Virgin Media Community

[dcweather]

The management company for the flat owned by my sister, who lives abroad, are saying that they require £100 fee to decide whether we can install VM Broadband to her ground floor owned (leasehold) flat. They say that it is not a fee for permission and have apparently refused permission for others in the same block or made them remove them if they didn't have permission. They asking me to send photographs of the box, any cables and any groundwork. Of course they full well exactly what is required.

Can they really refuse in this day and age? The Government has just brought out a paper with targets to get 95% and 100% of the Country connected by 2025.

To me this is an unbelievably Luddite approach and the same as stopping somebody having gas or electric connected 50 years ago!

[goslow]

Paying them £100, for something they have refused in the past, seems like a rather optimistic waste of money.

The building owners will be seeking to avoid unnecessary damage to the building or grounds. Some of the worst examples of VM's installation work which pop up in photos on here are truly terrible so the building owners may be seeking to avoid this possibility happening.

Also, granting a right of access to install a cable to the property is also likely to involve future legal rights of access for VM for maintenance purposes which again the building owners will probably be seeking to avoid.

Plenty to potentially benefit the leaseholders from installing a VM cable, probably not so much for the freeholders of the building.

As for whether you have any legal 'right' of access to install new services, you'd probably have to seek legal advice on that.

[Roger_Gooner]

A landlord is quite entitled to refuse permission to have a hole drilled through an external wall and possibly an internal wall or floor. I think it's always best to see if you can get into a dialogue about this as a reasonable landlord should be fine about this once fully informed. If the landlord is unreasonable then this may prompt tenants to buy the freehold.

[dcweather]

Thank you. I am inclined to not give them the pleasure of taking my money and then refusing at this stage. I may try and contact the Landlord directly explaining benefits. Also perhaps talk to the other tenants in the block and perhaps send a collective letter. Of course if they are completely unreasonable we have the right to change the management Company.