Openreach: New cable over property to service someone else

[Kanoe]

Hi All,

Anyone had any experience with trying to get Openreach to move a cable they have installed to a different property that goes over your property?

The cheeky gits have run a line over the top of my garage (less than a meter above the roof height, several meters below the roof height of the house the garage is attached to).

I wouldn't necessarily have minded but for the fact that they didn't ask first and it runs straight through an area that we have planning permission to build in (i.e. above the garage) and now it's in the way.

I guess I have to prepared that this is going to be a long drawn out process.

[Rob_B]

No experience, but see if this gets you anywhere - https://www.openreach.com/help-and-s...ning-wayleaves

What are flying wires?

These are wires which “fly” across one property from telegraph poles on another property. We’re sometimes allowed to install these without needing a wayleave, but only if:

we don’t need to enter the property to do it
the wires are 3 metres or more
they don’t interfere with normal business at the property.

[Saracen999]

...

I guess I have to prepared that this is going to be a long drawn out process.

Well, while I certainly wouldn't advise any course of action that might be considered criminal damage, if it proves to be too lomg-winded a process I might feel inclined to warn them that, first, you have planning permission, and that second, while of course you will request that any contractors needing to access the garage roof for the purposes of preparation for said building should exercise due care, accidents do happen in such close proximity .... especially for things that are hard to see. Several times.

[Saracen999]

On a more serious note, the Electronic Communications Code introduced by the Digital Economy Act does provide the comms companies with the right to override long-standing common law rights of property holders in order to do this type of thing BUT, within certain restrictions one of which is that such flyover wires are NOT within 3m of the ground or 2m of any building they pass over.

The practical upshot would certainly seem, on the face of it, that they have exceeded their authority to just do this (which would normally not require either your permission or necessaily even notifying you) by virtue of the height.

Were it me, I think I'd first appoach BT directly with your concerns. Them doing it voluntarily is probably the best bet. If that doesn't provoke a positive and reasonably prompt reply, then it may be necessary to put in a formal objection. There are provisions for that, processes to do it and, it seems, a 12-month time limit to get it rolling.

I'd also suggest, annoying (and expensive) though it may be, it might be worth consulting a half-decent property solicitor 'just in case'. My concern, were it me in this position, would be that if I tried to economise by doing it myself initially, I MIGHT do something out of legal ignorance that might adversely affect the process if I went to a formal complaint later. It might therefore be worth the cost of at least an introductory chat with a solicitor before doing anything yourself, even if just for peace of mind.

It might even be that the initial approach coming from the solicitor might focus minds at BT, and convey the message that you're serious about the objection. It's perhaps also worth getting clear and substantial evidence of that "less than a metre" bit, before kicking it all off just in case the wire somehow magically goes up to 2.00000000001m when you're not there to see it happen.

For clarity, though I'm sure you know, I'm not a lawyer. The above is courtesy of a bit of quick web-searching. Which you've probably done yourself anyway .... and my non-expert reaction to what I read.

[Kanoe]

Yeah, im going to get some measurements on it.

At the moment visually it is very obvious that it goes through space that we have planning for (as its below the height of the house the garage is attached to and the planning is for building above the garage that takes the height to the house roof level).

[Kanoe]

After waiting for a break in the weather I managed to get up and and measure how high above the property it is and it is 1.7m so below the minimum 2m that they are supposed to keep to the property.

I guess now the fun begins.

[Kanoe]

Well in a unexpected turn of events, the installer turned up this morning and took the cable down.

Apparently they had tried to use the underground conduit to run the cable to the property but found it blocked so thought they could fly the cable to the property with no issue but said they realised after doing it that is was not suitable as too close to our property so they have removed it and wont be doing it again.

Fair play to the guy for realising that before we got the complaint in.

[Saracen999]

Unexpected indeed. I bet a large sigh of relief was breathed in Chez Kanoe.

[Kanoe]

Unexpected indeed. I bet a large sigh of relief was breathed in Chez Kanoe.

Yeah, can concentrate on worrying about other things again instead

[Saracen999]

Every silver lining has a cloud.

[Rob_B]

Pop a tent on top of the garage to stake your claim to the airspace ready for your extension!