[Closed] Garden Dug Up and Cable installed on my property without permission

Not your problem.........Spade/cable interface. Do you like your neighbours?

Well for starters, I'd get round to that spot of gardening I've been meaning to do for ages and 'accidentally' shove a spade right through it

EDIT: Doh!!!! Too late!

Actually I can see free lifetime Virgin cable in your future.

The better man would not put a spade through it.

That is truely unbelievable

Go here:

[url= http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php ]Garden law[/url]

What higgo says - no point in escalating.

And let your neighbours know what you're doing. You never know, they may well have said "Yeah, Hedgehog's fine with us taking the cable through the garden".

lifetime cable would be nice. lol.

no I don't like the neighbour, she was there when it was installed but did say anything. All I good was tears and the wife got me to back of.

Much as Id like to spade it (and almost did) I want it out, all that will happen is the will turn up trespass and fix it while im not in.

muppets ! they really are !

Interesting thread on the very subject here

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/65/33662671-garden-dug-up-cable-installed-my.html

Oh, and, another thing...

Find where virgin (and their chief executive) exist on social media...Twitter, Facebook etc and blast them (though with Virgin, you may find there are a lot of people doing this already...legendarily bad customer service).

My guess would be that it's cheaper/easier/quicker to just dig where they like and pay compensation if they're collared for it, rather than go through the 'trouble' of consulting property owners and applying for permission.

Yup, was reading the same thread on cable forum.

no idea if she 'approved' the route, but even if she did, shes legally wrong. Good job the wifes calm, cus im so so miffed...

.... she took the spade of me ! actually glad she did.

I agree Three Fish... prob save them time/money overall.

some good advice on the last post on that cable forum thread. First thing is to write to Virgin media and tell them you didn't give permission and you want them to remove the cable and make good.

Personally, I woudln't be giving a company permission, in perpituity, to come on my land and dig it up whenevr they want and I'd be reluctant to buy somewhere where such a permission existed.

That's crazy! Leave it intact for the moment - but write a letter, including detailed photographs (and perhaps a plan view diagram of your land vs. neighbours land to clarify for them). Don't shoot yourself in the foot by physically damaging their property (underneath your land).

Demand all services be removed from your property - within a time limit (10 working days or something?) - and the garden must be returned to the previous state.

Good luck...

No I dont have cable.

Then I'd go the opposite route - demand they hook you up with cable and a free sub. 🙂

yup wwaswas, have on the first phone call to report it.

The missus asked if the call is being recorded, and put on record that we instist on removal and this must be advised advance where permission to access the property will only be given while me/wife are present. Also any costs due to time away from work etc such may be billed to them later. just to make sure they turn up !

Any photos of the damage?

In my experience (past not present) working for one of the cable companies that turned into Virgin, it will be the lads fault who came out. The installers should make sure any route is acceptable to the customer (they don't always bother) and is actually allowable, ie sticks to the customers property, or they have a wayleave agreement with neighbours/council/whoever to cover it.
The lads don't sort out wayleave and the like, call a supervisor and blow the job off for the day for an early finish would usually be preferred, unless they were contractors and would therefore not get paid for the job.
Am assuming your property is privately owned? If it was a bought council house and the lads working the estate have got used to already having wayleave from the council it could have been an honest mistake, but I didn't come across too many of them in 12 years of working there.

Just before you get too upset, are you sure there is no right enshrined in your title deeds / restricted covenants for the property. I know that my deeds allow access to the utility companies to fix problems with stuff that is already under the ground (and it is quite clear this is not just to rectify problems affecting my own property). I'd need to read them in detail to see if there is any right for a "new" utility to install services beneath my property. They do have to make good any damage.

no right of access for utility other than the installed, eg leccy, water etc, stuff already there.

There can be a covenant which allows for [i]future[/i] access of utilities. Although in the case of cable tv that must be extremely unlikely, unless its a newish property and some strange covenant has been included.

It doesn't surprise me. When they came out to connect our cable they found there was a break between the road and the house so they just took a cable across from next doors box.

No harm done in my case, since next door was empty and they came and mended our cable a week later but they did it without knowing nobody lived next door

ebygomm-don't know if they did check, but they can tell if it has been disconnected in the cabinet they work from or by calling into the office, actually more reliable than asking the customer. If they came back to do it properly I would suspect they did it properly rather than just bodging it for an easy life.

They didn't ask permission to put it in, so why should you ask permission to remove it.

I would remove it and bill them for it.

They didn't ask permission to put it in, so why should you ask permission to remove it.

In law, as in the playground, two wrongs don't make a right.

I'm sure they can check from the cabinet whether the cable is in use, they can't check whether the neighbour is happy to have cabling for someone else nailed across the front of their property.

Wow we are slacking here a bit today , how many post and no one has yet asked if she is fit or not yet?

😉

I so would like to 'remove' it, but no idea what itll kick up.

still at the trying to speak to someone stage.. 2 calls now.. both just putting info on there system to be passed to the 'responsible person'.

.... and they say the are sending a from to fill out ! pmsl.. what form ! what to fill out to have it removed... show me the one I filled out giving you permission !

In law, as in the playground, two wrongs don't make a right.

That would stand if removing something that you have a right to remove was wrong.

Pull it up stick it through here letterbox and tell her to connect it where the sun don't shine.

I'd write to them and send recorded stating what I want from them (removal, reinstatement, reasonable costs, etc) with the time they have to do it. I'm pretty sure I'd tell them to roll their form up and insert it somewhere

and they say the are sending a from to fill out ! pmsl.. what form ! what to fill out to have it removed... show me the one I filled out giving you permission

I'd phone up and tell them you'll be planting a tree tomorrow so they need to remove now or you'll be cutting it out since they've done it illegally. I'd be pretty sure you'd be well within your rights on that and more to the point, you'll probably get put through to someone who has the authority to do something about it which will lead to a quicker resolution.

I'd blame Richard Branson personally, I never like the beardy little ****.

In law, as in the playground, two wrongs don't make a right.

I'm fairly sure that removing a cable from your property is not a wrong. The first time you may notice is when you spade through it, personally from that point on I'd just pull it up and find out where it went. When it left my property I'd coil it nicely and leave it there.

Wonder what would happen if you spliced a mains cable to it?

*Do not try this!!!!!!

I'm fairly sure that removing a cable from your property is not a wrong. The first time you may notice is when you spade through it, personally from that point on I'd just pull it up and find out where it went. When it left my property I'd coil it nicely and leave it there

But they know he knows about it so it could be construed as deliberate criminal damage I would have thought.

Fair point. Though he could claim he spaded it then called them, but it is all getting a bit complex 😀

But they know he knows about it so it could be construed as deliberate criminal damage I would have thought.

So if someone puts something on you land when your out without you permission you can't touch it? [Edit] If that's right I'm gonna build a shed on next doors lawn, mines a bit full.

So if someone puts something on you land when your out without you permission you can't touch it? No that's not right

Personally, I'd have left it a few days to let the neighbours get used to having it and then put a spade through it.

More fun that way.

MF: No I doubt it.

.... and they say the are sending a from to fill out ! pmsl.. what form ! what to fill out to have it removed... show me the one I filled out giving you permission !

Oh and

muppets ! they really are !

Poly same here. Can give you the grump when you go to turn into your drive and it's no longer there 😈

They made good, but sadly the making good didn't last and it's never been sorted.