BT FTTP - Access to Pole refused by neighbour

JoeShmoe99

We have had Fibre installed but have no service which we cant resolve because the pole is a neighbours garden (in the street behind ours) and she is refusing access to it, in fact whenever I or the Openreach engineers go round she wont even answer the door. We did it get resolved after a few attempts when one engineer jumped her fence and fixed it but now we have another issue and we are back to this cycle of openreach engineers turning up and just shrugging and leaving because they cant access her property

A few have said its my issue with my neighbour but ive told them this is their issue to solve not mine, the pole is their equipment and they should be able to get access to it. Not sure of my rights here but im into a contract,(past the cooling off period sadly and being charged) and if they cant provide reliable service and an access dispute cant be resolved can i demand the contract is cancelled and i'll just go back to ADSL or satellite based? Does this come under the Ofcom broadband code of conduct?

brewerdave

If it's in your neighbour's garden (and presumably not a new pole) there should be a wayleave in place for Openreach access - however, the neighbour may not know that if it was agreed in the past. It's down to Openreach to resolve......

JoeShmoe99

so as i think i said originally an OR engineer did jump the fence when the service was initially installed (she was the 3rd one to come out and actually do anything !) but the service has now gone down again and more access to that pole is needed. the last 3 engineers that have come (last one yesterday) refused to do that so we are just in this cycle of BT support sending out OR engineers and nothing being resolved. if OR have a wayleave that gives them a legal right to access im not sure why they just wont exercise that? this could go on endlessly all the while we have no service we are paying for

km1500

it is your broadband provider's problem to fix and you should not be interfacing with openreach anyway

There is a statutory compensation amount payable to you for each day of broadband outage which your broadband provider must pay you - google it

onomatopoeia99

BT (Retail) as your ISP should be taking legal action against the wholesale provider they buy connectivity from for non-performance.  This would probably be BT (Wholesale).

It's what the ISP I used threatened when Openreach kept failing to fix a line fault as the technicians would turn up, declare they couldn't reach with the hoist and leave. Made it onto the home page of ispreview a few years ago

Problem is the mass market ISPs find this all too difficult and no-one will take ownership of difficult problems and see them through.

iniltous

Network equipment including poles are the responsibility of Openreach, BT use OR as a supplier, so as stated the consumer is entitled to compensation from their provider ( BT) , BT will be compensated by OR for services not restored within the agreed service level agreement, unless something like MBORC ( matters beyond our reasonable control ) is declared, but this is really a device used when storms or floods hit large areas.

In any case where OR have a legal right of access but it is refused anyway , it’s unreasonable to expect the employee to simply ignore the wishes of the person withholding access , they are instructed not to be provocative, eventually a court order could be obtained , and with police or whoever in attendance, access ‘forced’ , but obviously this is the last resort and all other avenues explored first, unfortunately the OP is the one ultimately disadvantaged by having to wait , but the apparent unreasonable actions of their neighbour is the issue, I’m not sure ( apart from paying compensation for the delay in repair ) what else they can expect in the short term from their supplier or OR