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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Refused neighbour BT engineer access

121 replies

BearBuggy · 25/08/2024 23:08

I live in a fairly new estate with one attached neighbour. My land is slightly bigger but a small section has servitude access for both properties. I don’t have an issue with that and left that area accessible when I had my drive way mono blocked.
I however disagree that those rights extend to my actual brickwork of my house. Nothing on my title says it does - only the actual land leading to my property.
When my last neighbour had their internet cables installed they put the box onto my house . Not even near the servitude area but near my front door. New neighbours are having BT installed but for some reason can’t use previous box (already on my house) so they came yesterday to fit new one. I have no issue with them doing the cables on my drive but stopped them when I realised they were adding another box into my bricks. My neighbour wall is literally 15 cm away but they’ve had some sort of rough casting or something that makes it more difficult.
I didn’t say anything with last neighbours as it was already done. But now I have my own virgin box, gas meter, their house old box (which bt won’t remove) another box I’ve no idea what’s for and now this. It’s becoming too much and the front of my house is starting to look terrible whilst they have nothing apart from gas.

I have told them they need to put box into neighbours brick but of course they couldn’t do that as that wasn’t on the job sheet! Feel bad they’ve no internet and maybe I was unreasonable. The last neighbour box was BT as well - didn’t make that clear

OP posts:
MaryEllenWaldron · 26/08/2024 04:29

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

The OP has said that there is no mortgage.

Allthegoodnamesaretaken92 · 26/08/2024 04:34

IHateWinter2024 · 25/08/2024 23:32

Your OP read as if your neighbours knew they were installing the box on your house which they probably didn’t. It’s not “your land” if the house is mortgaged, it belongs to the bank.

I personally couldn’t get worked up about a box on one of my outside walls.

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and if it were several boxes? Half a dozen all lined up on your walls?

have you seen houses/flats with about 6 satellite dishes all on one wall? Looks shit and I’m sure probably devalues the house.

who wants the neighbours crap attached to their house?

TeenLifeMum · 26/08/2024 05:07

😂😂😂 I think we can all assume @IHateWinter2024 doesn’t work in property law. Very entertaining reading a different view point to literally everyone including that on legal documents.

op you are totally entitled to say no and make them put the box on the neighbour’s house.

WiddlinDiddlin · 26/08/2024 05:08

I think this a fuck up your neighbours need to resolve, that is a hang over from their properties previous owners.

I suspect that the box was put onto your wall in error (wrong number on the job sheet) and as altering it is a massive faff, it has remained that way. When they have called BT to upgrade their internet, your address is linked to their box location... so again, they attempt to fix the box to the wrong property (as that is where the cable leads to).

It will be a pain for them to sort... it will be nigh on impossible for you to do so though, because it isn't your internet, isn't your account/contract.

If I liked my neighbours, I might just let it go, as annoying as it is to look at, the alternative is telling them they've got a huge battle on their hands due to some random strangers previous errors, and no internet for them til it is resolved.

Pineappleprep · 26/08/2024 05:23

If the old one is not in use I'd just rip it off the wall. I'd also have refused the new one

HappydaysArehere · 26/08/2024 05:54

Can’t believe the nastiness I’ve just read all about who owns some land if a property is mortgaged. I am hurrying back to Gransnet where age appears to develop more common sense.

SaintHonoria · 26/08/2024 05:56

I'd get a temporary sign put up that refuses BT/Openreach to attach anything to your house just in case they turn up when you and your neighbour are not in.

No way should the box be attached to your house.

Incognito2024 · 26/08/2024 06:27

Dotto · 25/08/2024 23:25

Is it literally BT, or is it Openreach / Kelly Services etc? Openreach are very good and helpful via social media channels / email

Exactly, OP raise a complaint with Openreach.

Openreach are responsible for sending contractors on behalf of all service providers using their network.

Openreach will remove the old boxes if the complaint is raised to them.

Ex-employee.

ihatecoffee · 26/08/2024 06:41

Obviously I don't know what your house looks like, nor where this box is actually fitted...however...if you ever wanted to extend your house, could this wall ever be part of an extension?
What would happen to said box then?

You are surely well within your rights to say absolutely not to this box!

Settingson · 26/08/2024 06:45

UndercoverBeardOperator · 26/08/2024 01:47

@BearBuggy Just so I can get a clearer picture of this in my head, the cable comes from the road in his little trunk, under your garden/drive/access area, pops up out of the ground by the front (?) wall of your house, in to his box - then where does he go from there? Is it a semi-detached with the cable coming in to your property then through the party wall in to theirs?

I did installations for a national phone/internet provider for 18 months and it's a shit job let me tell you. You get shafted on the contract and on the price, if you don't work like the devil you can end up where you have to pay them for letting you do it instead of them paying you. When the work looks rough or the connections shit, that's because they won't pay us for the extra 15 mins to do a beautiful job, when they want 8 or 10 installs a day you can't give up that much time for free.

That's also why we're so anal about work orders - they won't pay for anything at all which isn't on the job sheet, and if I use any cable or fittings not listed on there they charge me full retail price for it, not wholesale.

