Trespass
 

Recently had Virgin Media access my property and lay cables along the length of my rain gutter in front of my door, after previously denying them access to my property. I've contact the CEO's office to complain. I expect this will be a long road to get a resolution. Any advice would be welcome. I don't know why these companies seem to think they have a right to just walk onto someone's property and do what they want....without any permission.

Re: Trespass
 

Gutters are meant to be clean and free of obstructions to work properly. Tell them to remove that cable.

Re: Trespass
 

Is that supplying your services, or someone elses ?

Re: Trespass
 

I had this problem years ago and it took months to sort. The trouble I found was that VM would not deal with myself direct and I had to instruct a lawyer in where I needed to prove the land was mine (boundary survey report) and that there was no wayleave for non vital services. I suspect that we needed a lawyer was more to do with my neighbour putting us in a boundary dispute than VM.

My situation was slightly different in that my neighbour said that she owned the land in question so it might be that your neighbour said this as VM assured us that they only did this because they were told by there customer that she owned the land and they had only acted in good faith.

Once I proved the land was mine and that there was no wayleave for services like VM as this could not be classed as a vital service although VM said that a phone line could be classed as a vital service and I remember my lawyer stating in a letter that they could supply the lady in question with a mobile phone among other options example other landline providers, so that blew that argument right out the water.

I admit VM dragged there feet in removing the offending cable, that was until my lawyer made them a very unrealistic offer of renting our land for a £1000 pcm, needless to say they declined our offer of renting our land and after that the offending cable was moved that very week :)

Good luck but if it is anything like my case you have a battle that you can win and VM know it. I honestly think that VM expected us to do nothing and hope I would go away.

What I will say is VM reimbursed us, plus gave us a 12 month discount on our services as a good will gesture.

What you need to do is check that no wayleave is granted for such services via your property that is of course the service is for neighbouring properties and not your's.

It is my understanding that any wayleave will be noted in your Title Deeds, it may be different where you live as I'm in Scotland.

Good Luck

Re: Trespass
 

Aren't people now arguing that internet access is a vital service?

Re: Trespass
 

People can argue all they want tweetiepooh unless there is is a Wayleave, Servitude or Easement giving a company rights to land then the property owner I would assume would win the right for the offending cable to be removed from there property especially if the cable is not benefiting there household in anyway and permission has not been given either legally or by the owner of said land.

At the end of day, I suppose it all depends on what is written in the Title deeds.

I'm not legally trained in this so these are just my views and some experience of cables in my property to service a neighbouring household that I got successfully removed :)

Although it would not surprise me if companies are now paying for these rights to be put in the Title Deeds in all new built properties.

Re: Trespass
 

Hi Dave

I assume this is for your neighbours connection? Have you spoken with them/have they spoken to you about access? I have to say the gutter is a novel approach to getting a connection in without lifting the monoblock but I'm not sure if this actually constitutes trespass as no physical civils work has been carried out.

Also the previous suggestion that this single drop cable could cause a blockage is a bit ludicrous given the size of the cable compared to the gutter, if anything there is more chance of damage to the drop cable rather than issues of blockages in future.

Regardless, it would be best to chat with your neighbour first as if this is installed already then it would mean terminating their live service. You are correct that this issue may drag out, purely because the install has been carried out without causing any harm to the surrounding carriageway, it would have been different if the contractors had actually lifted monoblock or dug tar routes.

I'm hesitant to offer direct support here if you have gone to the CEO office already, too many cooks spoil the broth and all that! I genuinely think your best option is speak to your neighbour first and see what the situation is... unless of course you aren't on speaking terms! In which case I would wait until the CEO team get back to you, they are a great bunch and tend to respond quickly as they deal with all internal and PR communication.

HTH