Maintenance of copper cable

Have I been given the correct information by Openreach? I contacted them to say a tree in a nearby field had a branch touching the telephone line to my property. It was made very clear that Openreach does not sort out issues like this and the landowner would have to get the tree branch cut. I explained it was a very elderly lady who quite frankly is unable to look after herself let alone deal with this. The only suggestion was that once it damaged the cable they would replace it and then bill the landowner for the repair. Obviously I could not let that happen and so have bought equipment to do the necessary myself and avoid upsetting the lady.
I am left wondering why I pay a line rental every month if it does not cover maintenance of the line, surely this can't be right.

Edited by corsa57 (Thu 17-Nov-16 22:53:08)

Look at it as if the tree was on your land rather than your neighbours. Who do you think should pay to trim the branch? Your land, your tree = your responsibility.

It surely is right.

You pay line rental for Openreach to maintain your line.

I pay a garage to maintain my car, if branch comes off a tree and damages my car was it the garages responsibility to ensure no branch came near my car ?

Who should pay for the repair of the car if it did get damaged ? Not the garage for sure, though they would clearly seek recompense from me or the trees owner.

Thank you Zarjaz and MCM for your replies. I suspect neither of you stay in remote locations. Here just finding out who owns land can be a challenge and as telephone cables are usually not put through the middle of crofts but along the borders it can be difficult to know who owns the tree which no one has planted it just grew naturally there right on the border line between crofts. So as you can see not a simple a matter, electricity lines are just as vulnerable to this problem and they deal with it immediately and so I expect Openreach to do the same. I don't expect the service for nothing I pay for it in my line rental.

Edited by corsa57 (Fri 18-Nov-16 08:11:48)

I would argue that BT own the line. If I own a car that gets damaged by a branch and can't get someone else to pay for the repair then I would have to pay for it myself. Same goes with BT - they can try and get someone to pay but in the end it could involve courts. If a branch was hanging over my car and in danger of damaging it (even just by normal movement) then I would look to remedy that before the damage happened.

We are not just paying OpenReach to maintain the line - the line is owned by OpenReach and their property.

Ten or twenty years ago my line was simply done in by the willow tree in my garden it goes through. It was replaced free of charge by BT, with no suggestion of a charge. But I think times have changed.

Though quite how the policy could be changed apparently on a whim by a business seeking to reduce costs is an interesting legal question.

Is the old lady registered with BT as being "at risk" or similar?

Also does such registration also apply to my basically BT line; but with the Line Rental paid to EE as part of the Broadband Package?

In reply to a post by corsa57:

Thank you Zarjaz and MCM for your replies. I suspect neither of you stay in remote locations. Here just finding out who owns land can be a challenge and as telephone cables are usually not put through the middle of crofts but along the borders it can be difficult to know who owns the tree which no one has planted it just grew naturally there right on the border line between crofts. So as you can see not a simple a matter, electricity lines are just as vulnerable to this problem and they deal with it immediately and so I expect Openreach to do the same. I don't expect the service for nothing I pay for it in my line rental.

It's not about whether Zarjaz lives somewhere remote or not. He's just telling you what the policy is, and he's absolutely correct.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Ten or twenty years ago my line was simply done in by the willow tree in my garden it goes through. It was replaced free of charge by BT, with no suggestion of a charge. But I think times have changed.

Though quite how the policy could be changed apparently on a whim by a business seeking to reduce costs is an interesting legal question.

As I understand it all of this type of stuff was agreed with Ofcom and the providers when Openreach was formed in 2005.

Edited by Icaras (Fri 18-Nov-16 10:48:06)

In reply to a post by corsa57:

Thank you Zarjaz and MCM for your replies. I suspect neither of you stay in remote locations. Here just finding out who owns land can be a challenge and as telephone cables are usually not put through the middle of crofts but along the borders it can be difficult to know who owns the tree which no one has planted it just grew naturally there right on the border line between crofts. So as you can see not a simple a matter, electricity lines are just as vulnerable to this problem and they deal with it immediately and so I expect Openreach to do the same. I don't expect the service for nothing I pay for it in my line rental.

It's not about whether Zarjaz lives somewhere remote or not. He's just telling you what the policy is, and he's absolutely correct.

That makes sense. Unfortunately.

(In doing the edit you seem to have duplicated the original post ).