BT way leave agreement

[lazyuni]

Has anyone negotiated a way leave agreement with BT/Open Reach? They've just said: this is the amount. It's quite small and we don't think it's reasonable. Not worth getting a solicitor involved we think, although who knows since there doesn't seem to be any guidance on how much a wayleave should be. We also would like it to be time limited eg for five years, not forever.

Our experience of BT/OR in another matter is that they are very slapdash and just do things 'they way we've always done them'. They've messed us around so much that we're quite keen to fight them and not just accept their first offer.

Any guidance is much appreciated.

You can see the advisory rates for BT Openreach at A Rural Fixed Line Network Access Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

You may want to find a surveyor with experience of wayleave agreements. However, I think it is highly unlikely BT Openreach would agree to a time limited wayleave. A wayleave is usually open ended. If Openreach agreed to a time limit, they would be facing the possibility of having to reroute whatever it is they are building in a few years, with all the expense and possible disruption to customers involved.

Thanks, that's very helpful. I'm probably going to deny them permission. They charged us £5k to move the damn thing and they didn't even have permission to put it there!