Cost of Cabinet Instalation

How much does it cost the likes of OpenReach to install one of these cabinets? How much to remove them? How much rent do they pay if they put one on private land? Just ball-park figures, and, asap.... OpenReach are visiting us today, to discuss why/how they ended up putting a cabinet on our land, without our permission.

To install? Depends on the number of hours of labour, but ball park figures once you factor in fibre feeds, power the cabinet itself, plinth, labour are £20,000 to £100,000. If the cab has been stood on the pre-made plinths and that is the only work, then a good case is same day but some take a week as ducting work is done at the same time, so ease with which they can move it, and knock effect of changes to power feed specification will vary from case to case.

Wayleave payments - those getting paid them don't talk very much about that, so no real figures to go on. Some figures though at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5654-landmark-agr...

The cost of installation will vary depending on the amount of work needed - foundations, ducting for fibre, power and tie cables and then the cost of actually connecting the cabinet to the PCP. At a guess your are talking around £2k-£10k and to remove, maybe around £1k including making good. Obviously running the duct to the general location is another large cost, however, if they move the cabinet a few metres that will not be a consideration.

As for rental - a pole will generate £25 to £50 rental. A farmer with a massive electricity pylon will only see maybe £100 year so don't get too excited.

BT do have a right to install poles where they want which can be on you land - it is complex, however it is normally done with agreement. The situation with cabinets is probably similar. Was it an error with them thinking it was a council owned verge? Where is the land?

Edited by MHC (Tue 28-Apr-15 11:15:21)

Worst case for the local community might be the cab vanishes forever, particularly if this was the one spot where it could be stood, or power costs rise dramatically for other locations.

Plenty of other exchanges where cabs can be stood easily still

Not quite sure how they made the error, common sense would easily determine it as our property.

Yes, we are concerned that a complaint may be detrimental to our village.

Surely what they have done is really quite a serious error.

Whether its a stupid error or an understandable error will depend on the exact local situation. The boundary line on some properties is not always easy to determine, the number of places where a verge is council owned but maintained by residents means a well kept flower border would probably not phase the installers if that is where they were told to stand the cabinet.

Not always as obvious as you think.

My neighbours all have a 1.2m strip at the front which can be confused with public/council land and has been!

What is the situation where you are? Is the cabinet an eyesore? or is it tucked away?

You obviously want a reasonable solution that will allow the village and neighbours to benefit. If it is not visually detrimental, would you agree to it if they apologised and agreed to either a small cash rental each year, or possibly discounted/free FTTC ?

In reply to a post by Wheaty33:

Surely what they have done is really quite a serious error.

A solicitor would probably agree; an uninterested third party probably wouldn't.

I guess it depends on perspective. If they dug up a prize flowerbed, or blocked access, then perhaps it is indeed serious.

If they made a genuine mistake, and only affected turf located outside a garden hedge that is easily re-instated, then it probably isn't serious.

If you want it moved, and they can't find a nearby alternative, then it is probably serious.

If you don't really mind, and are willing to negotiate a retrospective wayleave, then it probably isn't serious.

In the circumstances, however, you are within your rights to get them to remove the cabinet, and re-instate the ground to its former glory, at their expense.

In reply to a post by Wheaty33:

Yes, we are concerned that a complaint may be detrimental to our village.

A complaint alone isn't detrimental. Insisting on removal, especially if they can't locate an alternative spot, while refusing to be open to negotiate a wayleave, would be detrimental.

Even if there is an alternative site that can be used, the cost of putting power into that site might make it economically non-viable again ... leaving the only option to remove the cabinet entirely.

Do people have service yet? Or has this cabinet only just been placed into position?

In reply to a post by Wheaty33:

Not quite sure how they made the error, common sense would easily determine it as our property.

Please explain the context. It might be that your "common sense" answer isn't the same as other locations.

Also, the error could well have been made in an office (BT or subcontractor), mis-labelling the site as having a wayleave approved, or in the council or land registry, mis-labelling the site as public-owned.

Once tasked with the job, the blokes who do the actual installation work don't care about where they've been told to put it; they'll assume all the proper planning and approval work has already been done.

Wow, thank you all for your feedback. I used phrases such as "common sense" regarding boundaries, just to avoid me boring you all with too much detail... and I was in a hurry.
Anyway, the outcome; the contractors said they were very sorry, it was an obvious mistake on their part, and they will relocate the cabinet as quick as possible.
We stated that we wouldn't mind some kind of small compensation instead, and that the last thing we wanted was for any of this to be detrimental to our village. They seem quite happy to relocate it, (they've only got to move it a couple of meters.)

For those that wish for the location detail: Picture looking out your front window; there's your garden, a public footpath, a grass verge, and then the road. The cabinet should have gone on that grass verge, but they stuck it in your front garden instead!

Thanks again.

In reply to a post by Wheaty33:

Surely what they have done is really quite a serious error.

You did remind me of a couple of stories I read on another forum, and there are some good lessons to learn from their experiences - including the need to take photos of everything, now and for any changes in the future too. The past would be good too

One story was for a problem with Openreach, while another is for a problem with VM. The stories are both in one thread, click here.

The first user is "rag3d" (Openreach, but starts out being believed to be VM), up to page 9 (a year later) while the second story start 10 pages in, from user "weenie".