could anyone please tell me whether anyone has ever been sued for moving a bt wire
or is this just a scare tactic so bt can monopolise the moving and price of doing this
cheers

Define what you mean by moving a BT wire?

Do you just mean moving the master socket in your house or something more extensive like an overhead cable from a pole to the side of the building or where the cable runs round the outside of the building before entering the property?

i mean moving the external fixing where cable is fixed to building on external face
cheers
steve

In that case I would do it the correct way and use the Openreach form here

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home...work_equipment

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home...homeandwork.do

Otherwise you could be opening yourself up to a world of grief, especially if it all goes pear shaped and you have to call Openreach out to tidy up your mess. And there is the possibility the cable serves more than just your property.

I doubt they will sue you. Chances are they won't even know unless you break something. And then they will bill you the cost of repairing it.

Overhead works has many Health and Safety rules on height and loadings. I would suggest that if you move overhead plant illicitly and a high sided vehicles bring it down causing damage or injury and you get grassed by the customer, which is highly likely, you'll do time.

If it is surface mounted plant that is not overhead, you will probably get away with it but the customer will always drop you in it when they try to get out of a bill subsequently.

I moved my master socket last month just before the engineer can to fibre me. I made no attempt to hide it as the screw holes in the old position were clearly visible.

But moving an outside cable that goes to the pole is another thing altogether. What about the tension on the cable that may pull you off your ladder if you are not used to such things. It's a disaster waiting to happen!

About 25 Years ago I moved the (old style) master socket from the hall to the lounge which included rerouting the cable outside the house. The next time a BT Engineer called, he was still expecting the master socket to be in the hall, so they did keep records of locations, but nothing came of it.

I did the same about 8 years ago, BT has been around to check a line fault 2 years ago, nothing was said.


















ha

I don't know why people think BT can tell them what do with their own homes, has society really come to this?

Yes, it's a terrible society where utilities are allowed to have demarcation points. It would be much better if homeowners could do whatever they wanted with incoming telephone, gas and electricity supplies and the call out the supplier when they messed it up.

And of course that is the case today. The demarcation is just between the bit you rent from tne utility, and the bit you own yourself. If you mess up the utllity-owned bit, they'll bill you for the damage to their kit, which is quite normal. If you mess up your own bit, that's your problem, but obviously if you ask the utility to fix it they'll bill you for the repair, like any other tradesman would.

It's their property in your home, so yes they do have some control. If you try to move or remove the socket yourself they have every right to charge you to repair it if you ring in and claim your phone line/broadband isn't working, or to install a new socket when you want a new line installed.