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Currently we have telegraph poles in out garden that carry power lines to use and our neighbours. We move in about a year ago. I believe there is some wayleave agreement in place that we should probably get moved to our names. As I understand it we are probably entitled to some minor payment every few years from UKPN.
BT have got in touch and they want to install a new fibre cabinet near to our land (next to the front drive) and want to dig up our driveway and part of the lawn so they can run power to the cabinet underground from one of the poles in our garden.
The question is should/would I be entitled to some form of waykeave payment/s from BT?
Is there anything else I should be doing with regards to the existing poles?
A quick Google suggests that wayleaves do not automatically transfer to the new owner and yes there should be one in place for the new underground cables.
http://www.utilityserve.co.uk/wayleaves_and_easement.php
IIRC - from our experiences of this.
Once you accept the payment, you've accepted their terms. We have a phone / power pole in our garden, but have never received a payment, so technically i believe we could ask them to move it.
Any payment will be a small token payment to acknowledge your acceptance of terms (i be interested if anyone knows the true value of easement / way leave payments).
If you grant permission for them to dig up (why don't they use a mole?) & lay a power cable across your land, if for any reason in the future you wanted to have that cable moved, you'd be liable for their sizable charge for doing so.
We had two live power cables crossing our property to feed other properties, one was 14' off the ground at the fence line, the other 2' off our gable end. It took two years (they sheathed them temporarily), but eventually they had to run them the long way round underground as we wouldn't allow them to mole across our garden (their preferred route) & then charge us a huge fee if we ever wanted to did around the cable (ie fencing etc).
Unlike the water industry they have no right of access for new cables
There may be something in the existing wayleave so worth understanding that. Wayleave payments can be very small I have seen invoices for £0.35 from land agents
I would think about the impact on you ask for considerate routing and full reinstatement to agreed finish otherwise your block paved drive will just get a full of cold rolled tarmac.
I would talk to their agent and make sure you don't take the first offer
SSE tried to install an overhead power line (for next door, +2) on our drive. It would block our view, and could restrict access.
For which we'd get £120. In total.
They gave the impression we had no choice. You do, their 'offer' is an opening gambit. You can ask for more money, or you can say no. They can go all the way to court, and force you to do it. It's generally not worth it on their behalf.
Course, as it's fibre broadband, you might actually want it in your locale. So bargain with them. Ask for more money etc etc
EtA - are you sure it's a wayleave? That implies no payment. Easements do
http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/easements.html
[i]your block paved drive will just get a full of cold rolled tarmac.[/i]
It won't, they will reinstate what is there but depending on the surface, it may be unrealistic to expect a perfect match and that's where you would expect a change to the cable route. Also the reinstatement is guaranteed for something like 2 or 3 years.
Is the new cable going to run where you might be considering building works in the future?? It will be more trouble than it's worth