Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Openreach is BT

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Spoke to neighbour, say's it's a broadband connection through Openreach [BT] and the people doing the work were Options [whoever they are] another neighbour tells me they saw a Cobra vehicle here [this is where Cobra came into this and for a week is all the information we had]. My neighbour assures me he challenged the contractors on commencment of works and was told by them that they were within their rights. My neighbour is in the construction industry and is familiar with the law regarding property rights. He has told me he complained to a named person at openreach immediatley, so it should all be on record. I spoke to BT last week, they have no record and have forwarded this to Openreach. I have also enquired of our highways dept as to who had permission to dig the road up. Sorry guys things are still as clear as mud but with my persistence and your input someone is going to get their Ass kicked and I will get my garden restored.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Are your neighbours services now live? if so you will get more action from his side if you do as already suggested and spade the cable, if you don't then to be honest he has no inventive to hurry this along.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Unless you are prepared to spend time & effort to sort out this problem, ie: start ringing round & convincing people they have done wrong, including the neighbour, has no incentive whatsoever to rectify the problem, then the easy solution is to dig your garden & cut the cable.

Let the neighbour & the company sort it out.

Also, stick em with a bill for putting your garden back as it was.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

An Easement cannot be granted by an owner of land who has no right to it. An easement is required by an owner of land where a service needed by that land passes over the land of another. As an easement is a legally binding arrangement potentially limiting what an owner of land can do with the land affected by the easement, it has to be legally arranged and would normally be drawn up by solicitors to attach to the ptoperty title deeds.

People often get easements and wayleaves confused. A wayleave is granted by the owner of a property to allow the service to be run through that property's own grounds to service that same property. A wayleave is much less formal than the easement, but basically gives the service company a right to enter onto the serviced property to maintain or remove the kit provided to service that property.

BT being a statutory authority will have the ability to dig up public roads. They do not have an automatic right to dig up private land.

As this is now not a VM installation issue, I'm moving the thread.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

They have to get permission to dig up public roads etc too, if this was BT Openreach then a formal complain through Openreach is the way to go. Obviously what is done is done but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be made to sort it out properly.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Thanks Rob' I beleive my neighbour has a wayleave for his property and not an Easement.
I can [with the information gained today] deal with the people concerned when they open tomorrow. Things would have been so much easier if my neighbour had spoken to me when we returned home last week. Goodness knows what Openreach will have to say because everyone I spoke to at BT last week said there is no way whatsoever that BT would consider digging across anyones property without the owners consent.

---------- Post added at 21:18 ---------- Previous post was at 20:58 ----------

Thanks Paul, sounds like the correct way to go. Do you know how quickly these complaints are dealt with? Dont want to go for months with the garden in a mess.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

They tend to deal with them quickly when they know they are in the wrong and it can be proved. Has your neighbour got any paperwork to do with the install that they may have signed?

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

My neighbour told me he signed for permission to dig on his property only. Will have to ask him if he has a copy. He told me he has made a complaint to openreach over their trenching across my garden and given me the name of the person at openreach so I do have something to start with at last.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Funny thing is,why do they always have to dig up,why can't they attach cabling to nearby fencing and poles ect... I'm sure it would save them money as well???

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

If it's done properly, the cable would be safer underground.

I for one wouldn't like our towns to look like the USA with cables on poles cluttering up the sky.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Update
The contract was for BT Openreach. Have now been told the contractors are Cobra. Rep from Cobra knocked this morning and thought he could send a couple of men round to tidy garden [seemed to think the cable could stay under my garden]. When I told him I was dealing with BT legal dept he decided to leave it at that [fair enough].
Without exception the many different people and departments in BT that I have gone through have agreed with my complaint and have tried to help me resolve it. They do however seem to have as much trouble dealing with Openreach as the general public do.
I seem now to have had direct contact with everyone concerned except the people who's prime responsibility it is Openreach. I appreciate it is still early days but I would like someone from Openreach to speak to me that I should know what forward action I should take. My garden is not going to stay like this all summer.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

If you have something on your property that has no right to be there, then the final step is to notify them in writing, by recorded delivery, of your intention to:

1. Remove and dispose of the items in 28 days from the date of the letter;
2. Make good the damage caused by the original installation and
3. Make a claim in the Small Claims Court to recover your reasonable costs arising from the above.

If you think you've hit a brick wall, now is as good a time as any to do this.

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

It's already gone on for FAR too long. Put a spade through the cable right away!

Your neighbour, who knows about construction, just watched and let them do it. Sounds very sus to me. Is he making a grab for your land?

Put a cheap fence up as quick as possible.

As to another poster's point about you committing criminal damage to the cable, you can't commit criminal damage on your own property!

Sorry to the good ones out there, but I hate those install techs. Yet to come across a good one yet.

Why can't BT attach the cable through the air? Aren't there poles in your area?

Re: Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without knowledge
 

Rag3d, try an email at steve.j.robertson @ bt.com