Electricity sub-station in my garden

Blaxton

The house is Tudor and listed and there's a sub-station that's been there since about 1981. I renegotiated the contract to get a higher rent fifteen years ago and now it's up for renewal. The surveyor I spoke to last time said that sometimes they replace the equipment and, because the new stuff is so much smaller, take a new plot which they buy from you rather than renting. Does anyone have any experience of this? The person at UK Power Networks first said "At present the option to relocate the substation is not something we are able to do due to the capacity of the substation, budgets and location." which sounds like boilerplate text. When I said I'd really much prefer to have the space back, she said "In order to progress the matter I will need you to serve a notice under Section 25 of the Landlord and tenant act in order to pursue the relocation of our site." Would this have any repercussions? Might it allow them to compulsorily purchase the present site? (Which would be a bad thing as it's a decent chunk of my garden.) Any advice or suggestions of where to look for it would be appreciated. 

daveyjp

Moving a substation is expensive.  If the company can't see any benefit in doing so i.e. future development in the area etc they may not consider it.

A section 25 is a notice from you as landlord that you wish to end a business lease to a tenant and negotiate new terms or end the lease.

The tenant has a right to a new lease unless as landlord you have grounds for refusal, offer of alternative land may be one reason for refusal.  If you don't serve a notice they could serve a s26 which is a request from a tenant for a new lease.  Whoever serves first starts the process.

You probably need some specialist landlord and tenant advice, try and get them to agree to pay your reasonable legal and surveyor costs.

Mickey666

Might be worth contacting the local council 'historic buildings office' or 'conservation officer' - basically the person responsible for all listed properties in the area.  Probably a long shot but they might be able to exert some sort of pressure to have the substation moved on the basis of adversely affecting the curtilage of the listed Tudor property.
When was the property listed?  If it was before the substation was installed in 1981 then there might also be a case for it not having Listed Building Consent to be there in the first place.
Both long shots, I'll admit, but nothing to lose by asking.

Blaxton

Thank you, daveyjp! I think that they did pay my legal costs last time we renegotiated the contract. But perhaps the surveyor should never have put the idea into my head that they might move out.

Mickey666, our local council made them all redundant, but I've just made friends with one of them, so she'd be an excellent person to ask. I'm pretty sure that it was listed well before the station was installed and did wonder how that came to be, so I'll pursue that one. Thank you! 

twopenny

Is it Grade 1 listed or Grade 2?

Could you find it on this database? I've used to to find out about houses and farms for my family tree.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/

I've not used their search function. Just put into Google the name of the property and it pops up with this on the page.

unforeseen

I doubt that a substation would be installed without the council knowing and approving.
If it's only the house that is listed then the substation won't really affect the listing