Wiring issue leasehold/freehold maisonette

[PiaC]

We live in a top floor maisonette and own 50% of the freehold. Our neighbour downstairs has been wanting us to reroute internet cables that run on the front of the house because they look unsightly. Now she has sent us an email threatening to remove the wiring herself as we never sought permission from her (we've only bought the place 3 years ago and these have been in place before we bought the flat). We own above the joist according to the lease and the wiring definitely runs high enough that it would be above the joist from the outside as well. Are we obliged to move it? Do we have the burden of proof ? She has owned her property for more than 15 years surely she would have given permission at some point.

Any advise would be appreciated. I will contact a solicitor but just wondering if anyone has been in this situation before.
Thanks.

Well she can't just rip off someone else's cables, they will be owned by the boradband company. Woould it be worth contacting the owner of the cable (Operneach or Virgin etc..) out to see if there is a better solution for running them from the street in to the property.

What is her issue with the cables - just that they are unsightly? How does her boradband connection run in to the property?

I assume they were run outside as it was easier than getting permission to run them inside. MDUs (Multiple Dwelling Units - eg flats) can be a bit of a nightmare to run broadband cable in to.

Finally if you are share of freehold it would be more common that you are joint owners of the whole building not parts of it, so you may want to check your lease and the docuemtns you got form your conveyancer. You should own two things - a share in the whole freehold (eg the four external walls, the foundations and drains and the roof) and then a lease for just your flat. If that is the case then you both, as joint freeholders need to come to an agreement about cables running on the exterior of the building.

Thank you for your response @Ginmonkeyagain. I had a look outside and it seems she is referring to the Open reach cables which run from the BT pole to the property then split with one going into her flat and one into ours and looks like they've probably been there since the property was divided into two flats. It appears she doesn't require hers anymore as she has a different provider now so she wants them gone. And yes, only because they look unsightly. I think she is aware she cannot make a unilateral decision regarding the wiring on the outside so she is basically being a bully and letting us know "this is our opportunity to re-route" otherwise she will instruct her contractor to remove them.

You are right we own 50% of the freehold and the lease indicates that we own everything above the joists basically (so we own the roof/loft space). Its an old lease and quite succinct and generic to be honest and is not specific about wiring outside the property so I was just wondering if she wants to argue that we didn't ask for permission to run the wires to her front yard then we can argue it is on the bit that is demised to us.

I would speak to Openreach. She can't go interfering wirh their stuff.

thanks @Ginmonkeyagain. It does seem like the sensible thing to do.

Also unless you have an unusual arrangement I suspect you will both own all of the common parts of the building as joint freeholders.

So think of yourself as having two hats - one as the freeholder of the building and one as the lessee of just your flat.

If you want to do anything that impacts the exterior you need to ask the freeholder for permission - ie you and your neighbour.

Our block has shared freehold but as it is larger (64 flats) the freehold is owned by a company (which is in turn owned by all the flat owners). That allows a bit if distance in these types of situations.

@Ginmonkeyagain yes I get it that we are freeholders as well as leaseholders. 50% freehold is not ideal as there is no one to break an impasse as we are learning!

Today she had virgin media remove the wires. It turns out the connection was in her flat and then wired from the outside of the property up to our flat. She was lucky that we don't have virgin media and the engineer was able to remove the wire running to our flat under the pretext that it was faulty. I called virgin media to ask why they did that and they basically said its their property and they can remove it if we are not an active customer. If we wanted to get virgin media we would need permission from the downstairs flat!

I don't care so much about the actual wire or virgin media as their service record in the area is pretty poor but more about the precedence that the broadband wires run along the front of the property so we have the option to go with another provider if we want. Quite disappointed that virgin media would just remove wires at the request of another customer.

A formal, factual email to her pointing out the facts made above:

the cabling is the property of the broadband provider and if she interferes with it they may seek redress

if she interferes with it and you lose broadband as a result, you will seek redress from her

you own the property from the joists upwards and any attempt to interfere with the cable for your property will be regarded as intentional damage

I'd suggest a freeholders meeting so that you can find out what this is about and how to move forward. She may have a point: there may be more discreet ways of getting broadband into the property. Good luck.

Record the meeting discreetly on your phone, write up minutes and decisions about actions and then email them to her. Keep things in writing.

It may be worth you preempting her and contacting the broadband provider yourself to ask for their opinion.

Sorry, I've spectacularly missed the boat.

Sometimes in your situation you can find a local property agent who will factor the property for you, ie act as the experienced and knowledgeable third party who can mediate. But it costs.

Thanks for the suggestions @Queenofscones . Unfortunately she is not the type of person we can just have a chat with. She is a bully and almost always talks at us and gives us ultimatums. Generally, we've just let it slide as its not worth it sometimes but now she is just really starting to take advantage. At the moment we are looking at our lease with a solicitor so we know how to deal with this and any other issues in the future.

No unless I have mis understood, you are both freeholders of the WHOLE building but only leaseholders of 50% (eg the top flat).

This means you and your neighbour both have rights and responsibilties over the whole of the shared parts of the building not just the bits around your individual flats.

That is generally how share of freehold works - although I do conceed maisonettes sometimes have odd arrangements .

To try and break the impasse you could ask her for ideas of how she suggests broadband wires get to the top flat if not run on the outside - is there, for example scope to run them inside or do you a separate external stair to your flat?