Phoneline cable going to house - damaged - who's responsibility?

[SilverSaloon]

Hi

We have a cable that comes from a telegraph pole a few gardens away that goes to the top of the house facia and gutter area before going into the house.

It appears someone/something has pulled the cable and the guttering is broken and facia has come away slightly and the cable more slack than usual.

Who's responsibility is this? i am sure its BT? as its their cable?

Telephone still works.

repairs my end would be my guttering (which is all broken/distorted) and the facia being fixed back on again.

any advice would be appreciated before i ring them tommorow....

cheers

Derek

 

[greggster]

if the line was fitted to your fascia (i.e. with the tension pulling on the fascia from the telegraph pole) then i would argue that this was wrong in the first place. They should really only fix a line like that to masonry due to the tension involved. Unless your fascia is visibly rotten then i would get them to fix it aswell!

 

[LTD]

Everything up to the connection point inside your house is your service provider's liability.

It's why you are not allowed to tamper with it.

 

[nick mercedes]

any advice would be appreciated before i ring them tommorow....

cheers

Derek

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/ot-off-topic-forums/59025-phone-line-damage-who-pays.html

 

[flango]

According to my Nephew who is a regional engineer for BT, it is BT's responsibility cable should be a minimum of 5.2 m from the ground in a residential area. If it is not they will replace put good any damage and try to track the person at fault for disturbing the cable. If it is greater than 5.2 then they will still do the same but you are probably likely to get billed for it.

The exception to this is if you do not use BT as your provider, say your line rental and calls are with Sky, Then the contract is between Sky and BT Openreach so Sky would get the bill not you.

Check your terms and conditions carefully for recharges related to line damage

Hope that helps

 

[Ted]

Just my personal experience.
We are with talktalk.
We have a cable from a pole to our fascia and from there into the house.
Started getting really bad reception, and broadband next to useless.
TalkTalk were excellent at helping to diagnose tha fault, and sent out a BT engineer who said the problem was in the downlead from fascia to the phone point.
As this was on my property I fully expected a bill - but the engineer told me that it was their responsibility up to the phone point - so free of charge.
He even put the new phone point in a much more convenient location.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Thanks. I'm with Tiscali (for line rental and phone - now taken over by TalkTalk).

i'll ring them today. the facia and guttering is a right mess now. Its UPVC facia and plastic guttering and they are all pulled out of shape as the tension appears to be still pulling on it. The cable goes to a telegraph pole a few gardens away, but i also notice some ladders around that area up the side of a house so maybe someone has been pulling and its pulled the cable along or something.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Whenever i try to call their number their line says "all agents are busy, please call back later".... and it hangs up.

if i phone sales, i ask to get through to someone who appears to be in india and then they say that i need to phone Tiscali instead of talk talk. Even after telling her that tiscali is now talktalk and all numbers get directed to talk talk, it didnt help, so she connected me to the number which again, hung up.

what to do now.....

 

[davidjpowell]

Sorry. I have no practical advice, other than to remember why I left Tiscali a few years ago. I never found a way to break out of the indian call centres, but did ind that they did eventually escalate it to someone with decision making powers. It took a few weeks of persistence and some obstinacy from me though.

 

[SilverSaloon]

i've emailed them. i give it 2 days.

i wonder if i phoned BT i would get somewhere, as they own the line at the end of the day, and they would just deal with talktalk/tiscali their end...?

 

[SilverSaloon]

i phoned BT and they are sending an engineer round. They own the cable etc so thought i'd just go to them direct. I hope i dont get billed anything though!!

 

[MrT]

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/ot-off-topic-forums/59025-phone-line-damage-who-pays.html

We had an experience similar to that case - commercial premises, an armoured (!) BT cable running up the side of the building which was cut through as part of a burglary of the premises. BT came to repair it and sent us the bill. Was in the region of £150 to renew the cable IIRC (was a good 10-12 years ago).

 

[SilverSaloon]

OK, a bit of an update. BT engineer never turned up so we phoned them. They say the operator shouldnt have said one would come out and that they are not liable for the phone line anyway, as our contract is with TalkTalk.

So we phoned talktalk, who (after THREE HOURS of trying to get through) told us that they are not responsible for the line either.

So, i said i'm off out there to cut the wire off my house with my sheers as no one owns it and get mobile broadband and cancel all my phone.... at which point they said BT is responsible.

We phoned back BT who say that OpenReach may own the line, but as our contract is with TalkTalk, we need to go via them.

So, TalkTalk say a "senior engineer" is going to phone me between 7pm and 9pm tonight. they also said they would charge £100 for them to fix the line, but they are not responsible for it.

i thought that if they are not responsible for it, how can they repair it? i thought it was illegal to touch the main line other than the owner of that line??? BT said they wouldnt normally charge for such a service if my contract was with them but also started mentioning about if my tree has fallen on the line i would have to pay..... which it hasnt.

there is a house near to the telegraph pole a few gardens away which had a ladder up the side of the house the other day when we noticed the damage. I suspect that their ladder has fallen back onto the cable and pulled on it. it was 11pm when we noticed and the ladder was gone the next morning, so doubt we would get anywhere if we spoke to them.

 

[corned]

If, as now seems possible (likely even), you are going to end up footing the bill anyway, you would probably be better off effecting the necessary repairs yourself.

Then perhaps go round to the neighbour and say that you are not particularly happy about the clod who damaged your telephone line (and guttering) with the ladders?

 

[grober]

All telephone lines from the exchange to your house "point" are the responsibility of BT's "Open Reach" division. They won't let anyone else touch it. Your telephone service provider i.e. Talk Talk should liase with BT open reach to get it repaired. However they appear to quote a BT Engineer call out of £100?? TalkTalk Line Rental pricing Unless you can get a hold of the person who damaged the line its unlikely you will be able to recoup any cost? The other possibility might be to claim on your house insurance?

 

[S60_alex]

Your 'Communications Provider' is TalkTalk - they will be the sole people who can liaise with BT Openreach on your behalf (aside from the actual day of an engineer's visit, when the engineer may speak to you directly, i.e. phoning to say he's on his way).

Talktalk are responsible for logging the fault, passing it Openreach, who will fix it, possibly raising a charge, which will be passed to Talktalk and who may pass it to you.

Try convincing them of this though!!!

 

[SilverSaloon]

All telephone lines from the exchange to your house "point" are the responsibility of BT's "Open Reach" division. They won't let anyone else touch it. Your telephone service provider i.e. Talk Talk should liase with BT open reach to get it repaired. However they appear to quote a BT Engineer call out of £100?? TalkTalk Line Rental pricing Unless you can get a hold of the person who damaged the line its unlikely you will be able to recoup any cost? The other possibility might be to claim on your house insurance?

house insurance carries £100 excess i think from memory and would put the price up next year (as i looked into another possible claim last year that wasnt worth it in the end).

As the damage is to my property but the line itself is intact, i dont believe they can force me to pay them £100 to do it. in theory, i could just say i'm happy with the damage and facia hanging off. then its up to them whether they want it to be secured properly to the house.

someone suggested that their line shouldnt be connected to the UPVC facia in the 1st place and should be connected to the wall itself? BT engineer came out before to fix something a number of years ago (i was still with BT at the time) and they fixed the line but left it connected to the facia.

Can i just hire some ladders and fix it myself, bear in mind i wont be messing with the line (apart from pulling out the slack) and only toucing my own property (gutter and facia).

whatever happens, if they dont repair it, i'll be cancelling my business with them. i was looking to change anyway as soon as i heard tiscali had become talktalk. i've had problems with talktalk in the past and vowed never to touch them again. b@stards.