Wayleave Compensation/Contract Cancellation

CathedralView

Hi all, if anyone is able to give some pointers/advice here then that would be fantastic.

The quick back story is that ive owned my house for 6 years and each year i receive a cheque for £2 (line rental) from SSE, this is for a 11,000 volt cable running through some land adjacent to my house which i equally own. I never actually knew until recently where the cable sits and sadly its exactly where you would not want it to be for a house extension!

Now i guess my question falls in two ways, first of all as im unable to do the extension i feel that £2 a year is a bit of a kick in the **** so is there any likely hood of me receiving a lump sum/compensation for this? Second question and the more important, would i be able to cancel the contract that is in place and ask SSE to relocate the cable? 

Thanks everyone in advance.
Ian

GingerTim

https://www.gosschalks.co.uk/blog/2020/05/01/wayleave-qanda-with-matthew-fletcher

Does your wayleave contract have a termination clause?

CathedralView

The contract is written very much in solicitor language. The best i can find to answer your question is:

"The Consent shall remain in force until determined by either party giving to the other party at any time 12 months previous notice in writing in that behalf subject to the rights of the board (SSE) under section 11 of the electricity (supply) act 1922.

GingerTim

Ta - I presume this is quite an old contract, or was in place when you bought the property? (I say that as the Electricity (Supply) Act of 1922 was superseded by the Electricity Act of 1989.

It reads to me that you can give them twelve months' notice that you wish to terminate the agreement, but the Act of 1989 states that you might also need a statutory notice to do so. The company can also apply in response for a 'necessary wayleave', i.e. a permanent one. 

As always with these things, contact a lawyer for proper advice on what to do. Good luck!

CathedralView

Thanks very much, i'll have another read of the 1989 act but it was quite hard to cut through all the waffle and find real facts as to where i might stand. Thanks Ian

Astria

The short of it is that you can typically get them to relocate the cable, but it may cost £££ - ££££ to get them to actually do it, depending on the kVA of the cable. These costs will be in legal fees, and other fees which they'll expect you to pay. You can argue that you shouldn't need to pay them, but again, that's just more legal fees.

Instead of going the legal route first, you could ask for a quote from the provider and go from there to try and reduce that quote.

Reed_Richards

CathedralView said:

...as im unable to do the extension i feel that £2 a year is a bit of a kick in the **** so is there any likely hood of me receiving a lump sum/compensation for this? 

Given that you agreed to be kicked in the **** this way when you bought the property, if you turn around now and say "I only agreed to this because I had not done my research properly" I doubt that you will get a favourable response.

CathedralView

Astria said:

The short of it is that you can typically get them to relocate the cable, but it may cost £££ - ££££ to get them to actually do it, depending on the kVA of the cable. These costs will be in legal fees, and other fees which they'll expect you to pay. You can argue that you shouldn't need to pay them, but again, that's just more legal fees.

Instead of going the legal route first, you could ask for a quote from the provider and go from there to try and reduce that quote.

I did fear there might be some serious ££ trying to fight this one, i was hoping somebody might have some specific experience who could say that legals cost £1-5k for instance, im trying to avoid using one of the No Win/No Fee lawyers as we all know they take the lions share for entertaining the journey.

CathedralView

Reed_Richards said:

CathedralView said:

...as im unable to do the extension i feel that £2 a year is a bit of a kick in the **** so is there any likely hood of me receiving a lump sum/compensation for this? 

Given that you agreed to be kicked in the **** this way when you bought the property, if you turn around now and say "I only agreed to this because I had not done my research properly" I doubt that you will get a favourable response.

I only found out what the £2 was for after two years of living in the house, it was mainly because the cheque was such a insignificant figure that made me look into the cable situ. Its been a bit of a vertical learning curve and was hoping some wise person might have had some direct knowledge about this....i'll get there somehow im sure. Thanks

Xbigman

At this point I would be inclined to write to them referencing the wording in your contract and give them the 12 months notice that you wish to terminate the contract due to an extension. Then see what comes back. It's a bit early to get lawyers involved.


Darren

CathedralView

Thank you...that sounds like some wise words. Get a feel for the situation so to speak. Cheers!