Impossible broadband installation - landlord law change?

Hello, I have moved into a property and have a strange issue with providers. The broadband options available to me are Virgin Media, G.Network FTTP and a small number of bog standard ISPs like Sky, Shell, TalkTalk, etc however they offer 10mbps max.

We tried to sign up for G.Network however after their survey, our housing association rejected them on the basis that they'd have to drill for new cables and such (despite the line literally being located 1 metre from our property), and actually called us to say they'd strictly never allow G.Network to lay cabling. They also told us they'd allow Community Fibre to lay cables however they aren't due to come for another year or so. Bizarre.

After this, we had a call from G.Network informing us that there will be a change in the law regarding this specific issue and that landlord permission wouldn't be required. He didn't elaborate further and calling/emailing the company again didn't yield anything useful, they were rather clueless about this.

I'm just wondering if anyone here is clued up on this supposed law change? We have currently been waiting for Virgin Media and Kelly to do some basic cable pulls and such for 4 months now however they are incredibly useless and suspect that we may never get VM service and VM will eventually give up, as I have read has occurred in the past.

Thank you.

In reply to a post by cedar01:

we had a call from G.Network informing us that there will be a change in the law regarding this specific issue and that landlord permission wouldn't be required. He didn't elaborate further and calling/emailing the company again didn't yield anything useful, they were rather clueless about this.

I'm personally not aware of any upcoming changes that would remove the requirement for infrastructure providers to seek permission from property owners. If its true then surely they could/should be able to point you to somewhere with more information.

Edited by deleted (Tue 01-Nov-22 23:09:38)

I think there is proposals where if the LL cannot be contacted then the default becomes allowed rather than not allowed, but in the cases LL says no it will still mean no on that proposal.

Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act ('the Act') gained Royal Assent in March 2021.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consulta...

For unresponsive landlords basically. They can still say “no”

Interesting, looks watered down, court process needed and only covers leaseholders not legal occupiers in rented properties.

It was drafted in response to the frustration network builders found getting no response (whatsoever) from property managers etc. effectively stonewalling a build.

Far from perfect, the devil still in the detail (process etc to be agreed) but a step in the right direction.

There may be bigger issues worrying the HA than the drilling of a hole, but for what it's worth, in their wayleave agreement G.network agree to make good any damage and even to indemnify the person granting the wayleave against claims made against them (as do other installation companies).

A single hole of about 20 mm diameter might be needed, sealed at each end.

20mm !! Surely it’s not water pipes but fibre they’re fitting (6-8mm diam. hole needed) 🙂

They might be thinking about having a tube that can pass a personal fibre to the inside of each individual flat in the block rather than a single fibre to a breakout box.

A single BFT is about the same diameter as a premises fibre drop cable -> about 5-6 mm O.D.