Electricity Company Digging up Private Drive

[uuf361]

Not sure if this belongs in SP&L (mods please feel free to move!)

I own a house (which I don't live in anymore) which has a private driveway shared with the other 4 houses in the cul-de-sac - this has never been adopted by the council (nor will it ever be).

Have just been round to see one of the tenants and the local electricity company have been digging holes in it as someone in the road somewhere had their power cut off.

They appear to have done this without the consent of any of the owners of the drive.........I completely understand that they have powers to dig up and reconnect etc as they should, but I am more concerned with how they will repair what is our private drive ?

Based on the normal standard it won't be very good and won't last long which will probably shorten the time before I (and the others in the road) have to pay to have it all resurfaced.

Of course I could be worrying unnecessarily and they could do a stunning job but just wondered what is likely to happen and what comeback on them there is if they do not complete a satisfactory job on private land ?

[King Herald]

uuf361 said:

Not sure if this belongs in SP&L (mods please feel free to move!)

I own a house (which I don't live in anymore) which has a private driveway shared with the other 4 houses in the cul-de-sac - this has never been adopted by the council (nor will it ever be).

Have just been round to see one of the tenants and the local electricity company have been digging holes in it as someone in the road somewhere had their power cut off.

They appear to have done this without the consent of any of the owners of the drive.........I completely understand that they have powers to dig up and reconnect etc as they should, but I am more concerned with how they will repair what is our private drive ?

Based on the normal standard it won't be very good and won't last long which will probably shorten the time before I (and the others in the road) have to pay to have it all resurfaced.

Of course I could be worrying unnecessarily and they could do a stunning job but just wondered what is likely to happen and what comeback on them there is if they do not complete a satisfactory job on private land ?

Ask the electric people exactly who will be responsible for returning the drive to its original pristine condition, and will they warranty their work? And also ask who gave permission for them to tear it up in the first place.

[Spiritual_Beggar]

They don't have power to dig into Private Roads. They need consent for that. Only public highways they can dig into, and they need to notify the council of this first.

[uuf361]

Mmm, interesting - so in theory they should have got consetn from those that own it prior to digging it up, i.e me!

I guess if it one of the 5 who had their power off they could have said it would be fine......it has never been dug since being laid (admittedly 10 years ago) but due to the gentle use it is still in pretty good condition......

[johnfm]

Injunction

make them squirm, if you can

I assume they need a wayleave befroe they start digging. It will cost them £10k (if I were you!)

[Swilly]

johnfm said:

Injunction

make them squirm, if you can

I assume they need a wayleave befroe they start digging. It will cost them £10k (if I were you!)

you dick !!

[SMB]

uuf361 said:

Not sure if this belongs in SP&L (mods please feel free to move!)

I own a house (which I don't live in anymore) which has a private driveway shared with the other 4 houses in the cul-de-sac - this has never been adopted by the council (nor will it ever be).

Have just been round to see one of the tenants and the local electricity company have been digging holes in it as someone in the road somewhere had their power cut off.

They appear to have done this without the consent of any of the owners of the drive.........I completely understand that they have powers to dig up and reconnect etc as they should, but I am more concerned with how they will repair what is our private drive ?

Based on the normal standard it won't be very good and won't last long which will probably shorten the time before I (and the others in the road) have to pay to have it all resurfaced.

Of course I could be worrying unnecessarily and they could do a stunning job but just wondered what is likely to happen and what comeback on them there is if they do not complete a satisfactory job on private land ?

Just a thought worth considering before you go in too strong, if this is on your property, it may be argued by them that the fault in in a section of cable you own, and that to correct it they could bill you? Admittedly they should have sought your permission first.

[Swilly]

It is usually the case that the Elec provider owns the apparatus up to the property (i.e. in the street) and that the homeowner owns the local supply apparatus into the property.

It is likely the company has been given permission or apparent permission by another homeowner or tenant.

My advice would be to speak to them in a civil manner, enquire as to why they are there, ask how they will reinstate etc etc

Be civil because there is no reason not to be... and if you want this issue to come to a natural and low stress conclusion.

If you want to be a dick, cause yourself grief and stretch this out, then take the advice of Mr Dick in the 3rd previous message to this...

Edited by Swilly on Tuesday 21st April 16:01

[johnfm]

Swilly said:

johnfm said:

Injunction

make them squirm, if you can

I assume they need a wayleave befroe they start digging. It will cost them £10k (if I were you!)

you dick !!

I have been so royally shafted by electric, water and gas companies that I woul dpay to have them over a barrel - especially if they have already dug holes and interrupted some services.

I had delays of 10 months for services to be put into a new build. It has cost me tens of thousands of pounds (missed the market before the crash) and I have no legal recourse.

I do not like utilities companies very much!

[uuf361]

SMB said:

uuf361 said:

Not sure if this belongs in SP&L (mods please feel free to move!)

I own a house (which I don't live in anymore) which has a private driveway shared with the other 4 houses in the cul-de-sac - this has never been adopted by the council (nor will it ever be).

Have just been round to see one of the tenants and the local electricity company have been digging holes in it as someone in the road somewhere had their power cut off.

They appear to have done this without the consent of any of the owners of the drive.........I completely understand that they have powers to dig up and reconnect etc as they should, but I am more concerned with how they will repair what is our private drive ?

Based on the normal standard it won't be very good and won't last long which will probably shorten the time before I (and the others in the road) have to pay to have it all resurfaced.

Of course I could be worrying unnecessarily and they could do a stunning job but just wondered what is likely to happen and what comeback on them there is if they do not complete a satisfactory job on private land ?

