Now unserviceable

[Juliet4827]

I have been with virgin for 15 years my cable was placed from a neighbouring property across the road with all permissions given.  A new neighbour moved in sometime ago and wants the cable off his property.  Virgin are saying  as my house is in the corner down a pathway that my property is now unserviceable and they will confirm this shortly.  Customer service keep sending technicians with a spade as don’t seem to understand it’s a concrete car park.  Virgin media complaints not responding to me.  Advice please I work from home and have all my services with virgin.  

[goslow]

What was the nature of the agreement with the former neighbour? An informal one based on neighbourly goodwill, which allowed you to connect to VM, or was there some kind of legal documentation drawn up for the cable to be installed?

Whether or not VM will reconnect you in a different way is likely to be a case of 'effort vs. reward' for VM. If the route for a new cable involves digging up a concrete car park, that is likely to be a lot of effort (expense for VM) for insufficient reward as far as VM is concerned.

[Juliet4827]

There is a way leave agreement in place which means the new owners (I say new but been there 8 years) we’re aware of this when they purchased the property. 

[jbrennand]

How exactly is your property connected to the network - presumably by a cable from the neighbours wall omnibox ?  Where does the cable go from there?  Where does it exit their property ?  Do you have a VM wall omnibox it goes to?

I am no Tech but there may be a way of splicing the cables together and maintaining the connection.

A VM person will comment soon.

[Sephiroth]

You can get this checked, but a wayleave agreement expires when a new house owner takes possession.  In this sense, we're talking about your tap point on the VM splitter that is/was on the neighbour's wall.  When/if VM remove that wall box (which is a silly thing for the neighbour to do) your cable will be spare and anything can happen to it, though it'll remain underground under whatever wayleave was needed for that route.

In short, any wayleave signed by the previous house owner has expired.  You're stuffed unless it's not to late to persuade the neighbour not to do this.

[Roger_Gooner]

The wayleave is still in force and will only expire once VM has stopped operating. The new neighbour has no right to get the cable off his property.

[jpeg1]

If a wayleave has been agreed it should have been recorded in the Land Registry, which you can check online for £3. If so it remains valid regardless of change of ownership. If it's not there then the new owner can certainly remove the cables. 

Utilities won't invest money on an installation if the property owner could sell up a month later and the new owner wants it out.

Having said that, Virginmedia will always do what's easiest and cheapest for them, so you'd be advised to look for a replacement service. 

[Sephiroth]

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@Roger_Gooner wrote:

The wayleave is still in force and will only expire once VM has stopped operating. The new neighbour has no right to get the cable off his property.

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The previous owner of the house cannot bind any succeeding owner in this context.

The VM agreement can be found at chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/pdf/help-and-support/singleaccessagreementexample.pdf

Although §9 states:

"This agreement is binding. You cannot cancel, amend or alter it without our written permission, except as stated in the code."

clearly, the existing owner is not a party to that agreement.  The present owner would not be the party cancelling the agreement which has thus lapsed.

[goslow]

@Juliet4827

Do you know the reason for the neighbour's objection to the cable after it has been there for 8+ years?

It is often the case, reported on here, that a shoddy-from-day-one VM installation from yester-year gradually falls into disrepair and the homeowner wants rid of it if they are no longer using the connection.

If the reason for removal was something along those lines, would there be any prospect of the neighbour agreeing to have the installation improved by VM and allow you to carry on using the connection or have they made clear they want rid of it come what may?

[Roger_Gooner · Accepted solution]

Seph,

Here is the agreement.

https://store.virginmedia.com/content/dam/eSales/networkexpansion/Wayleave/access_agreement.pdf 

Para 10 states: "This agreement will remain in force from the date written above for the whole period during which we are an operator (as defined in the code)."