In reply to a post by systemx:

When I was first married, we rented a TV set and its outside aerial, and damage to the aerial, alone with any damage the aerial may cause was covered by our insurance, so insurance then covered items which we did not own, but were our responsiblity.

I'll have to have a look and see if this principle still applies.

The way i see it if bt choose to use overhead cables then they automatically take responsibility for damage resulting from lightening strikes /landslides ect ,it's no way the customers responsibility and bt are wrong to charge in this case , i bet a county court would find it in your favor,

maybe some legal advice maybe be needed if going through the normal bt channels doesn't result in them withdrawing the charge , maybe a e-mail to mr Livingston may speed up things not only should there be no charge but the amount charged is nothing short of robbery those nte's complete can be purchased for under £20.00 a new line install is only £130.00 or free it you have a calling plan, or cheaper from another provider

Openreach do take responsiblity for the repair and make no charge, however the nte-5 is fitted to your property and you (and I) accept resposblity for it.

I must admit considering the work involved in reparing a line damaged like this, the cost of fitting the new nte-5 should really be absorbed in the overall repair cost, but it does not matter what I think, and if Openreach can claim back some of the repair cost they will.

And do BT have insurance of their own?

>>so his new bottom half is a dud.

Your chum needs to check whether the bottom half is dud or the wiring away to the extensions or something plugged into them is shorting out the circuit.

If the fault is on the wiring rather than the frontplate, he'll have a brace of bills once the tech calls.

"act of god" why should openreach be responsible for a lightning strike

Having just checked with my local water agreement and apparently im ok for the water pipe comming in on my property but the sewers going out from my property to the road are my responsibility !!!!

The NTE socket belongs to BT in fact its a criminal offence to tamper with it once installed. The liability lies with BT to ensure that their equipment functions and if they didn't have the foresight to protect the equipment from lightning damage then you could argue that they were negligent.

Since science has explained lightning as a force of nature then using the defence of an act of god is ambiguous to the detriment of the customer and can't be used as a defence.

You accept that you will not cause any deliberate damage to BT's property (i.e the socket) lightning doesn't fall into this bracket as it is a force beyond your control and you therefore can't be held liable for it

Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Oct-11 19:22:52)

Just check that the blockage is not to the main sewer first otherwise you may call out dyno-rod or somebody needlessly to unblock waste water on your land.

This happened to me a few months back but I took the chance believing that it was a probably a blockage to the main sewer under the road and that was obviously cleared free of charge by the water company.

In my experience lightning damage always comes from customers equipment that was plugged in to the mains and the telephone line.

The difference in earth potential between the customers local earth spike and the exchange's earth spike a mile away breaks through the circuit board and blows the equipment and the NTE. The exchange always survives, Openreach are not negligent, they protect their equipment so the rest of the townsfolk can still use the phone and the wires only broadband.

I will lay a virtual mars bar that the op's chums wiring or equipment is faulty and shorting out the circuit beyond the NTE. Rather than the NTE frontplate being faulty.

If he doesn't check that his wiring and equipment is okay, he is likely to have another bill for the tech disconnecting it over the coming days.

Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Oct-11 21:48:44)

In reply to a post by RandomJointer:

Your chum needs to check whether the bottom half is dud or the wiring away to the extensions or something plugged into them is shorting out the circuit.

OP stated no extensions or further wiring!