…with a power company on a residential wayleave?

We have two overhead power cables that supply other peoples homes that don’t meet current safety standards that cross our garden. The power company are pushing the wayleave route of burying two new underground runs through our garden to supply the two homes behind us, there only other option is to dig up a length of very narrow road that will prevent the 20 or so houses from leaving their homes by car whilst they do.

So has anyone negotiated an increase on the minimal wayleave fee we are expecting?

They’re set by a national framework so that the infrastructure doesn’t get held to ransom. There might be a little movement but you’re not going to add a zero on the end.

They’re set by a national framework

My quick google prior to this thread showed a few companies who claim otherwise, for a fee of course.

Any implications upon sale of house or info / opinions from anyone then?

It seems to us like we’d be doing the power company a huge favor by signing a wayleave but leave ourselves open to potential problems later.

Hmmm – from a slightly different perspective – when I was building my house, the local farmer tried to screw me over to the tune of £2.5k to dig up 18 inches of ground to route the electric supply.
The power company actively encouraged and supported taking a different route!
Also how well do you get on with your ’20 or so’ neighbours? If you all get on well, the hassle for a couple of days won’t be an issue (certainly 13 out of 14 of my neighbours were fine about digging up a shared drive to route the cable instead) – so if you’re concerned about future resale problems just explain to them your reasons 🙂

I take it you have looked at the ESQC regs to find out about if the overhead cables are up to standard? There are many types of cable used for these types of services, and the regs dont tell too much about them other than safty clearances and minimum heights etc.

With regard to any cable being put underground to feed others, the supply company, have to abide by the fact that, in the event of a fault they must take all reasonable dteps to ensure that day to day disruption is kept to an absolute minimum,also any groundworks undertaken, are tightly controlled, and the site must be returned to its original state.
If you agree to let them install anything on your land, insist on it being placed in plastic ducts, with the joint holes excavated off your property if possible, then if anything happens in the future, they can pull in new cable without entering your land.

Good advice from stylish there. If cable goes wrong, nine times out of ten, It’s the joint.

No real impact on selling the house as the wayleave is held against the owner unlike an easement which is on the property. You can always give them notice to quit if you want rid of it for any reason.

I take it you have looked at theESQC regs

No, never heard of them, but I do know that a exposed live overhead cable 10′ off the ground above my garden is BAD, and another is <1m off the roof tiles.

If we were to agree it would all have to be in ducts of minimising future disruption.

Still feels like we are giving them the easy way out and risk paying for it in the future if we were to need a cable moved.

ESQC is what the companies have to adhere too, if the cable does not feed you, the company would be hard pressed to make you pay to move it in future.
At our old house, we had a 3 phase cable run directly under the house to 6 others that were behind us, didnt know it was there as it never came up on any searches, but found it on plans at work ( luckily i work in the industry).
When you deal with the wayleaves department at the power company, make sure you speak to the most senior person, and also ask them to meet you and an engineer on site.

As an aside, where are you in the uk?

I’m in Glos.

There seems to be a lot of outdated overhead power cabling round our way that does not meet current standards.

I guess our real concern is that our garden is an ongoing project (some of it structural) and we don’t have it all mapped out yet, rather is going to evolve. If we agree to the wayleave and then decide we need to dig / cover the cable then we’ll be liable for the fee of moving the cable despite the fact that we’ve saved them a road dig.

I don’t see why we can’t come to a pre arranged agreement on the wayleave in which in the unlikely case of the cable needing to be moved in the future that they’d do it for free.

If we dig our heels in then they have to dig a road up instead.

Personaly let them route cable down lane
Your neighbors will thank you
With nice new resurfaced lane
Doent beluieve leccky company not wanting to disrupt….balls
Just cheaper and easyer to go threw

Better with hv cables away to **** from u
Aint they carsiogenic

Plastic insulated cable is used now for both Lv and Hv, many years ago there were various types of Oil impregnated cables and oil Filled/cooled cables, but these have gradually been overlayed and made redundant.

If you are planning on doing major work on your land, dont even enter into a wayleave agreement, as at some point the cable will either be in the way or disturbed by on going works, its probably not worth the hassle in the long run.