Compensation for cables beneath your home

mbehrsi

My elderly neighbour has just received an unsolicited letter from a firm of chartered surveyors. It’s offering to help  her apply for compensation for having an electricity cable running under her property, on a no-win-no-fee basis. I’d never heard of this type of claim. Whatever cable is under her house or garden has been there since well before she bought the place, so the notion of compensation seems a little odd.

Has anyone else encountered this? What are the pros and cons of making a claim? Is this something a householder can do themselves without paying a fee to a third party?

MikeJXE

I have worked on building sites all my life from 1960 and never once seen a house built over an electric cable 

I would expect there would be some legislation to forbid this 

diystarter7

mbehrsi said:

My elderly neighbour has just received an unsolicited letter from a firm of chartered surveyors. It’s offering to help  her apply for compensation for having an electricity cable running under her property, on a no-win-no-fee basis. I’d never heard of this type of claim. Whatever cable is under her house or garden has been there since well before she bought the place, so the notion of compensation seems a little odd.

Has anyone else encountered this? What are the pros and cons of making a claim? Is this something a householder can do themselves without paying a fee to a third party?

Hi
Do you mean the bit runing up to your electric meter often found on the inside of the house where the meter is?

Thanks

user1977

I expect any underground cable is merely underneath the garden - they wouldn't normally allow you to plonk a house on top of it.

OP, is your neighbour aware of there being any cables under (or over) her property, other than ones which just serve her?

MikeJXE

If there was a cable running across the garden you would have an agreement with National grid for access, similar if you have a stream at the bottom of your garden 

mi-key

Sounds like a total scam. I bet they have some 'admin' fees she would need to pay upfront before they start a 'claim' for her...

Why would anyone be compensated for having an electrical cable under their house? To get compensation you would need to prove it was causing her some damage or loss

Section62

mbehrsi said:

I’d never heard of this type of claim. Whatever cable is under her house or garden has been there since well before she bought the place, so the notion of compensation seems a little odd.

It is fairly common for companies to write to people on this kind of fishing expedition.  They sign you up, make the same enquiries anyone could to the DNO (District Network Operator) and if there are any cables that would be eligible for a wayleave (etc) payment they get to keep a slice of the pie for themselves.

I don't know, but I suspect the mention of the cables being under the house might just be intended to throw in a little bit of scare tactics - to make it sound more serious and something to investigate, rather than to ignore.

It is very uncommon for distribution* cables to be under a domestic building - being under the 'property' (i.e. somewhere in the garden) is less uncommon, but still not something that everyone will have. (*excluding the service connection to the property itself)

DullGreyGuy

mbehrsi said:

My elderly neighbour has just received an unsolicited letter from a firm of chartered surveyors. It’s offering to help  her apply for compensation for having an electricity cable running under her property, on a no-win-no-fee basis. I’d never heard of this type of claim. Whatever cable is under her house or garden has been there since well before she bought the place, so the notion of compensation seems a little odd.

Has anyone else encountered this? What are the pros and cons of making a claim? Is this something a householder can do themselves without paying a fee to a third party?

Property is the whole property not just the building on it... cables are likely under the garden if they are there at all.

https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/electricity/equipment

Yes you can approach the appropriate company and deal with it directly, the above link has a tool to identify the distribution company for your area. Just because you have cables in your land doesn't mean automatically you'll be entitled to any monies.

user1977

mi-key said:

Why would anyone be compensated for having an electrical cable under their house?

Because it occupies their property and comes with conditions which restrict what you can do with their property (e.g. building over it, planting trees near it, etc). Often wayleave agreements provide for periodic payments, so perhaps what the surveyors are offering is to negotiate converting those into a one-off lump sum.

martindow

I would also have nothing to do with this company. but there was a long thread some while ago where new houses had been built across a large water main which seems a similar situation.  The OP in that thread was trying to get some recompense for this although I'm not sure if there was ever a resolution.

Robin9

They may be no-win-no-fee but they will want their cut.   

Send a letter to the Wayleave dept of the local Electricity Company  and see what they have to say.