Also jointing/extending external cables really isn't the 5 minute job it looks like. Underground cables have to be permanent and maintenance free, any joints have to be IP67/68 rated, the same standard as permanent in water connections or permanent seabed connections respectively. It's a long winded job and the fittings are properly expensive, plus the joints are really big si they'd have to dig up half your driveway to get enough slack to fit and burry the jb. If you've got FTP/ fibre optic right to your front door, that's even more expensive cos yes need a bloke from NASA to make the joint and the finished pot is the size of a two litre bottle of pop.

There's a lot of things that made us look like arseholes - and sometimes we can be, it's no easy to smile when you hear your 16th "well why can't you just..." from a customer this week and it's only fucking Tuesday - things that make us look bad when really we're just taking all the fallout from where the powers that be want to charge you lot the Earth but pay us with mud... Sorry!

Wow! Not had any dealings with such work but that’s really interesting to know. Always good to know what others have to deal with presumably because it’s cheaper for the companies now rather than employ people at a proper rate of pay.

bearbuggy I think YANBU at all at this rate it sounds like your home could become a little bit of everyone’s boxed area apart from charging the neighbours rent for the space, billing them for the work carried out on your property the right to interfer with your home seems bizarre. I’ve never seen or heard of it. Maybe Banksy will see it and do one of his fab artworks then everyone will wish you hadn’t ended up with their box. Sorry not helpful but I sympathise as I have no idea what you can do apart from not give permission. Maybe citizens advise or your insurance company can advise.

FozzieWozzieWasABear · 26/08/2024 06:48

IHateWinter2024 · 25/08/2024 23:32

Your OP read as if your neighbours knew they were installing the box on your house which they probably didn’t. It’s not “your land” if the house is mortgaged, it belongs to the bank.

I personally couldn’t get worked up about a box on one of my outside walls.

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@IHateWinter2024 so the bank that holds your mortgage could host their Christmas party/ summer ball/ annual conference at your house because they own it? How odd!

CreativeOriginalUsername · 26/08/2024 06:57

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Absolutely glorious when someone makes themselves look THIS much of an idiot when trying (incorrectly) to berate someone else.

It’s spelled “bugger”, by the way.

DefyingGravitas · 26/08/2024 07:17

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The irony.

LlynTegid · 26/08/2024 07:18

It would not surprise me if the neighbours did not know when BT were to come, or the nature of the work, so I would have no issue with them.

I would do the same as the OP, partly because it is BT. I have dealt with them professionally.

DefyingGravitas · 26/08/2024 07:19

needtonamechangeforthis1 · 25/08/2024 23:44

Think we have found the neighbour!!!

Show quote history

OP said the neighbour was reasonable, so can’t be.

TruffleDaisy · 26/08/2024 07:28

IHateWinter2024 · 25/08/2024 23:32

Your OP read as if your neighbours knew they were installing the box on your house which they probably didn’t. It’s not “your land” if the house is mortgaged, it belongs to the bank.

I personally couldn’t get worked up about a box on one of my outside walls.

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You're wrong - property belongs to the registered owner.

The mortgage company have charges on the deeds and rights and so on, but they in no way own the property.

Sheeplesss · 26/08/2024 07:43

Yanbu at all.
I wouldn't dream of accepting hardware for another house on my home.
I would be removing the other box.
All these attachments are an eye sore on your house.
Absolutely your right to remove them.
Unfortunate for the neighbours but not something most people would tolerate IMO.

Oblomov24 · 26/08/2024 07:51

This would hack me off. BT don't want to do the harder job of extending the wires by a few cm. And dealing with them, as you know because you can't get the old box removed, is a nightmare. Talk to neighbours, tell them to ring BT back, and get the 'job' altered.

HazelBite · 26/08/2024 07:52

I went out for the day in May 2005 and came home to find a telegraph pole had been erected in the flower bed in my front garden ! I gave up in the end trying to get any sense out of BT, someone told me they should be paying me rent? But after about six months of trying to find out what I could do about it I gave up.

Oblomov24 · 26/08/2024 07:52

"seems installing guys can’t deviate"

Valeriekat · 26/08/2024 07:53

IHateWinter2024 · 25/08/2024 23:32

Your OP read as if your neighbours knew they were installing the box on your house which they probably didn’t. It’s not “your land” if the house is mortgaged, it belongs to the bank.

I personally couldn’t get worked up about a box on one of my outside walls.

Edited
Show quote history

Don't. be ridiculous of course it is her property!

Sunnyside4 · 26/08/2024 08:00

Don't feel bad. If I were your neighbour, at the point I had the problem, I'd have asked for a new box to be relocated on my own property, just because I'd want easy repair access.

Education79 · 26/08/2024 08:10

The new boxes are different from the old ones, the old copper system junction boxes actually have connectors within them joining the wires together.

The new fibre system box has a space to take a coil of the unused fibre cable, the cables are made off over long and the slack is taken up by coiling it up inside the box, the idea being if there is damage to the consumers cable there is slack available just outside the premises to re-make the end.

This avoids lots of outdoor connections and splices that you want to avoid on a fibre system.

If the old box is for the old copper system, if you ask them they will remove it, there is a programme to recover the old infrastructure - we were the first city in the country to go fully to fibre, they are more or less done with the fibre install and are now recovering the copper infrastructure.

Johnnyripples · 26/08/2024 08:12

OP, If the neighbours no longer use the connection in the box attached to your house, you can just unscrew it from your wall. The wires inside don't carry any current so you can just fit them back to where they come out of the ground or leave them in the ground if it's a hidden behind the bins type area.