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Thread: BT phone line damaged my house; who's liable?

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  1. #1

    BT phone line damaged my house; who's liable?

    I arrived home today to find my BT line on the other side of the road, with my fascia board attached!

    Second time in a year that a lorry has snagged it. Last year openreach repaired it, but the line was right at the minimum allowable height.

    They added a bracket to my eaves to raise the line on my side by a few inches. It's that bracket, screwed through my PVC fascia board that pulled things apart today. I can only assume that the line has sagged over time again, until the right lorry caught it.

    So.... I've a fault logged and will be back online soon enough. But.... who pays for the damage to the house? Truth is, the pole across the road isn't high enough. Its ancient, and not fit to reach safely over today's freight traffic.

    Its not big money to repair, but I'll be a bit miffed if it has to come out of my pocket. Are BT/openreach liable for the damage?

  2. #2
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnnyE View Post
    Are BT/openreach liable for the damage?
    I'd hope so in the circumstances but, as usual, it's difficult to prove cause definitively in the absence of evidence (eg of sagging). I'm sure that, at the very least, they should be re-instating/replacing the line.

    Presume no one caught the offending lorry details?

  3. #3
    Grand Master Onelasttime's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by David_D View Post

    Presume no one caught the offending lorry details?
    Hardly their fault though is it?

    A few years ago we found BT digging a big hole right in front of our garden gate. When we asked them why, they said it was for a new pole as our line was too low for the garages next door. I looked at the garage gate and pointed out that the biggest vehicle able to pass under the barrier was a Transit van and the cable was way above this. They were going to carry on until my wife came out and started giving them grief.

    They opted to fit a bracket to the chimney and raised it that way. The irony is, we’ve never used a standard phone line, always had Virgin.

  4. #4
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Onelasttime View Post
    Hardly their fault though is it?
    No idea, I wasn't there.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by David_D View Post
    No idea, I wasn't there.
    A lorry hit the cable indeed.... but the cable was too low. When they put the cable there last time it snapped, it was just at the minimum allowable clearance in the centre of the road.

    Just lucky there wasn't a biker using the road before the cable was spotted. Could have ended badly.

  6. #6
    Craftsman
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnnyE View Post
    Just lucky there wasn't a biker using the road before the cable was spotted. Could have ended badly.
    Probably only if ridden by a giraffe.

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