Development manager wanting to charge me…. 12 December 2022 at 12:50AM in House buying, renting & selling 15 replies 1.7K views

kizzy1926

Hi
just purchased a flat, small development with 9 apartments. 

I tried to get broadband installed on Tuesday but Open reach detected a fault on the line so they need to gain access to their equipment which is in a locked cupboard in the communal area. 

The site/development team are saying in order for them to attend to open the door they want to charge me £80+vat plus £20p/h + vat whilst they wait for the engineer to complete their job. 

I know this can not be right, and I do not want to pay this amount to forever be trapped with this ridiculous suggestion. 

Open reach have also gained the development email address but not sure if we will get anywhere with that. 

I am going to speak to my conveyancer tomorrow to make sure that there was no suggestion of this in the contract that I may have overlooked. 

I am due back at work tomorrow but work from home, currently connected to a neighbours Wi-Fi with they’re say so and increased my mobile data to unlimited. 

Does anyone know where I can find some legal content to say that this can’t be possibly be correct? 

I have been on the government site and it states that the property developer would have agreed to something with the telecoms company but finding out what agreement that was is probably unlikely. 

Thanks

anselld

Try these ...
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fire-Brigade-FB-Keys-Set/dp/B0093IUI8Y

eddddy

kizzy1926 said:

Does anyone know where I can find some legal content to say that this can’t be possibly be correct? 

The relevant 'legal document' would be your lease. But I'd be 99.9% certain that it allows them to charge you for this.

But the law says that charges must be 'reasonable' (i.e. the management company shouldn't be making a profit on them). So you could ask for more detail of how they reach the £80 figure.

However, as above, you'll probably find that if you buy a set of fire brigade keys, you can unlock the cupboard yourself. (But the management company probably wouldn't approve of you doing that.)

kizzy1926

Thanks both! Open reach have tried many keys on this cupboard, 3 have been out so far to try different keys. 

I will send them a pic of they keys shown on the Amazon page along with the description as to what keys it contains. 

If they think it’s worth trying then I will purchase it and let open reach try again as they are miffed as to why they can’t access their equipment/ 

in the meantime, I will check the lease again to see you if I find any information to the management company wanting to charge for this service.

Thanks

Section62

kizzy1926 said:

If they think it’s worth trying then I will purchase it and let open reach try again as they are miffed as to why they can’t access their equipment/ 

It is common for BT/Openreach equipment to be behind locked doors - it shouldn't come as a surprise to them to find that arrangements to get access have to be made, which may involve a call out of someone with keys.

Before buying and using your own keys, check your lease to see if it says anything about unauthorised access to these areas and what liability you might have if you do so.

user1977

kizzy1926 said:

I will send them a pic of they keys shown on the Amazon page along with the description as to what keys it contains. 

I would expect they've already got all the "normal" standard keys.

subjecttocontract

Would a locksmith be cheaper ?

Section62

subjecttocontract said:

Would a locksmith be cheaper ?

You'd hope a locksmith wouldn't gain entry to a locked facility without evidence the customer has lawful authority to do so....

propertyrental

Section62 said:

subjecttocontract said:

Would a locksmith be cheaper ?

You'd hope a locksmith wouldn't gain entry to a locked facility without evidence the customer has lawful authority to do so....

You'd hope...!

My experience over the years is it doesn't take much to satisfy a locksmith you are the owner/occupant/authorised person and get them to open a door....

DullGreyGuy

propertyrental said:

Section62 said:

subjecttocontract said:

Would a locksmith be cheaper ?

You'd hope a locksmith wouldn't gain entry to a locked facility without evidence the customer has lawful authority to do so....

You'd hope...!

My experience over the years is it doesn't take much to satisfy a locksmith you are the owner/occupant/authorised person and get them to open a door....

Given the OP isnt any of those for this particular lock then hopefully the locksmith is good at picking as the usual drilling etc will be causing unlawful damage to someone else's property

Jonboy_1984

Have you asked the site team if you could collect and return a key to/from their office yourself by appointment?