BT Contractor cut our hedge without permission

[Imupforthat]

Hi

Can anyone help?

At 8am this morning a van pulled onto our drive. My husband went out for a look to find a man in a visor clutching a chainsaw. At no point had he attempted to ring the bell, or make himself known.

When asked what he was doing he said he’d been sent by BT to tidy the area round the telephone pole which sits in the middle of the hedge. My husband came back to ask me if I knew anything and by the time we got back out there he’d cut a two foot wide hole in a six foot hedge.

He claims we gave permission. He couldn’t produce any paperwork from BT and wouldn’t give us his name. All he would give us was a slip with the number of EEG on it.

We spoke to EEG, initially they were sympathetic and said that Open Reach had probably told them it was on open land but later backed him up said we gave permission and even wished him a nice day. They will not entertain listening to our said of the story and were borderline abusive. Even when I asked how they explained my distress and my neighbours hearing me shout “you’ve cut down my hedge without permission” as apparently I could have just randomly been shouting that.

We can’t get hold of Open Reach.

Does anyone have any experience of this or what we can do?

I think there is very little you can do. You could report them to the police for criminal damage but they will probably tell you it is civil matter, and you will have to engage a solicitor to write to BT.

The council were renovating flats next to my house when it was for sale, and they pushed through the hedge and tied it back to do roughcasting. I came home to find my garden destroyed, covered in tarpaulin and the hedge damaged beyond repair. Phoned the council and they put me through to the team who actually did the damage! The man I spoke to couldn't understand he had committed criminal damage and the council refused to deal with it at all. It cost lots to fix and as we were moving we couldn't take it further as a civil complaint.

Ta Coffee! This is what we feared. I am sorry about experience as well.

I’m just so angry! He was cutting it back regardless, if we hadn’t have spotted him, he’d have done it anyway.

It’s more so the way I was spoken to. He called me “mental” for getting so upset and like your man couldn’t see the proble

Unless you send them a preaction letter they won’t care.

Was the pole on your land ?

If so, what was the contractual agreement for that arrangement ?

Even if the pole was not on your land, there BT have an obligation to maintain it, and that will bring with it certain statutory powers which might include arranging clear access.

(It's just occurred to me that if the pole is on your land and has a wayleave then you may have been responsible for ensuring the access was clear ??????).

Best to do some research before going much further.

Hi Emperor and Professor,

Thank you so much replying and for your help. It’s really appreciated.

I’ve just spent a few hours with my neighbour going through paperwork. It’s a nightmare with conservation areas, the land our house is on, the way it was built....

I’m going to have a look at the points you have raised (even if for future reference). While I was with her a manager phone my husband and was apologetic. So we’re happier.

They’re launching an investigation but he was clear it shouldn’t have happened the way it did. We have no objection to them needing to do the work as it’s in our and our neighbours interests, it’s the way they’ve gone about it. We’re in no way seeking compensation (which is why I think the lady I spoke to was so awful) I just don’t want the contractors going round feeling that they can do what they like and then lying about it.

Thank you again for your time and advice. X

I just don’t want the contractors going round feeling that they can do what they like and then lying about it.

Sadly, recent events have shown that is the way forwards. Lying clearly is not a bad thing anymore.

No indeed Professor and isn’t it a sad thing? That’s what really upset me, when the lady I spoke to swore blind that the contractors wouldn’t lie but I would.

I do sometimes think is it me? When doing the right thing once again pops up to bite me on the bum!

No indeed Professor and isn’t it a sad thing? That’s what really upset me, when the lady I spoke to swore blind that the contractors wouldn’t lie but I would.

As House M.D. said "everybody lies". If I were accused of lying I'd just reflect it immediately and we can all got to hell together. But I'm old and tired and not really sure I want to live much more in the world we are making. Which I find makes speaking your mind a fucktonne easier than it used to be. Dr. Johnson (Samuel, not his waste of DNA namesake) would understand completely .

Professor, I think I love you.

It’s awful isn’t it? The rate we’re going I don’t know where we’re going to end up as a species. I don’t know how we are ever going to clean up this fetid pit we’ve created. My husband says it’s my fault entirely for praying for our glorious leader the when he was ill - see putting aside personal feelings and doing the right thing bites again!

Shame them on sm with pics.

@Sunnydayshereatlast

Shame them on sm with pics.

Oh, shame bit the dust in 2020 too.

Is the telegraph pole on your land (unusual?) or does your hedge encroach?

@UltimateWednesday

Is the telegraph pole on your land (unusual?) or does your hedge encroach?

Why would it be unusual for a telegraph pole to be on private land ? It's almost what wayleaves were invented for.

Depending when (and how) the original wayleave was created it could have been forgotten in subsequent land sales. Although if it was, then there should be a boot->arse connection with the last conveyancer. The OP could have been missing out on what £5 a year !

