Moving of BT line

[Arnold9801]

Due to us starting our new build at our existing address in two months time,  the JCB man came yesterday to assess/plan and pointed out that our existing BT line is a little to low. I will need to move it at asome point as it will be in the way of the new house anyway. However, the jcb man outlined this may need to be done as soonest.

 

Has anyone moved their own? Or could anyone please give me an idea on cost charged by BT for doing this. In my case the line will need to be disconnected from our existing house and shared by rotating it to an existing electrical pole. It would be terminated on the pole, and then from there a new wire run back to our existing house. I believe they do share poles with other utility firms? The line for the new house would also come from this pole. 

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Arnold9801

[Jeremy Harris]

We had to get a BT OpenReach line moved for exactly the same reason, it was too low and at risk of being damaged by one of the diggers.  It was a complete nightmare, and took several months to get resolved.  In the end I managed to get hold of the local OpenReach engineer, who was very helpful.  He dropped off cable and ducting and agreed we could lay it underground around the plot, so we didn't have any cables oversailing the plot at all.  We did this, and left the cables coiled up ready for OpenReach to connect, but they took months to come and take down the overhead wires and re-connect the new cables.  In the end we were advised that the only way to get the job done in a reasonable time frame was to have an "accident", where one of the diggers "accidentally" snagged one of the overhead wires.  We could then call the emergency helpline.  When the chaps turned up about an hour after this "accident", they took one look at the new underground cables coiled up and realised that all they had to do was connect them and remove the old overhead wires completely.

 

My advice would be to try and start negotiations with OpenReach about a year before you need the cables to be moved . . .

[Gone West]

We found out that the only operation OpenReach will carry out for nothing is an overhead line removal. We had our line removed before we demolished our old bungalow.

Edited February 4, 2020 by PeterStarck