This is your starting point as regards telephone and power cables cutting across property - Lines company for power have a legal point of supply in the public area to which a user runs the cables to, ie, to the base of street pole or plinth, bearing in mind that if a trench has to be dug on public land then an approved (by them) cable installer must be used. The telephone cable is the responsibility of the phone company up to the point of connection to the house/building. In a quirk of legislation ( dated round about the time Telecom was privatised ) the telephone company can claim that the cable can cut across your neighbours or your property depending on when the cable was installed and is the determining factor. My advise is to talk it over with your provider and attempt a compromise otherwise they may insist you pay their estimate if you demand it be rerouted. Otherwise you dig a trench, install the ducting and suggest Chorus install and connect new cable.
marte,
Oct 7, 7:22am
Wow, thats pretty much what happened at my place. First they cut down my lovely cabbage tree. Then they ripped up the footpath at the end of the street. Then the middle of the street. Then my end of the street. Then gave me 'advanced notice of intention to fix a footpath that had nothing wrong with it. Messed up my green verge with their trucks. Laid a concrete footpath even though it didn't need doing. Left the rest of the place a muddy pit for months. Ruined a bunch of people drains etc etc, then had to remove footpath to fix thatup again. Remove next doors near new $3000 driveway and replace it with concrete. Now they are going to cut up my footpath because when the concrete was still not set, someone in a mobility scooter ran close to the edge and broke a chunk of concrete off and got the scooter bogged in the mud.
Damn useless. None of this needed fixing except for a few folds in the ashphalt down the other end of the street.
And whos paying for this? Guess who.
j_fung9007,
Oct 7, 4:14pm
Still haven't hear anything back from them, I'm guessing is going to be a looooong waiting game.
aredwood,
Oct 8, 3:03am
Even if there is no easement the courts will often grant a "deemed" easement if it is for an "essential service". So if you are not careful the neighbour might be able to take you to court to claim costs in reinstating a service. And they would also be able to get a court order ordering an easement be placed on your title.
Also there won't be any easements for any council owned pipes. There are lots of properties out there with council storm water and sewer drains on them. And I know of a property with a council owned 100mm diameter watermain running through it. Almost straight down the middle of the property.
masturbidder,
Oct 8, 3:38am
What height is it? Cable clearance should be (from memory) 4.2m over private driveways and 3.8m over gardens, so unless your garage is exceptionally high there will not be a problem. Just build your garage and if it drapes on the roof it is not your problem.
thisles5,
Oct 9, 2:41am
long handled loppers !
mkbooks,
Oct 10, 9:47pm
Why not go to the Legal Aid people at Citizen's Advice Bureau? they are generally there weekly-just phone your local CAB
gabbysnana,
Oct 10, 11:02pm
I have telephone lines that cross my driveway, they drooped so truck couldnt get up driveway. We had to ring chorus i think, first they said the neighbou r owned the lines and it was his problem, then they phoned back and said they actually own then because they were installed prior to the mid 70,s. They maintain them but they dont have an easement for them to cross my land. In my case they are undergrounding the whole street, so in a few years they will be gone.
soxxy,
Oct 13, 3:11pm
Like your humour - but boy would I love to do it.
alfred011,
Oct 15, 4:14am
Our neigbour got ultrafast broad band put in ,the pole the wires are attached to are on our front lawn outside boundary but the installer got the neighbour to get a consent form signed by me so the cable could go from pole to his house .
wind.turbine,
Oct 15, 12:30pm
Have the main ph line running right down the length of our property.rung them up as we wanted to re do all the drainage, they told us don't worry its hard up against the boundary fence so you wont hit it.
2 hours later about 3M from the boundary. slice! Wiped out all 50 houses past us!
chorus then had the balls to send us a bill!
we contacted them about moving the cable as we were planing on putting up a shed so would end up cutting the cable again and also rebuilding the fence, they refused to pay saying that since the line was installed pre 1990s that it does not need an easement.
After lots of fighting with them we finally got them to agree to pay for the cable to be moved as long as we payed for the digging which was fine as we needed the digger back anyway.
The line now runs under the fence at about 1.2M wheres before it was only 2 feet deep!
nzoomed,
Oct 15, 5:57pm
I agree, if its the neighbours phone line and its over your property then something should be done to move it, but not at the OP's expense.
$2400 is a joke anyway.
alfred011,
Oct 17, 4:56am
I was talking to a guy who wanted ultra fast connected up to a house he just moved into somebody came and had a look and said the pole was unsafe to climb using a ladder and they would have to come back with a cherry picker to put the cable up,pretty strange as they had been up the pole before to run cables down the street ,they must have xray vision now .
portly,
Aug 28, 1:48pm
Been there, done that. It`s Chorus \ Transfields responsibility to pay for and remove line. The neighbour only pays if they don't have line maintenance in their contract. BUT it took 6 months and a whole lot of lies from Spark, Chorus and Transfield to get it done and the neighbour also had to threaten court action. Cut it and let the neighbour sort it out.
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.