No wayleave easement

[ClaireF]

Hi, 

I have recently moved into an old farmhouse. We bought during covid so weren’t allowed to walk around the land. The land is quite steep and the house sits in a bowl with a cliff two metres from the back of the house. The cliff is higher than the house And covered in large trees which we are going to remove for safety. The searches showed no electrical installations on the land and we didn’t see any when viewing. When we got here we walked up and found that the pole supplying several peoples (4) electricity was at the top of the cliff where it’s loose shale. The supply for others is attached to my fascia boards (rotting) all along the side of the house and then down to other properties.  None of this is shown on the searches. . I can touch the cables standing on tiptoe on my path . We then, to our horror, noticed a few metres back a large 3 phase pole with a transformer box (the big grey kind). Again on a steep slope. There is another pole with three cables further along too,  which run across the valley, that we can touch as the garden slopes upwards. We have an Emf monitor and the results are off the scale in the house. We called WPower to come to see if they will move them. They immediately offered us £2000 to leave it. We refused. They are now saying it will cost us £62k plus vat to move them as it’s too dangerous to put them further up my field as it’s on a slope!! They are happy to leave the existing on a slope and balanced on the edge of a cliff though.... if the one came down the cliff it would pull the transformer onto the house! There is no easement or wayleave. I also can’t believe that they expect us to in theory be a pylon for 4 other properties supply and have their cables tacked to my house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[Mr Punter]

Caveat Emptor springs to mind but that does not help you from where you are now. 

 

Persist with WPower.  Take photos and send them. Establish that is is dangerous as is and they have no right to run the power lines through your property.

[ClaireF]

Thanks Mr Punter,

We did check by means of paying for a power survey as I have cancer and don’t want to live next to power lines. They were very well hidden in the trees and the survey came up negative. We have already removed a few trees as we got struck by lightening a few weeks ago. They we’re growing around the small pole. Everything blew in the house. The electrics are dire. These poles are very old and probably been here for decades. We’ve checked and there has never been a wayleave even though I know they are not really transferable. They have been out and agreed it’s too close and the power lines are dangerous but now say we have to pay. I pointed out that if they remove everything then it will only cost me a fraction for a new connection as they would have to move them fairly close as there are other properties attached to it via our house. We have been fair and said they can move them to another part of the property as we have  a fair amount of land but they don’t want to unless we pay. 

[Ferdinand]

+1

 

Ask them in writing to supply you with a copy of the Wayleave or Easement.

 

With luck they will reply saying "none exists to our knowledge".

 

I think you can probably just serve notice for them to remove them, though that is not something to do without some thought first.

 

Their offer of £2000 - you have it in writing, yes? (If not, get it in writing) - is effectively an admission that there is an issue, so perhaps a glimmer of light.

 

There could also be a "dangerous installations" angle somewhere in this.

 

Just to be clear - it sounds as though someone may end up spending 5 figures.

 

F

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Ferdinand

[ClaireF]

Hi Ferdinand.

We already know there is no wayleave as we asked for a copy and they offered us Money in writing to agree to keep what is there with a new fifteen year wayleave. We refused as we don’t want to take any risks with the ancient equipment that is here. I find it very odd them saying they can’t move it as the land is steep and it’s dangerous to maintain but happy to leave the one where it is. It’s on the steepest point! The pole coming to our house and bringing all the other houses cables to me wobbles. A swift kick would knock it over bringing the transformer and cables with it. The tree against the transformer is about 30ft high! 
C 

[joe90]

@ClaireF any chance of a photo?

[Bignose2]

Little off topic but may be of some interest also when I was researching I found very little real experience of others on any of the wayleave/easement stuff.

 

I have property with 1 pole & with 3 wires at the back of my land but in view of the house. 2 other poles on my adjacent land

 

After all the usual stuff on TV & even letters, "you can claim for thousands of £'s for apparatus going across your land" I thought I would investigate.

I applied myself, very easy actually but takes a very long time for each stage.

2+ years after first enquiry I finally had an offer for an easement, this is the permanent right that goes on the deeds so has to be taken seriously.

In expensive part of surrey so actually offered £30k which covered 2 properties, this is related to a v.rough property value in my case I think close to 2 million.

The section of scrub land in between offered £150, actually about the same size and almost as close but a different title so offers are purely on value and not where or what it is.

Most legal expenses are also covered by the electricity company.

 

I guess varies depending on company & region a little. I was told by their surveyor that claim amount is purely on house value & how close to house (I think less than 50m) and what equipment. Not  how much impact there is or how it effects you as I had read elsewhere myself, so very little room for negotiation.

 

So rather than them wanting you to pay to move you could ask for payment from them & depending on above roughly work out how much.

 

Also because it was a substantial amount they did an appraisal to see if actually cheaper or better value to move the poles etc. Not sure if a delaying tactic but about 6 months later said that that was not an option, the same lines go onto other land so guess very little benefit or point I guess.

So they must have been looking at other options at their expense but again I assume only up to what they would have had to pay for easement.

 

Anyway, 3 years on from first payment ready to be made & I got cold feet. The easement contract, whilst seems very considerate to how they would approach any work they might need to do in the future is does give them a lot of rights, of course what they are paying for but gave them control over 4m (easement strip) either side of the lines (no building or tall plants, fair enough perhaps) but also what I read to mean they could do pretty much anything as long as did not need to extend the easement strip more than the 4 meters. Extremely unlikely but as far as I could tell they could put up 10 more poles, double the height and add a transformer to each without needing a wider strip. They would never need to but giving that right was a worry, more so if I ever sold on being on the deeds.

 

So not only have I not got the £30k I have a £500 bill for the solicitor that would have otherwise been covered.

I was a little annoyed, partially with myself as I only got an example of the type of contract 2 years in after the offer, If I had thought to ask on day one I do not think I would have wasted 3 years & quite a lot of emails & letters but a little surprised at the extent of power.

 

Sorry not much help for your original problem but I think anything like this might be of interest.