Green box or cabinet outside property

bag181

I am thinking of making an offer on this property. I have noticed a green cabinet pictured below. I am assuming it belongs to BT. Would this affect property value? Will the box pose any health risks? I apologise if the second question is silly.

Sarahspangles

bag181 said:

I am thinking of making an offer on this property. I have noticed a green cabinet pictured below. I am assuming it belongs to BT. Would this affect property value? Will the box pose any health risks? I apologise if the second question is silly.

It looks like BT/Openreach so if you mess with it your neighbours may kill you!

user1977

Why would it affect property values? It’s utterly commonplace and benign.

housebuyer143

I have one outside my place. Granted it's not attached, but I wouldn't have thought it would affect the value.

Ayr_Rage

It looks like it has been painted by the home owner to match the wall too.

35har1old

bag181 said:

I am thinking of making an offer on this property. I have noticed a green cabinet pictured below. I am assuming it belongs to BT. Would this affect property value? Will the box pose any health risks? I apologise if the second question is silly.

You also have a fire hydrant adj to the front door.
It would appear to be a major BT junction box with associated road chamber with the double manhole cover

tacpot12

Ayr_Rage said:

It looks like it has been painted by the home owner to match the wall too.

Or the home owner painted their home to match the cabinet! 

FreeBear

35har1old said: You also have a fire hydrant adj to the front door.

And render right down to ground level, breaching any DPC that might be there.

Downpipe discharges straight on to the pavement beside the front door - Is going to be well dodgy in the winter when everything freezes.

Big step down to the pavement too, so need to be careful not to slip and face plant on the road.

Keep_pedalling

I don’t think it is one of the old BT cabinets although they are that colour they have double doors, and looking closely at this one it appears to have been painted by the owner to match the wall. If you look closely there is a bit of the cabinet showing its original grey colour. 

Edit - on second thoughts I think this is the original colour and it is an old style Virgin Media cabinate like this one.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/New-cabinet-25-metres-from-an-old-one-on-green-space/td-p/5507176

bobster2

bag181 said:

I am thinking of making an offer on this property. I have noticed a green cabinet pictured below. I am assuming it belongs to BT. Would this affect property value? Will the box pose any health risks? I apologise if the second question is silly.

As above - looks like Virgin cable box.

Would it affect property value? Can't see how - it's not like the property owner can use / do anything with that space?

Would the box pose any health risks? No - aside from the fact that sometimes the locks on Virgin boxes fail and the front panel falls forward. So you might trip over the panel. And calling Virgin they take ages to come and fix it. Get some green duck tape!

Section62

Keep_pedalling said:

I don’t think it is one of the old BT cabinets although they are that colour they have double doors, and looking closely at this one it appears to have been painted by the owner to match the wall. If you look closely there is a bit of the cabinet showing its original grey colour. 

Edit - on second thoughts I think this is the original colour and it is an old style Virgin Media cabinate like this one.

The cabinet could be BT or Virgin Media, but similar types of cabinet are also used for the electricity distribution network, for street lighting control, other highway uses, and sometimes control equipment for subway or sewage pumping stations.

In this case the heavy duty 'BT' type inspection chamber covers immediately in front of the cabinet would strongly imply the cabinet is a BT/Openreach one, coupled with the lack of 'Danger of death' signs you'd expect if the cabinet was an electrical/street lighting supply one.

In relation to the OP's query, the lack of visible vents on the cabinet would imply that whatever is inside is 'passive' and unlikely to cause much disturbance.  However, modern fibre and mobile equipment cabinets often have active cooling by fans.  The risk is probably very small, but I'd have it in the back of my mind that one day the cabinet may be replaced with one which has fan cooling - and make an assessment whether I'm noise-sensitive enough that that might bother me (particularly at night).