27 Year old BT junction box

[Ken can do]

The above box is situated in the common loft in the apartment block that i live in.

It feeds my master socket and did not have a cover on it.

Just recently we had loft insulation fitted and the guy reported an electric shock when he came down from the loft as the box is just inside the loft hatch.

After reporting the problem for several times over a three week period eventually an appointment was made and the question was asked who is responsible, the answer was BT.

When the technician called he replaced the box and the same question was asked and the answer was the same.

Now BT are wanting me to pay £189.88 for the repair as they say that they are only responsible after the first connection after the main master socket in the appartment and i should have checked all BT equipment when i moved in some 2 years ago ,how was i to know that there was a box in the loft?

Any help would be appreciated.

Ken Underwood Torquay South Devon

[Welshchris]

Contact Consumer Direct they will be able to answer these sort of Questions for u.

[Ken can do]

Thanks Chris contacted them, they then suggested talking to Ofcom which i did and they gave me a reference number and gave me the phone number of the MD`s Office at BT. They took all the details and were very understanding saying that i would get a call back within two days and had a call back today one day, we had a chat and the person that i chatted with used common sense and could see that we were talking about something that was a bit of a gray area but was concerned that there was also a safety issue as well.

She then agreed to make a credit to my account and apologized for any inconvenience caused.

All`s well that end`s well.

Thank`s

Regards

Ken

[Lord Nikon]

Originally Posted by Ken can do

[snip]

Now BT are wanting me to pay £189.88 for the repair as they say that they are only responsible after the first connection after the main master socket in the appartment and i should have checked all BT equipment when i moved in some 2 years ago ,how was i to know that there was a box in the loft?

Any help would be appreciated.

Ken Underwood Torquay South Devon

Just a small point, and I know you have this resolved, but just to clarify. BT are responsible for all wiring up to and including the NTE5 Master socket. This means they are responsible for the drop cable, any of their junction boxes etc up to the point where you have a master socket. If there are 14 GPO junction boxes BEFORE you get to your NTE5 or earlier master socket, they are BT's problem, NOT yours.

BT are liable for all problems up to and including their network termination point which is the master (NTE) socket. You may be liable to charges if there is deliberate damage to the socket or prior wiring, but faults are their problem.

Faults caused AFTER the Network Termination Point are your responsibility regardless of if it's a randomly occuring fault, or you accidentally drilled through the cable.

[Paul]

Lord N is totally right, until the line hits your termination socket everthing is BTs and therefor theirs to fix.