Mobile phone mast contract

wr.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Breconshire
Hi wr. I could not find you pm, could you kindly re sent please?
Many thanks

I've sent it again. It was a resistor on the circuit board which stopped you controlling the bed speed. Sent it to DK who put it right. The machine is now for sale, in good condition and working perfectly.
 

fermerboy

Member
Location
Banffshire
I've a Vodafone mast here on £4250/r, lease negotiated 2 yrs ago.

We bought it over when we took over the farm and it was on £2500 then, so when the lease renewal came up we got it up to a what I felt was a good level. Used an agent and he reckoned that was as good as it was going to get.
I have a neighbour who has a O2 mast (which site share with Voda) less than a mile away, so I wasn't wanting to lose it altogether, they did originally offer very low and threatened to decommision. Ours has a fibre optic to the telecoms infrastructure along the roadside which maybe helps them wanting to keep it.
Same neighbour tells me has managed to get just over £5k/yr for his :(:(
Also have a new land agent who assures me that "he could have got more out of them"for mine but thats easy to say after the event.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
:sneaky:
We've a decomissioned mast on our land, does anybody have any experience finding a new operator/tenant?
You might have missed a trick.
Our original lease states that the site must be returned to its original state when they vacate. When their agents got ‘arsey’ and demanded a 50% reduction in rent we told them to take their mast away, and remove the 2m thick heavily reinforced concrete plinth and multiple 7m concrete filled piles out, or they could leave it in place for a £10k ‘consideration’.
We then refused to negotiate with them until they offered to raise rents in line with the original agreement. 2 years later they dropped their bluff and were suddenly desperate to renegotiate to add 4G and a 2nd operator to the mast; so rent went up to £5.2k “upward only rent review”, not the £1600 they had demanded (y)
The excellent 4G signal around the farm is the cherry on top.
 
Last edited:
We've a decomissioned mast on our land, does anybody have any experience finding a new operator/tenant?
Well it’s been decommissioned for a reason. If another operator came along and if you now own the mast you can charge a market rent. It really depends on location, you might get a local wi fi ISP to rent some space.
Also if wind turbines become feasible again it could be a potential site as there an elec supply.
The mobile Operator s do have offered site e mail addresses so you could try but I think success could be limited.
 

Rubixcube

New Member
:sneaky:
You might have missed a trick.
Our original lease states that the site must be returned to its original state when they vacate. When their agents got ‘arsey’ and demanded a 50% reduction in rent we told them to take their mast away, and remove the 2m thick heavily reinforced concrete plinth and multiple 7m concrete filled piles out, or they could leave it in place for a £10k ‘consideration’.
We then refused to negotiate with them until they offered to raise rents in line with the original agreement. 2 years later they dropped their bluff and were suddenly desperate to renegotiate to add 4G and a 2nd operator to the mast; so rent went up to £5.2k “upward only rent review”, not the £1600 they had demanded (y)
The excellent 4G signal around the farm is the cherry on top.

Already been through similar and had similar results by calling their bluff. Unfortunately the site was eventually decommissioned due to operator ceasing trading.

Well it’s been decommissioned for a reason. If another operator came along and if you now own the mast you can charge a market rent. It really depends on location, you might get a local wi fi ISP to rent some space.
Also if wind turbines become feasible again it could be a potential site as there an elec supply.
The mobile Operator s do have offered site e mail addresses so you could try but I think success could be limited.

As above, site was decommissioned due to operator ceasing trading. Agree that finding another tenant could be limited which is why I was asking if anyone had any experience here. Anyway I've had several interested parties contact me after conducting some basic research myself so we'll see.
 

mawleymoos

Member
Location
Shropshire
Hi all! we have a mast on quite a good rental! however the lease is up for renewal, and they are offering us a lot less that we were on, with no real negotiation! is it right that these companies have the upper hand now, and can call the shots! or are we being told porkies? i believe we cannot even tell them to take it away due to the government prioritizing the mast companies and infrastructure over farmers and rent! (well that is a surprise isn't it!)
 

carbonfibre farmer

Member
Arable Farmer
Yes this is the case.
I think the trick is to keep stalling so you remain on your old rental terms before they force it down massively.
We have a tetraband mast here for the emergency services. Gone from around 4ish k to about 1.5k. I'd have to check the actual figure, it may be less 😔

There was threads on here related to the changes that came about.

Iirc, @Steevo commented on the changes and was reasonably well up with them?
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Hi all! we have a mast on quite a good rental! however the lease is up for renewal, and they are offering us a lot less that we were on, with no real negotiation! is it right that these companies have the upper hand now, and can call the shots! or are we being told porkies? i believe we cannot even tell them to take it away due to the government prioritizing the mast companies and infrastructure over farmers and rent! (well that is a surprise isn't it!)
Yes this is the case.
I think the trick is to keep stalling so you remain on your old rental terms before they force it down massively.
We have a tetraband mast here for the emergency services. Gone from around 4ish k to about 1.5k. I'd have to check the actual figure, it may be less 😔

There was threads on here related to the changes that came about.

Iirc, @Steevo commented on the changes and was reasonably well up with them?

I'm not sure if I'm the best person to comment, but you're both right about it all as far as I'm aware having just been through the whole process.

As I'm told, you pretty much don't have a leg to stand on.

As above, best to do nothing for as long as possible within reason - that's what I was advised to keep the rent flowing at the old rate for as long as possible. There is a formal notice that they must serve on you before steps go any further. Laughably they seem to have a budget for issuing these and once that's used up the legal teams stop and end up waiting for the next tranche of funding!

Once that notice is issued, there is a formal process involved, and a window for negotiations. If that window expires, they have rights to be able to force things upon you much more.

In our case there was a bonus payment available for completion by a certain date which bumped things up a bit - it made sense to take it because there's no further gain by holding out longer once the notice is issued, especially because when the window expires they can walk all over you even more.

Get a good agent who specialises in masts and you'll be as best placed as you can be - don't use the guys that run the local market for example.

They will pay a contribution to agent and legal costs up to a ceiling. In our case it was short by a small margin so we had to chip in with a few hundred extra.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Thanks for your comments and the links to other threads that I hadn’t seen! It looks like I was told the reality! Just didn’t want to believe it!

It doesn't sound believable I'll admit. It's certainly not fair.

Another one of those things that if the public were treated the way farmers are they would not be happy at all.
 

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