Phone Mast Tribunal Threat

[Still Farming]

Government insisting on broadband rollout everywhere so only time until they force themselves on your blackspot land possibly and give you a pittance for it?

 

[cornishfarmer]

Had the letter today saying that mine is up for renewal any advice on an agent to go through? Can see they will try to bully me into taking a rent reduction. Currently on £4k/year ish. Advice of how people got on in the past would be appreciated

 

[lazy farmer]

£4 ?

 

[Kidds]

£4k I assume.
You can either get an agent and make them pay for the agent or tell them if they don't pay they can remove the mast (which they might do)

 

[Big_D]

Keen to hear others experience on the thread, we are currently in "discussions" over our mast lease. Someone pointed out not to cave in, get an agent and they are liable for the fees. The snag is that there is a cap on the agents fees they are obliged to pay. I can't remember the figure, I think its circa 3k. They've now reached that with our agent and they know that and have turned up the pressure accordingly. We now have an option, we can give in and accept the lower rent (which is actually a good offer compared to what other people are being offered, but still only around 33% of previous) or we can continue to pay our agent out our own pocket, been told this will be 3 to 4k in the first instance, with no guarantee of being successful or being able to reclaim fees if we are. Father wants to accept offer, I want to tell them to take it away. My main objection is the fact the engineers have to drive through our cattle handling pens to access it and they also frequently need directions and some get lost/stuck in fields. My first thought is wether they had compulsory powers to retain the site However in our favour, is tha fact that moving the mast 20m in one of 2 directions, would put it onto one of 2 different neighbours land, with only slightly lower elevation. What are others thoughts on ability to have it removed?

 

[bazzer]

Keen to hear others experience on the thread, we are currently in "discussions" over our mast lease. Someone pointed out not to cave in, get an agent and they are liable for the fees. The snag is that there is a cap on the agents fees they are obliged to pay. I can't remember the figure, I think its circa 3k. They've now reached that with our agent and they know that and have turned up the pressure accordingly. We now have an option, we can give in and accept the lower rent (which is actually a good offer compared to what other people are being offered, but still only around 33% of previous) or we can continue to pay our agent out our own pocket, been told this will be 3 to 4k in the first instance, with no guarantee of being successful or being able to reclaim fees if we are. Father wants to accept offer, I want to tell them to take it away. My main objection is the fact the engineers have to drive through our cattle handling pens to access it and they also frequently need directions and some get lost/stuck in fields. My first thought is wether they had compulsory powers to retain the site However in our favour, is tha fact that moving the mast 20m in one of 2 directions, would put it onto one of 2 different neighbours land, with only slightly lower elevation. What are others thoughts on ability to have it removed?

I caught a bloke trespassing on or farm last yr taking photos, when approached and told him where to go he said he was from the mast people looking for new sights I said I wasn't interested and he left ,months down the line and as I only rent the land the owner was forced into letting them on to the farm to survey for planning as they now have new laws to do this even though the owner is not interested either ,the plans have been put in and we are now fighting against it with help of near locals ,it seems that you just have no choice in the matter at all and we are now left fighting to get rid of it , there is next to nothing payment for it either

 

[davedb]

These cordless 9 inch angle grinders are supposed to be good....

 

[Brisel]

I caught a bloke trespassing on or farm last yr taking photos, when approached and told him where to go he said he was from the mast people looking for new sights I said I wasn't interested and he left ,months down the line and as I only rent the land the owner was forced into letting them on to the farm to survey for planning as they now have new laws to do this even though the owner is not interested either ,the plans have been put in and we are now fighting against it with help of near locals ,it seems that you just have no choice in the matter at all and we are now left fighting to get rid of it , there is next to nothing payment for it either

You've been misinformed. They have no such rights of access. Your landlord needs to take legal advice, though it won't make a lot of difference.

 

[Brisel]

Had the letter today saying that mine is up for renewal any advice on an agent to go through? Can see they will try to bully me into taking a rent reduction. Currently on £4k/year ish. Advice of how people got on in the past would be appreciated

Stall them. The existing agreement rolls forward at the previous rent level until a new one is agreed. You have nothing to lose by drawing the process out unless they decide you're the test case which is unlikely. I don't know any telecoms specialists in your part of the world but the bigger agents will have them.

 

[cornishfarmer]

Update. Letter today offering £400/year rent

 

[Brisel]

Update. Letter today offering £400/year rent

I would take professional advice on this before agreeing to it.

 

[cornishfarmer]

I would take professional advice on this before agreeing to it.