Just a thought worth considering before you go in too strong, if this is on your property, it may be argued by them that the fault in in a section of cable you own, and that to correct it they could bill you? Admittedly they should have sought your permission first.

Having dug up the hole in the shared drive - that did not rectify the problem so they have now dug a hole (again without the permission of the council) on the adopted highway and got the supply reconnecetd so I guess they'd find it hard to argue that it was on our bit of the land

[jesta1865]

mention of a wayleave is right if its private then you have to sign one, and if its shared, i am lead to believe that it should be co-signed by all co-owners.

if they have just assumed its a normal road, i think you have a cause for complaint.

[uuf361]

I have now spoken to the council (who knew nothing of what was going on and are concerned as a hole is now on the public path/road) and also called the utility company in question.

I was very polite and just asked if they knew it was a private driveway and what happens now as it will look rather bad backfilled etc.

They have taken my details and promised to call back.

I now believe that one of the 5 in the cul-de-sac was without power which may lessen any impact as no doubt they would have asked for power to be restored, but as we are jointly liable for the drive then not sure how that would stand.......

Will wait to see what happens.

[cqueen]

I'm pretty sure utilities have the right to maintain their equipment regardless of who owns the land it's on.

[uuf361]

cqueen said:

I'm pretty sure utilities have the right to maintain their equipment regardless of who owns the land it's on.

Yep, I expect you're absolutley right, here it might be more the question of reinstating it to the way it was before and at least letting someone know they were going to do it (as this does not appear to have been an emergency)

[Jasandjules]

Spiritual_Beggar said:

They don't have power to dig into Private Roads. They need consent for that. Only public highways they can dig into, and they need to notify the council of this first.

I think they do. They can also, with permission (of the Authority), wander into your garden and erect a nice electricity pole if they need to..........

You see, you don't "own" your private lane, the Queen allows you to have it.

BUT I do believe they are required to make good any works (that means returning it to the condition it was in before they started digging.

[Swilly]

As i said previously it is generally the case that the utility apparatus supplying a property and located on that property is the responsibility of and owned by the property owner.
The utility company owns and maintains the apparatus in the street, off which your domestic supply comes.

If a utility company wishes to put utility apparatus through private property which is on the proposed route of the apparatus for whatever reason, then they will often obtain an easement which gives them rights to enter the private property for the business of maintaining etc the apparatus.
Typically in urban areas this will be the case if there is an electricity substation in a building basement or a large sewer running through a property, generally any major utility apparatus, distibution type apparatus as opposed to domestic supply stuff.

Put it this way, if i were the utility company in question and i got a load of grief from the homeowenrs on this private road, I would stop work, reinstate and leave it.
The home owner without the power would then be left to get a contractor to fix the problem, dig the road up, reinstate it at £000's cost and then neighbourly feelings on this little cul-de-sac would go down the toilet.

[x type]

Swilly said:

As i said previously it is generally the case that the utility apparatus supplying a property and located on that property is the responsibility of and owned by the property owner.
The utility company owns and maintains the apparatus in the street, off which your domestic supply comes.


Put it this way, if i were the utility company in question and i got a load of grief from the homeowenrs on this private road, I would stop work, reinstate and leave it.
The home owner without the power would then be left to get a contractor to fix the problem, dig the road up, reinstate it at £000's cost and then neighbourly feelings on this little cul-de-sac would go down the toilet.

Not 100% true

The electricity company owns the cable all the way to the main fuse in an external cabinet or inside the house alongside the meter ,Unless it's a fairly new development with a contested cable lay where the developer had their own contractor to lay and joint supply cable inside the development themselves

Normally the electricity company would then only connect the developers cable to their own near the boundary of the site , this happened not far from me about 4 years ago in a new development of 30 houses ,only 20 were sold , once completed the developer is supposed to pay over a certain amount to allow for repairs .

The developer went bust , cable faulted supplying 5 out of 20 homes , 5 out of 20 homes had to pay for the repairs as it's a private network

If this isn't the case where the op is talking about ,the company has a right to excavate to repair the cable as they have a duty to supply each home and if that home is off longer than 18 hours ,all he.l can break loose with the governing electricity regulator ,the digging in the private land was probably for a cut and test to see how far down the cable the supply was still o.k. ,then they have to work back along the cable until the fault is found

Reinstatement should be to as good a standard as was originally there and guaranteed for 5 years . Normally we do a courtesy call to landowners (if we can find them ) explaining what is happening

We also inform the council of works on public land within 2 hours of starting work on a fault in daytime or first thing in the morning if a fault occurs at night

[NDA]

uuf361 said:

They have taken my details and promised to call back.

Keep us posted - I own a fair bit of land (including driveways) with both electricity, phone and water services supplying various properties, I'm always interested to hear how individual cases are treated.

[uuf361]

In this case it seems they have started work on the public highway also without consenting or getting permission from the council either......

Should they have wanted to seek permission it would not have been difficult to find me - I live only a mile away and the tenant in my house (who is there most of the time and certainly when they started digging at 8 on Saturday morning) has my number

I'm not saying at all they shouldn't have done it as obviously getting someone's power back on is very important, but more that they should have asked (even if out of courtesy) as it is private land and that they should be required to put it back the way they found it (almost impossible as it will look so out of place having a big patch of new 'tarmac' in the middle) so that I am not faced with extra costs through no fault of my own.

[AstonZagato]

I had this recently - an electricity company dug up my driveway. Didn't ask permission and I was concerned. I went and had a jovial word with the workmen. They repaired it to a high standard. I was happy.