/fix-a-problem/how-can-i-report-damage-to-bt-cables--poles--cabinets-or-manhole

TELLIT01

trelech said:

Well, it would go away. But more that it hits someone.

If it snaps Openreach would have to repair it, and then make sure is isn't routed the same way over your roof.  If the cable snaps and hits somebody it isn't your problem, the cable belongs to Openreach.  How long ago was the cable installed?  Have you spoken to the neighbour and asked them to try to contact Openreach? 

As it is causing damage to your property have you considered going up a ladder and moving the cable or even cutting it?