Can Eir replace telephone pole in our garden?

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sams1

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There is an Eir telephone pole in our garden, which serves about 8 neighbouring houses. The pole was already in the garden since we purchased the house.

Eir has declared that the pole is old and no longer safe and they want to replace it. We would prefer not to have the pole in our garden at all. I don't think we even benefit from it as we don't have a landline and we're not an Eir customer.

Can we refuse to allow Eir to install a new pole? What would they do with the neighbours' cables if we refuse to allow them to put new pole in?

Thanks
 
What do the documents furnished when you bought the property have to say?

If Eir have a wayleave over the property, this should be stated in the property deeds - or else someone's solicitor was negligent
 
So can I refuse Eir crew access to replace the pole, but request that they remove it as it's a safety hazard? Don't think it will endear me to the neighbours, but they are welcome to have the new pole in one of their gardens instead....
 
Someone somewhere has a pole or pilon in their field that carries your electricity. Someone probably has to look at a mobile phone mast every day that provides your cell network. Someone else lives with a turbine that may be generating your power. Someone somewhere lives in the vicinity of a sewage treatment plant. For utilities to work we need cooperation. Why get awkward about something you knew about when buying?
 
sams1 said:
The pole was already in the garden since we purchased the house.
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Was this recent, or have you been looking at the pole for the last 20 years or so?
If the latter, would it really make much difference to you to allow it to be upgraded?

An option may exist, if it is close to your boundary wall, is to move it to the other side of the wall, ie. outside your garden.
But, you'll still be looking at it.

Páid said:
Ask them to put the cables underground.
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A way bigger job and unlikely Eir would go for this. Let's say there are 10 dropwires (customers) coming from the pole, I don't see Eir paying for 10 "DUG's" and their associated local authority permissions. Never mind the labour costs.
 
I suspect they will have some legal right to keep the pole in situ and upgrade it if deemed necessary. Although I wouldn't touch Eir with a telegraph pole, in this instance, to play nice, I'd look for them to provide an uber-TV & broadband package free gratis for evermore.
 
i don't think you can stop them as the pole has been there for yonks , they have probably left those ones until they really have to. the best approach is to ask them to move it to the side or corner of your garden but it will have to be on the same line as the other poles so they might move it to the side of your garden
I got the ESB to move a pole when they were upgrading them but the line was serving my house and the alternative pole was also on my property
 
The pole is located in the back left corner of our small garden. There are houses either side of us and behind us, so if it is moved outside our boundary wall it would be in someone else's garden. I wasn't so bothered by it when we purchased the house a few years ago, but then when we tried to get Eir to connect us to phone and broadband they said they couldn't supply us with a service as we didn't have a phone line??? It didn't make any sense especially as Vodafone was able to provide us with a service - I think they ran it in from the front of the house. It really annoys me now that Eir has a pole in our small garden, but claimed they couldn't provide us with a service, so I don't feel like facilitating them replacing it as it is of no benefit to us.

I have read that if we wanted to the get pole moved at a later date we would have to pay Eir a significant amount (a couple of thousand Euro), so by letting them upgrade the pole we are getting into a long term commitment with Eir with no benefit to us.
 
michaelm said:
I suspect they will have some legal right to keep the pole in situ and upgrade it if deemed necessary.
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Let them prove that. OP, if there is no way of getting eir to pay for moving the pole and they can prove a way-leave exists, hand the bill to the solicitor who handled the conveyancing for you.
 
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They would have had to get permission to put it there in the first place. Ask then ,nicely, if it can be located somewhere else ( seen as it has to be replaced ).
 
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Eircom is one of those companies that will deal with you on the matter if you approach them. The ifs and buts can be ironed out and usually there is a successful end to the situation. So contact your nearest Eircom Depot and speak to the people involved. I bet you'll have a successful outcome. Incidentally, no point in contacting the Eircom Call Centre people; deal only with the decision makers.
 
Leper said:
Eircom is one of those companies that will deal with you on the matter if you approach them. The ifs and buts can be ironed out and usually there is a successful end to the situation. So contact your nearest Eircom Depot and speak to the people involved. I bet you'll have a successful outcome. Incidentally, no point in contacting the Eircom Call Centre people; deal only with the decision makers.
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This thread dealt with a similar issue: https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/telephone-cables-cost-to-remove.215867/

Sadly, Red Onion's link (post #2) no longer works!
 
Virgin Media give you a discount on service if they have one of their junction boxes on your property. Might be a legacy thing but a friend of mine gets it from a house built in the 70's he bought 6 years ago.
 
Well I got a very curt email response from Eir saying that under the Telegraph Act of 1863 they have a statutory right to access our garden and do what they like with the pole. I raised the Communication Regulation Act of 2002 but received another curt response that a replacement pole is nothing like a new pole and therefore again reiterating that they can do what they want.

It just reaffirms my intense dislike of Eir as a company with a lack of customer service skills.
 
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