Yes will be, If I can get them out I will for that

 

[PSQ]

Update. Letter today offering £400/year rent

See post #8. Sign nothing, expect the existing rental agreement to roll over by ‘tacit renewal’ and check the original rent level is paid on time.
£400 per year is just taking the p!$$, no more than corporate theft.

 

[Happy hillbily]

Anyone else getting letters off an investment company wanting to buy their mast site lease ?
My late father has been getting letters every few months asking for him to contact them. I'm not thinking of selling, as I quite like getting rent paid into my account every year.

 

[Filthyfarmer]

£400 is a joke!!

Have just got up to date on my mast payments.

I got a 20 yr lease with Orange in 2005.
Half a mile from road, laid temporary track to put mast up, electricity transformer put on nearest pole, got it all commissioned and humming away but never went live.
Orange was bought out by EE and in 2010 they said they were going to decommission the site as not needed. More trackway laid to get equipment out , especially the 100t foundation block of concrete!

They paid on the lease for a few more years , then I had an invoice from them for 3 years rent to pay back.
They obviously hadn't read the lease agreement that well!

Got 6 years back rent plus interest and rent review increases last month thanks to a land agent that wouldn't let it go when I had pretty much given up.

They were going to pay to get out of the remainder of the lease but changed their mind in the end so it will be up for negotiation in a year or two.

I will watch this thread with interest.

 

[Kidds]

Anyone else getting letters off an investment company wanting to buy their mast site lease ?
My late father has been getting letters every few months asking for him to contact them. I'm not thinking of selling, as I quite like getting rent paid into my account every year.

Yes, and took them up on it.
Paid 10 years rent to buy it off us. Don't know if it was a good deal if you look back in 10 years but we also sold the farm it is on. It suited us and if rents go down to 10% as in this thread we won out.

 

[PSQ]

I think its circa 3k. They've now reached that with our agent and they know that and have turned up the pressure accordingly. We now have an option, we can give in and accept the lower rent (which is actually a good offer compared to what other people are being offered, but still only around 33% of previous) or we can continue to pay our agent out our own pocket, been told this will be 3 to 4k in the first instance, with no guarantee of being successful or being able to reclaim fees if we are.

You have a third option: get your agent to write a letter to the phone operator saying that you have stated your case for long enough, they know your position and when they are ready or need to change the terms for the mast (heightening, or adding 4g/5g etc, sharing) and have to come to the table they can increase the rent or leave.
If they want to leave they can either take away their site (at huge cost) or they can pay you £10,000 to leave the concrete base in situ.
If they're taking it away, you should remind them you'll have a man on site to watch each of the concrete filled foundation piles dug out of 20 plus feet of soil, and you expect full reinstatement of the site.

Also, tell your agent to stop the clock. He's racked up enough billed hours on the job without success, another few grand wont improve the situation, it sounds like he already knows he's just invoicing for wasted time and headed note paper.

Under your current agreement they have to carry on paying the existing rent, even out of contract. So you don't have to sign anything. The ball's in their court, it's not your problem if they want to squeal like a pig in an attempt to scare you into signing.
From now on all you need to say is "Pay the *full* rent, or leave; just don't waste my time with your whining and bullsh!t" ?

 

[Hooby Farmer]

£400 is a joke!!

Have just got up to date on my mast payments.

I got a 20 yr lease with Orange in 2005.
Half a mile from road, laid temporary track to put mast up, electricity transformer put on nearest pole, got it all commissioned and humming away but never went live.
Orange was bought out by EE and in 2010 they said they were going to decommission the site as not needed. More trackway laid to get equipment out , especially the 100t foundation block of concrete!

They paid on the lease for a few more years , then I had an invoice from them for 3 years rent to pay back.
They obviously hadn't read the lease agreement that well!

Got 6 years back rent plus interest and rent review increases last month thanks to a land agent that wouldn't let it go when I had pretty much given up.

They were going to pay to get out of the remainder of the lease but changed their mind in the end so it will be up for negotiation in a year or two.

I will watch this thread with interest.

o2 had a site for a mast leased of us for 12years and never put one up.

 

[Steevo]

Anyone else getting letters off an investment company wanting to buy their mast site lease ?
My late father has been getting letters every few months asking for him to contact them. I'm not thinking of selling, as I quite like getting rent paid into my account every year.

AP Wireless?

 

[Steevo]

o2 had a site for a mast leased of us for 12years and never put one up.

I think we had similar, but only for a couple of years.