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thefazza
24-03-2004, 10:49
Hi everyone, hope you can help

I live in the ground floor of a maisonette and therefore we own the front lawn. We have had NTL for a while and are fairly happy with things.

A couple of months ago I came home from work to discover NTL had laid a cable right through the middle of our lawn to connect the people upstairs. Now three things hack me off about this:

1) No one asked my permission. Surely NTL have to check whether I will let them dig up my lawn anf flower beds????

2) Our cable goes neatly round the edge of the lawn to the box but upstairs cable goes straight througgh the middle

3) The green pipe is very visible in both ends of the lawn and it looks like the cable is bairly below the surface.

If someone would have asked me I would have no objections but would have insisted they went round the edge. I know I should have complained earlier but its only now my wife has wanted to use the flower beds we realise want a bodge job they have made. I'm also worried about mowing my lawn when the time comes.

A day after they installed it the box on the outside wall came loose so exposing the cables, I thought nothing of it until yestarday when the whole cover for the box has completly disappeared!!

I will phone up about the box but am interested to hear what you all think about how I should complain about the cabling to try and get compensation or discount.

cheers

Neil
24-03-2004, 10:54
I actually don't think they would be allowed to do it without your permission, but you need to check with the council I guess?

andygrif
24-03-2004, 11:03
Well technically they have caused criminal damage, if you own the lawn they dug up. But I don't think you should be calling the old bill just yet!

You're right of course, they should have contacted the land owner (you) before doing anything - but of course the people upstairs might have said that it was communal, or that they owned it. It wouldn't be fair for ntl to have to do land registry searches every time they did an install.

Moving forward, I would suggest that you have the right to instruct them to make good any repairs. If you had plans (for example) to dig up the area of the lawn where they have laid the cable, you could instruct them to re-lay that cable where you wanted it (i.e. side by side to yours).

If they have damaged the turf, they should replace it, or give the money to replace it. If they have killed off some of your flowers, same thing.

When phoning, I would be very matter of fact about, constructive yet firm. Say that you are very dissapointed that they did not consult with you , the land owner, prior to damaging your lawn. Say that you expect them to make good the damage they caused, and set a time-line to do so. A reasonable time would be within 28 days.

Sadly, ntl's installations do leave a lot to be desired sometimes, I don't know if your neighbours' install was contracted out or not, but the contractors don't seem to be as conscienteous of their standards of work as many ntl employees.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Neil
24-03-2004, 11:16
Make sure you take photos of everything.

orangebird
24-03-2004, 11:48
Hi everyone, hope you can help

I live in the ground floor of a maisonette and therefore we own the front lawn. We have had NTL for a while and are fairly happy with things.

A couple of months ago I came home from work to discover NTL had laid a cable right through the middle of our lawn to connect the people upstairs. Now three things hack me off about this:

1) No one asked my permission. Surely NTL have to check whether I will let them dig up my lawn anf flower beds????

2) Our cable goes neatly round the edge of the lawn to the box but upstairs cable goes straight througgh the middle

3) The green pipe is very visible in both ends of the lawn and it looks like the cable is bairly below the surface.

If someone would have asked me I would have no objections but would have insisted they went round the edge. I know I should have complained earlier but its only now my wife has wanted to use the flower beds we realise want a bodge job they have made. I'm also worried about mowing my lawn when the time comes.

A day after they installed it the box on the outside wall came loose so exposing the cables, I thought nothing of it until yestarday when the whole cover for the box has completly disappeared!!

I will phone up about the box but am interested to hear what you all think about how I should complain about the cabling to try and get compensation or discount.

cheers

Just a quick question - are you leasehold or freehold?

MetaWraith
24-03-2004, 11:52
Some Maisonettes are actually cross-leased by a peppercorn rent. In this setup you can actually own the other Masionette and rent the one you are living in. I think it's something to do with not having a management company to sort out issues that affect both properties.


If this is the case then your neighbour could well own the garden.

However it's only common sense and good practise for your neighbour to have consulted you before hand.

