Boundary Issue Finding out about an old install?

rjm2k · 26-05-2009, 13:36

about 12 years ago my neighbour had cable installed, I suspect this involved running cable along my garden. I have absolutely no issue with this, but it's potentially developing into a boundary issue so I would liketo try and find out what option the installers took when they put the cable down. Their options would have been, cut a channel 10m long by 5 cm wide down a driveway, or ask the neighbours if they could lay the cable in the garden and put a bit of ashfelt over it, I suspect they took the easier option but need to find out.

How can I find out what they did? It was potentially C&W then, or maybe NTL and I assume permission would have been required from the owners of my property at the time?

Basically the problem is that over the years the ashfelt has deteriorated, he's blaming my flower bed (where he chose to have it installed in or next to) and expecting me to fix it to his standards.

I tried asking customer services but the chap in india didn't really understand what I needed though he was happy to know my service was working when he asked. My neighbour is harrassing myself and girlfriend constantly at the moment so I'd like to resolve this soon!

Thanks

**Chris** · 26-05-2009, 13:44

to the forum. Has your neighbour talked to VM about this? Is his service degrading, or has it been necessary for him to have a tech out to inspect/repair it?

Wherever the cable is, it is not your responsibility to actively maintain it. If he is having issues then he should be calling faults, not hassling you. There's no reason for you to be going through the onerous task of trying to find someone at VM who knows what you're talking about and is interested in doing something about it.

rjm2k · 26-05-2009, 13:57

Hi Chris thanks for your response, if only life were that simple. The guy is no longer a cable customer and will not listen to reason, he's very aggressive and tbh pretty stupid, in the past I've found that life is easier if I just humour him and do whatever is neccessary to get him off my back, I don't like him but I do have to live next door to him.

**Chris** · 26-05-2009, 13:58

So ... his unused cable is in your flower bed, and he's unhappy at your flowers disturbing it?

rjm2k · 26-05-2009, 14:02

He claims that I've destroyed his drive by digging out the bed and/or by having a flower bed next to his drive (I'm sure the bed was there before the cable) allowing the ashfelt to deteriorate in condition by not weeding often enough or keeping my grass short enough. You really couldn't make it up could you!

**Graham M** · 26-05-2009, 14:27

Do you mean Asphalt rjm?

rjm2k · 26-05-2009, 14:31

Yes, that's the stuff.

virgin_tech · 26-05-2009, 22:43

sorry but im pretty confussed as to what the cable has got to do with a flower bed or ashfelt/asphalt,... mmm tarmac

.. if its a boundry issue it really has nothing to do with virgin, a boundry is a 90degree angle from the cavity between both houses, find it and put up a fence, if you damage a virgin cable in doing so, dont worry... thats his and virgins problem....

people please listen.. never allow virgin to put any cables on ur property that is not yours...

Peter_ · 27-05-2009, 07:25

Tell him to contact Virgin as the issue is on his property not yours and if the asphalt is crumbling it is not your problem but his and Virgins.

AndyCambs · 27-05-2009, 08:04

I'm lost - is the cable attached to his side of the wall or your side?
And what's the link between the cable (no longer used) and the flowerbed?

If the guy isn't a customer then I can't see what use the cable is to him?

rjm2k · 27-05-2009, 08:52

There is no wall or fence, just a drive and a garden. I'll try attach a photo, the yellow bush wasin my border/flower bed, the cable (drawn in black) runs directly along the edge of the drive between the drive and the bed. On top of the cable is tarmac. The tarmac on one stretch next to the bed is in poor condition and after removing the soil from the bed to put some edging in it has reveal the the cable is exposed. My neighbour is claiming I removed the tarmac and damaged his drive, which I didn't.

http://www.diynot.com/network/rjm2k/albums/1272/11799

**Chris** · 27-05-2009, 09:03

Seriously mate, this is nothing to do with Virgin Media and you're going to get nowhere trying to involve them. What you have here is a good old fashioned neighbour dispute. You've done some gardening, the edge of his tarmac driveway is deteriorating and now he's blaming you.

The fact that the cable is there is not really relevant. The cable will be where it is because the tarmac drive was already in place when the cable guy came to lay the cable. They won't dig up a driveway to install cable, they just dig it under the edge, as they have done in this case.

You need to forget Virgin and simply argue it out with the neighbour. Either you accept that you damaged his tarmac and agree to make good, or else you refuse to accept it and leave it to him. If he really is the cantankerous old duffer you're making him out to be, I doubt relations with him will be any better or worse no matter what you decide to do!

rjm2k · 27-05-2009, 09:13

That's the thing, I have told him I haven't damaged anything but in the interest of good neighbourly relations I said I will look at getting it repaired. He's just going on and on about it and harrassing me and my girlfriend. I would like to find out if the install was done on my land as then it's easier to tell him to like or lump whatever repair is put in place.

**Chris** · 27-05-2009, 09:19

I doubt any record will have been kept about exactly where the tech stood when he put the cable in. They should have a signed wayleave agreement if the cable is actually on your side of the boundary, but TBH if they have shoved it hard against the tarmac I doubt they would have wanted to go through the hassle of getting a wayleave. They will simply have treated it as being on his side of the boundary, or so close to it that you'd never be able to prove one way or the other. Either way, going after Virgin is a red herring and a waste of your time.

The tarmac is deteriorating either because it's old, or because it wasn't very well laid, or because you disturbed it while you were gardening. You need to decide which it was and then repair it or tell the neighbour it's up to him. Whoever does the repair can simply tuck the cable back against the driveway and bury it. Virgin don't need to be involved in that either.

**Kymmy** · 27-05-2009, 09:34

If it's his tarmac and your flower bed and each one is on your own properties then whoever laid the tarmac should have edged it properly to ensure that crumbling at the corners whether by a car/foot/gardinging work next door didn't collapse the edge. If it's just been left ragged then that's his fault not yours