BT underground phone cable, who's responsible.......?

[Ceri]

Looking for people's thoughts..... Going to erect a new fence & there's an underground phone cable that supplies 3 properties that basically follows the fence line all the way for 250ish mtrs.. I'm very confident we're going to end up going through the dam thing when we knock the piles/posts in as it's not in the ground very deep....... When BT have to come out to repair it who's going to have to foot the bill myself or BT.............???

 

[Steevo]

That probably depends a bit whether they have permission to have the cable there and whether it is buried as it should have been.

 

[Ceri]

The whole thing seems such a grey area....... No one can really give me an answer.....!!????

 

[melted welly]

Maybe you didnt know it was there, as it’s unmarked, and you receive no payment for it crossing your land....

 

[Ceri]

Maybe you didnt know it was there, as it’s unmarked, and you receive no payment for it crossing your land....

Mm I do know its there and it's marked down on the wayleave agreement..... Bloody nightmare.....

 

[Kidds]

If it's not very deep just get a metal detector and mark its route. Then just don't knock a post through it.

 

[B'o'B]

We dug through a BT cable putting a water pipe in last year. Rang BT and they repaired it FOC.
my theory is- if you know where the faults is on their cable, when you tell them they are very happy, because otherwise it could take them an age to fault find and they might need to pay for any additional damage done trying to find a fault.
if you are friendlywith the potentially effected properties call them after each post is put in and if you can’t get hold of them mark the post as a problem.

 

[B'o'B]

Also if they ever try to charge you for a repair check how deep the cable needs to be according to the wayleave. If the cable was not at this depth (which appears most aren’t) just tell them to go away, because the cable wasn’t deep enough, they won’t have a leg to stand on.

 

[vinnie123]

Borrow a cat scanner for a few hours , you should be able to mark it up within 6”

 

[Ollie.mclean]

Borrow a cat scanner for a few hours , you should be able to mark it up within 6”

I always use CAT scanner and genny on BT cables and it works pretty well. Can get a good second hand kit for what I'm sure would cost less than the bill and aggravation caused if it was hit. Handy for picking up any underground electric as well, that would be a whole different story if hit! BT cables seem to be the worse for not being put into correct depth but have come across mains electric coming down from an overhead line going to a transformer. It was less than 6" below the surface and no marking tape on top.

 

[Top Tip.]

I remember rotavating along the side of a field and chewing and pulling up about 100 metres of BT cable. They came out and sorted it FOC as it wasn’t buried deep enough. What a job I had getting it out of the rotavator.

 

[Steevo]

I remember rotavating along the side of a field and chewing and pulling up about 100 metres of BT cable. They came out and sorted it FOC as it wasn’t buried deep enough. What a job I had getting it out of the rotavator.

Could have asked BT to help you out…..

 

[som farmer]

we have one, put in 40 yrs ago, not marked, put in when l was at college, so exact route a rough guess, hit it 4 times now, l point out it's not marked, and they have not billed me. Interestingly, we hit it last year, they brought a map out, showing the route, never seen that before, and a major different route on the last 500m, to where l thought it was !

 

[Cowabunga]

BT should send an Openreach contractor out to mark the cable route for you, using a scanner to locate it underground.

 

[matthew]

I always use CAT scanner and genny on BT cables and it works pretty well. Can get a good second hand kit for what I'm sure would cost less than the bill and aggravation caused if it was hit. Handy for picking up any underground electric as well, that would be a whole different story if hit! BT cables seem to be the worse for not being put into correct depth but have come across mains electric coming down from an overhead line going to a transformer. It was less than 6" below the surface and no marking tape on top.

This happened to us trenching a solar cable in. The BT line is on poles until it gets to the paddock the scoots underground. Unmarked and only 6-12” deep. No warning tape. We were unaware it was underground.
BT or Openreach put a joiner on it and also mentioned payment. Substantial payment.
We’d photographed it, the lack of warning tape and a good deal less than the required depth.

We heard no more.

BT should send an Openreach contractor out to mark the cable route for you, using a scanner to locate it underground.

 

[som farmer]

we have one, unmarked, went in 30 yrs ago ? hit the cable 4 times now, they come out and repair, never had a bill yet. The last time, they actually brought out a map, showing it's route, good job they did, nowhere near were we thought the route was. Other wise we would have had more 'hits', it's on the opposite side of our farm quarry, to where we thought, the other plus, stone we were leaving, because of the cable, is much better for the tracks !

 

[nick...]

They are never very deep but should be ducted in 50mm round grey tubing.ive seen them just laid on the ground and even hung in the hedge,infact there is one within half a mile like this.ive even ploughed em out of the ground before too.if cables are not installed to BT spec it can hardly be your fault if damaging them
nick...

 

[Ryan774-80]

Ripped one mole ploughing going to a holiday home, no bill came here. Holiday makers from the USA probably weren’t that impressed with no internet for a week.