Thank you all! You are an amazing bunch and I’m grateful to you all.

Although our house is fairly modern, the land it stands on is very old. It gets complicated because there was a change of use/build by stealth without the proper permissions in place.

There was also some land that ended up being claimed by previous owners because the owner of that land didn’t file the right paperwork in time (that’s the gist, It’s too detailed to go into!) and then some land was swapped back with them in exchange for various ransom strips.

This was all before our time and what was agreed, with who and when has been a bit lost in the mists of time.

Added to the mix is the fact that there’s a conservation area running along the boundary and although the hedge is ours we don’t know if it’s affected by the status of the building next door (it’s a very old building and they were the ones who originally owned the land including the land outlined above)

The post is in the middle of the hedge, we haven’t encroached onto it. I have left stinking reviews for the company where I can and I don’t think anyone who heard me screeching at them this morning will be in any rush to engage their services!

I’ve got about 4 box files of paperwork to read through.

£5 a year you say? My husband might develop a sudden interest in speed reading....

£5 a year you say? My husband might develop a sudden interest in speed reading....

Typically, wayleave rents are peppercorn. To be fair, if you pro-rata'd the land the pole stands on, you'd probably come up with £5-10 a year anyway.

Well, I say "to be fair". However it's having a network thanks to all those little £5 poles that allows BT (and it's subsequent spin offs) to make billions in profits every year. So maybe "fair" would be dividends in lieu instead. But I'd better stop there. We all know how dangerous trying to make things fair can be in the UK.

BT put a super fast fibre broadband cabinet in our front garden without permission. I complained but no one cared. We were then approached by the electricity contractor for permission to dig up our garden and drive to connect it to the network. We said no. We came home from work one day to find they had done it anyway. We got a cheque for £11 the following week for “easement”.

@PanamaPattie

BT put a super fast fibre broadband cabinet in our front garden without permission. I complained but no one cared. We were then approached by the electricity contractor for permission to dig up our garden and drive to connect it to the network. We said no. We came home from work one day to find they had done it anyway. We got a cheque for £11 the following week for “easement”.

There is a mechanism for theme to take you to court (you pay) if they really really need access. So they can be a bit big ballsy about it.

That said, if they did it without your permission, it's trespassing, and you can get a court order against them to compensate you. But as you might be starting to guess, it would only be of the order of £5 a year.

We recently had our gas main replaced and although they were very good about communications, the TL;DR was that there's nothing you can do to stop them, and if you try, then they will get their losses back from you.

Oh my goodness Panama!! That’s awful, I am so sorry. There’s some proper horror stories on here. There’s no words for that.

Professor, realised we have another two of the buggers at the other end of the garden. I suddenly feel proper flush and according to the ambulance chasers who keep writing to us we could claim compensation for the wires. Wayhay, let the good times roll 🤣

Have you spoken to open reach?

Professor, realised we have another two of the buggers at the other end of the garden

You need to look carefully at all the documentation when you bought the property - there should be something referring to them.

if you can't find it yourself, you'll need to contact whoever is listed on the poles themselves (which should be part of their maintenance) and get their version of events. Personally you may have twigged that I have zero trust in anyone (including myself) so I would be suspicious that a polite "could you tell me about your telegraph pole" would simply get a "Nothing to do with us guv" type reply. You might get a better response if you said "This pole of yours looks like it's in danger of falling down". If they get arsey when they turn up and it's fine, just take advantage of everyday sexism (and or classism) and say you weren't sure but then you're not an expert.

Then set about sorting out the failure of the conveyancer in the matter.

They will have way lever agreement when first done some opt for ongoing payment few £ a year or a one off payment when 1st installed and no yearly payments.

They need to be clear of hedges and thing growing round them ad engineer need to check base for rot and damage when the climb .

You can contact open reach via a form on there website they don't have number to ring due to the fact when people chasing there phone repair or order they need to speak to the provider they pay there bill to not open reach ( offcom condition )

We can’t get hold of Open Reach. We’ve left numerous messages with what we think is the right dept but nadda. TBH we are not shocked by this as they are hardly famed for their customer service. No doubt they’ll just pitch up and start work.

We’re thinking of putting another set of security gates in at the bottom of the drive. It’s OTT I know. I won’t bore you with my life story but we’ve already had to move once for the safety of our family so this is really triggering (I know this is nothing to do with the issue at hand, I’m just very, very twitchy about boundaries and who comes into our space)

I think we’ll have a closer look at them all later which will be fun as they’re all in the hedges. Of all the the things I was worried about with this property - plague pits, being responsible for church repairs, it’s dubious planning history, I never thought to worry about the poles!

There nothing to be shocked about not been able to contact openreach .
they own and maintain the network there customer are there service providers not you .You are always supposed to go through your communication provider who then contact openreach.