* Does Mystic Meg Impression *
I foresee a Spade, or is it a Lawn Edging tool, a sudden discontinuity in Internet Service Availability, followed by a visit from the firm of "Bodgit & Leggit" Cable Laying Contractors to NTL.

thefazza
24-03-2004, 12:17
Thanks for the replies

It is a leashold, we have a freehold company we pay ground rent to. I'm not an expect on legal matters but the lease def says we own the front lawn and also says about seeking permission for access so I still think it is illegal to do what they did.

I take the point about NTL not being able to check the title on every cable lay and really I am more annoyed our neighbours didn't consult us.

I just don't know where to take it from here, I don't want to cause ruptions with our neighbour as this will only make matters worse. I'm also not too keen on asking NTL to make good the laying, as they are more than likely to cause more mess by digging the cable up and relaying it. We work full time and would not be able to oversee this.

I was sorting of hoping they would give me a lump sum compensation and leave it at that, but I guess that is pushing it and probably why I have done nothing about it. It just pi**ed me off when I came home yesterday to find the box uncovered with cables fully exposed and thinking "this company are a joke"

Should I take it further or let it go?

SMHarman
24-03-2004, 12:35
I'd go back and request that they relay the cable from the street to the house parallel to yours, or in the same green ducting as yours. I would then go on to indicate that when this is done you will consider whether any further work will need to be done to reinstate the grass / flowers and that you consider this would need to be done by landscapers, not cable installers supplied and paid for by NTL and approved by yourself. In reality, the grass is likely to repair itself quickly and at this time of year they will not have done much damage to the flowers.

Why is it that they love to go directly and diagonally across lawns?

Question to NTL installers - why could they not use the cable already installed to the property?

MovedGoalPosts
24-03-2004, 12:42
An easement (legal right) is required to run services over land that is not controlled by the party needing the service conduit.

Although the front garden may be demised to you, by virtue of the lease, I would expect that the lease also has clauses in it that allow services for the building to be routed accross it. However, it is usual for the freeholder to have to sanction the installation of any new services such as this, possibly by means of granting licenced consent under the lease.

It is issues regarding the ability to cross land not in full control of the customer, that frequently cause difficulty with ntl or indeed any telecoms supplier not being able to do an install. It's often why flats cannot have cable, unless everyone agrees, to it, and then it would be usual for the install to have cables routed in a common way.

Stu038
24-03-2004, 13:03
Why is it that they love to go directly and diagonally across lawns?



Folks don't normally dig up their lawns so theres less chance of damage to the cables a couple of years later when the owner has forgotten the cable route.

Most of the time the lawn will recover within a week or so.

Its quicker, causes less disruption to the garden, less mess and lots less hassle ;) than digging a trench through the border.

This all of course assumes that the job is done properly :)

Rillington
29-03-2004, 17:26
Keep us informed as to how you get on.

ignite
31-03-2004, 08:52
It sounds like it is time to start doing some airating of the lawn. If NTL have done this and you asked Alan Titshmarsh (or however you spell his name), he would tell you to get a fork out and start putting it in the lawn and wiggling it about to get some air in. Now if there happened to be an NTL cable just below the surface.....

In all seriousness, send a PM to Orangebird, and he will be able to put you in contact with somebody higher up at NTL. Ask them to send out a surveyor to look over the work, and discuss this with them. They will have the power to get it sorted. In the old days, a percentage of all installs were followed up with an inspection to make sure that the work was being done properly. I don't know if this still happens, probably not given the cutbacks. However, this sounds like a botch job.

Andy

thefazza
31-03-2004, 12:10
I put in a call to NTL last week (26/3/04) The earliest they could come to put a new cover on the box is 16th April!!!!

I mentioned about the cowboy job done in installing our neighbours to NTL and the lack of any consultation with us and explained that it was that has caused the box cover to come off. The lady at NTL was very supportive and seemed to agree with everything I said and stated she would put my complaint through to the instal team and hopefully something would happen soonish.

I have heard nothing....:rolleyes: