BT cannot provide me a service because of a neighbour

[andyhudson1979]

Hi,

I have moved into a new house and today had an Openreach engineer try to connect me up to BT fibre. The previous owner had Virgin Media and thus not on the same network. My phone line was totally dead so needed reactivating.

I live in a cul-de-sac in a 1980's built house and the cable underground is distributed in a circle via a silver box and follows the houses in a loop. The engineer needed to access each silver box to find somewhere on the loop which was active so he could connect me to the Openreach network. (Something about distribution points and stuff)

However, one of the neighbours became rude and aggressive and did not allow the engineer to access their silver box. The engineer informed the neighbour that Openreach have a legal right to access the silver box (because the phone line has not yet entered the household). The neighbour basically told him to f off!

The engineer now has to get BT legal involved to finish the job so I can be connected via broadband. This sounds like a very lengthy process. In the meantime, I am going to be paying for a service I cannot be provided with!

Can anyone tell me what my options are please? I would consider leaving my contract to join Virgin Media if it means having broadband.

[garybs29]

Just for your information you state in one sentence you've not been connected then go on in the next sentence to say you'll be charged, you shouldn't be if the service isn't connected under normal circumstances it won't be active on the system so you won't be charged, if you are however I'm sure they'll refund you so that shouldn't be an issue

[Starwire]

Well that neighbours sounds like an absolute delight. Let’s hope they never need one of their workmen to require access to the boundary of your property.

Ref to your problem, and I’m assuming the line comes from Underground?

I’ve seen this a few times, where they’ll put a 2 or 5 pair armoured cable and sit it in the middle of (give or take) both properties and each will have its own Individual pair back to the DP, Distribution Point. I never had any issues though with either neighbour not allowing us to get to the Block Terminal.

Or on some Terraced Houses, specifically old MOD Housing or Council Estates they have something call a Continuous Type DP. Basically they run say a 20 pair cable right across the length of the terrace houses and at each house cut into the cable, take a pair for that house and then put an enclosure on it. These can be a right pain because sometimes you’ll need to access half a dozen enclosures to prove/fix a fault.

On a Legal Stand Point it’s a grey area to be honest. If there is no Wayleaves Agreement in place with the neighbouring property I don’t think BT and or Openreach can physically force their way onto the property. You have to bare in mind, Telephone/Broadband is just a ‘Service’ and not a Utility so BT and or Openreach don’t have the same legal rights to that of Water Companies and Electric Networks.

[andyhudson1979]

Yes, they are underground lines. What you have said makes the situation make more sense now (I now know the silver boxes are called 'Terminal Blocks' lol).

The engineer was really apologetic and spent 3 hours try to figure it out before he realised he had to access this neighbours' terminal box. 

I shall have to give BT a ring and see what they can do about my account. I think they said if they couldn't give me the guaranteed speed they'd allow me to leave the contract, and I'm getting 0Mb lol