Ducting for Fibre

My neighbour and I share the same physical ducting from the distribution box in our road.
The ducting terminates on my property adjacent to the neighbour's party wall. I have FTTP via this ducting. At the time of my installation a spare 'string' was pulled through for my neighbour's future use.
This morning Openreach (actually Kelly's - their subbies) refused my neighbour's installation 'because the ducting ends on my property' - regardless that I have no problem with this.
So my question is why can't two adjacent properties share the same physical ducting for FTTP ?
Thanks
Bazza

It could boil down to a (perceived) wayleave issue. So OR may wish to see some written approval from yourself as the cabling needs to transit your property.

Your neighbour would need to follow up via their CP the exact nature of the problem though.

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 29-Jun-21 11:16:21)

Was it originally used for copper sevices too? If so, there must be an "agreement" of some sort that allowed that, so why not fibre?

I cannot see any specific reason why not.

One of my old copper services was in a shared drop wire with a neighbour that termonated on his soffit, 150mm from the boundary, never a problem running my services from there either.

Yes, the ducting was originally (since 1992) used for copper. However I've no idea where to look for the 'agreement' you mention - would it be in my neighbour's/my deeds or legal stuff ?

Edited by deleted (Tue 29-Jun-21 11:48:14)

In reply to a post by BazzaS:

Yes, the ducting was originally (since 1992) used for copper. However I've no idea where to look for the 'agreement' you mention - would it be in my neighbour's/my deeds or legal stuff ?

It would have had to be something more permanent than a simple agreement between the two parties as people move on so a wayleave or easement would have to be in place in my opinion, You would probably have to talk to OR to begin with as I think they have a whole department that deals with wayleaves.

Your neighbours need to toalk to their provider, who inturn will need to talk to OR and give the installers a "kick". It is effectively "replacing" or updating the services and having been there 30 years should not be a problem.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Your neighbours need to toalk to their provider, who inturn will need to talk to OR and give the installers a "kick".

That's correct. The neighbour is contracting with the CP, and the CP is in turn contracting with Openreach (or perhaps BT Wholesale or another wholesaler).

There is no reason or benefit in attempting to contract Openreach directly. If they need to talk to you, they will.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

There is no reason or benefit in attempting to contract Openreach directly. If they need to talk to you, they will.

I don't agree with this approach, thats not to say just leaving it to the CP won't eventually get it sorted but remember any wayleave is between the property owner and Openreach which is different than the broadband service.

In reply to a post by BazzaS:

Yes, the ducting was originally (since 1992) used for copper. However I've no idea where to look for the 'agreement' you mention - would it be in my neighbour's/my deeds or legal stuff ?

Would doubt you would have anything recorded on your title deeds, especially for what is an extremely minor telecoms wayleave.

I have way-leaves for UKPN high voltage OH power and Anglian Water mains water (that crosses hundreds of metres of my property on the way into neighbouring village in Suffolk). Neither of which are on my deeds proper. That would be an easement. I receive a pecuniary annuity for the HV power wayleave (as it doesn’t serve my property).

Both of those wayleaves are historic, the power way-leave is more than forty years old and the water is from the eighties. Any wayleave paperwork should be kept with the wayleaves office/dept with the relevant utility. Whomever agreed any wayleave would have a copy, but these can get lost with time especially as ownership changes.

Back to your neighbours issue. As I said in my post above, your neighbours problem looks like a “perceived” issue to me (which I think any sensible bod at OR will hopefully see as actually a non-issue, seeing as copper was already in place for thirty odd years, and will undoubtably JFDI perhaps with sufficient prod from the neighbours CP). Any excuse for the subbies to chuck it back on the too hard pile is my take.

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 29-Jun-21 14:04:40)

My guess would be because they didn’t like the look of the job …..

What of DP tails that come up a duct but terminate on a different property ? Countless semi detached houses share a single duct which serves both. I’ve seen a single duct with two separate fibres going to different properties (it *might* be that actually pulled those fibres in)

In short, they were talking out of their respective [censored].