removal of network point in house

I've purchased a new house and want the fibre broadband access/network point that is on the wall in the lounge moved. Rather than doing this myself I contacted the ISP who are advising that the previous owners of the house agreed to their terms and conditions of business that state that the point must remain. The ISP have said that I can pay them to move the point. They are also claiming the it is considered criminal damage if I remove their property - i.e. the access/network point. I welcome anyones thoughts regarding this

What network is this - Openreach, Virgin cable or a fibre AltNet?

The “criminal damage” thing is their ever so blunt way of saying please don’t screw up our network…

At the end of the day it’s your house and you can have things moved where you reasonably want - although it could cost you to have them effect the changes - that’s fair enough.

Can you share some more information, is it full fibre? is it Openreach's network or Virgin or an alternative network? are there any other providers you could use instead of them so you could remove rather than move their kit?

General question for others: the contract the previous owners signed with the provider does it bind the new owner to that contract as well?

It would be binding if it were a wayleave agreement, but that should have come up in the checks done as part of the purchase.

ISPs that install physical infrastructure like a fibre cable and CSP etc. to your property would be well within their rights to do the first install "free" as part of the order process, but if that equipment is removed and the work needs doing again then I don't think it's unreasonable to charge for it.

What is the outcome that you want? I don't see why the provider in question should move the installation free of charge just because that's what the new occupier of a house would prefer. If you just want it out the way then remove it yourself, I'm not sure any claims of criminal damage would hold up.

The criminal damage is piffle basically.

After an absent “install” by Virgin Media’s contractors (have a guess) on my newly renovated home in London, I was outraged to find that they had ignored all plans and advice to use the newly installed swept tee and UG conduit - specifically installed - to run a new drop cable into the premises….

So yeah (perhaps red mist descended a touch) but the garden shears came out and I promptly cut out everything from the Toby laid in my garden bed and put it all in the bin.

Let’s just say VM and I came to a settlement which involved them paying me money rather than the other way around.

Whoever originally consented to the equipment being fitted where it is, basically that consent endures through changes of ownership of the property, if you remove it yourself, then obviously you won’t be able to use it and should you or a different owner/occupiers want service over that network at some point in the future, it will be more complicated and potentially costly to get it back into service.
No one will come and check if you remove it yourself, TBH if it’s an ONT and you remove power to it , they cannot come along and tell you to plug it back in , but if what you really want is the network provider to move it ,to a position more convenient for your own purposes, that’s going to be chargeable work, it won’t be done for ‘free’ , why would it ?

Edited by Iniltous (Sat 08-Oct-22 12:51:54)

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

Whoever originally consented to the equipment being fitted where it is, basically that consent endures through changes of ownership of the property

Is that consent legally binding? when the provider is saying things like below it seems somewhat heavy handed.

In reply to a post by memphisshades:

They are also claiming it is considered criminal damage if I remove their property

If the provider wants the new owner's business, then a bit of flexibility is required in my opinion.

I suppose it would be needlessly expensive and fundamentally poor judgment to pursue something like this in court , claiming that it would constitute ‘criminal damage’ is pure hyperbole, (when it comes to something as trivial as the location of an ONT ) , the consent enduring through change of ownership is pretty much common practice, but someone removing something like that ( which was entirely for that consumers benefit ) is not worth the effort to pursue legally, even if there was consent for it being there.
It is somewhat different to ( for example) a landowner purchasing land that has a cell site legally sited , and running a JCB through it , simply because they disagreed with its placement , obviously these things should be pointed out when purchasing , that would be a prima facie case of criminal damage

TBH , I’m sure there have been some posts on here , from customers of some Alt Nets asked to sign agreements that specifically disallow the customer from ever asking for the equipment removal
I know on new builds with an Openreach ONT fitted, that the contract with the developer that allowed for its ONT provision, requires the developer to make it a contractual condition of purchase when they sell the plot, but I doubt a conveyance solicitor would bother pointing something as trivial out

Edited by Iniltous (Sat 08-Oct-22 15:20:49)

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

I suppose it would be needlessly expensive and fundamentally poor judgment to pursue something like this in court

It's pure piffle / hyperbole / nonsense. No operator in their right mind would even consider taking a customer any sort of court in the land for "criminal damage" for moving or removing a copper pair, fibre cable or coax that served only that customer on their own property.

This is really just utter nonsense spouted by those that get told what to say on a scripted call.

In reply to a post by memphisshades:

The ISP have said that I can pay them to move the point.

That's both reasonable and standard. It's the same if you want your Openreach copper master socket moved: you pay your ISP, and your ISP pays Openreach. It's a standard chargeable item in Openreach's pricelist to do this work - £89.04+VAT. The price charged by the ISP to the end customer may different though, depending on whether the ISP decides to apply a markup or to swallow some of the cost.

Whether agreements made by previous owners are binding on the new owner I have no idea (IANAL), but the solution here seems to be simple: if you want service from this ISP then you can either take it in the location where they've already installed it, or you can pay them to move it.

I would expect the cost to be comparable to the Openreach price I just quoted, so if it's significantly more than £100 you could argue it's unreasonable, and give the OR pricing as a benchmark.