Moving electricity transformers/poles on your land?

[Rosco]

Has anyone had the pleasure of fighting their electric company to get an electric pole and transformer moved on their land? We are currently undergoing this and thought from the outset it would be a lot simpler than it has been.

They have no wayleave/easement etc and their pole is annoyingly in the way. Not badly but enough to want to move it and get rid. It supplies our house and god knows how many others, but because this jumped up jealous fookin bitch will not get it moved unless we pay for it, we are now having to fight the case.

We have a hearing date for 3 weeks time that our solicitor is fighting, but who knows what the judge will decide. In virtually all other cases we hear about in other areas, they would get it moved or ask for a small contribution, but with us they have dug their heals in good n proper.

Any advice? Anyone else had to deal with this?

 

[Clive]

Many times ! It's a complete pita

They will make an offer on cost to move and it will be a stupid number

Reject it and they will come back cheaper, reject it again and they come back again cheaper still, when they get to about a third of the starting point that is about as good as it gets, will still be silly money for what it is though

Good luck, it's no fun at all dealing with these fools, I will be amazed if you get it done at their cost

Have you been being paid a way leave for it ? If not why not ?

 

[martin thomas]

Have had this problem a few times, I find that when it accidentally gets knocked over a few times, They then decide to move it (When suggested). It helps when you mention the word dangerous too.last one they wanted about 6k, Cost about £150 in the end!!

 

[Rosco]

Clive
At this stage they have blankly refused to move it at any cost to them. They will happily move it for £40k cost to us. They have no wayleave on our land and the pole feeds loads of other houses, not just ours.

As said, it is going to hearing in 3 weeks time and they are still adamant after several offers that they will not move it at any cost what so ever.

 

[Rosco]

Have had this problem a few times, I find that when it accidentally gets knocked over a few times, They then decide to move it (When suggested). It helps when you mention the word dangerous too.last one they wanted about 6k, Cost about £150 in the end!!

You want to come round and knock it over you are welcome, but let me iron my black suit first
We have already mentioned that it was reversed into and the transformer as now not even sat straight!

As you have both said, they eventually back down and moved yours, but with us they are going to court!

 

[GB]

Buy a big generator to power your place and bulldoze the fecker down.

 

[martin thomas]

You want to come round and knock it over you are welcome, but let me iron my black suit first
We have already mentioned that it was reversed into and the transformer as now not even sat straight!

As you have both said, they eventually back down and moved yours, but with us they are going to court!

The fuses in the transformer pop really quickly mate.

 

[Toby]

Who is the owner of the electricity equipment, I deal with most of them in the UK. I was going to buy a bit of land with the same issue, an unsightly transformer and cabling strung across the end of the plot. A friend at the then Central Networks offered to organise moving it for a bung!

 

[Rosco]

Martin you are welcome my friend. How about November 5th, two birds in one night

It is SSE that are being stupid. We did suggest about running a generator as it would cost them a pretty penny to divert the cable off our land and around to all our neighbours.

 

[Popey]

Somebody stole ours, one Sunday night, 500 metres of cable gone!

 

[DuncanR]

Build a Koi pond around it, and start fishing with long poles near it !
Drill tiny holes in it around the base and fill with acid so it rots from inside and falls over !

 

[Clive]

Have had this problem a few times, I find that when it accidentally gets knocked over a few times, They then decide to move it (When suggested). It helps when you mention the word dangerous too.last one they wanted about 6k, Cost about £150 in the end!!

We have had a lot of phone poles "fall over" the past - guys that fix them will usually put them back up in a better place for a drink !

Transformers scare me though !

 

[Rosco]

Bloody pikeys. I couldn't do that!

 

[Clive]

Clive
At this stage they have blankly refused to move it at any cost to them. They will happily move it for £40k cost to us. They have no wayleave on our land and the pole feeds loads of other houses, not just ours.

As said, it is going to hearing in 3 weeks time and they are still adamant after several offers that they will not move it at any cost what so ever.

Sounds about right ! As does 40k to move - you will end up about 12k I reckon from experience but will be amazed if you get it done at their cost

Not sure why your not being paid a wayleave though ? You should be if it supplies property other than yours ?

 

[Toby]

I inadvertently shot out the glass insulators on an 11KV line when I was a child, amazing what a black widow catapult will do, anyway it snowed and the resulting arcing brought the transformer and lines down later that evening....it was quite a spectacle...not suggesting you do such a thing of course!

 

[Rosco]

Right then, state of play is that it is going to hearing in a couple of weeks time.

The original quote was for £40k to put it all underground, about 250 metres worth.

Judge could rule in our favour, in which case they will have the right to tell them to remove everything off our land. This is very slim, due to the need for our neighbours.
Chances are, the judge will tell them to put it underground as we originally requested, but it is unlikely.

There is every likelihood that the judge will rule against us and serve a 15 year wayleave for SSE to have their power supply left in place and we will have to pay our solicitors fees. For doing so, SSE will have to pay us 2% of our properties value ie £34k upwards. Then in 15 years time, they have another fight on their hands.

Now this is bloody ridiculous. We will then start proceedings again in 15 years time and will be paid handsomely for them having their transformer there!

For the sake of the extra £6k, they are proper digging their heals in.

We are in a "no lose" scenario! LOL

 

[Maxine]

Only the solicitors are in a "no lose" situation...

 

[martin thomas]

Right then, state of play is that it is going to hearing in a couple of weeks time.

The original quote was for £40k to put it all underground, about 250 metres worth.

Judge could rule in our favour, in which case they will have the right to tell them to remove everything off our land. This is very slim, due to the need for our neighbours.
Chances are, the judge will tell them to put it underground as we originally requested, but it is unlikely.

There is every likelihood that the judge will rule against us and serve a 15 year wayleave for SSE to have their power supply left in place and we will have to pay our solicitors fees. For doing so, SSE will have to pay us 2% of our properties value ie £34k upwards. Then in 15 years time, they have another fight on their hands.

Now this is bloody ridiculous. We will then start proceedings again in 15 years time and will be paid handsomely for them having their transformer there!

For the sake of the extra £6k, they are proper digging their heals in.

We are in a "no lose" scenario! LOL

Keep us........posted mate!!!!!

 

[Housey]

I have to say my recent experience with Western Power Distribution has been exceptional. We live in a small development with 13 other properties and over the years our power supply has been getting worse and worse with drop outs that lasted on occasion 24 hours. We also had constant fluxes where power would spike and send a few devices silly. It came to a head towards the end of last year when we had a major outage needing roads digging up and then rebuilding to original standard. All of this was done in 48 hours, involving crazy paving and a complete new circuit. Two days later I got a call from a chap who runs our area (happpy to share his details if you have Western Power as your provider) who spent 40 minutes taking me through their plan of action, which involved changes in routing, new poles and new cables across fields and a bloody great lake!

I got a call one morning from him saying we are going to do a visual circuit check today and you would, if you were home, know when they are doing it. Sure enough 2 hours or so later I hear a helicopter and look out of my window to said chopper hovering over the cables checking them out! Bright yellow thing with Western Power on it. Two weeks later I am leaving for a meeting and there is a MASSIVE low loader in the car park with a power generator on the back. This was off loaded, set up and installed so they could change our circuits but ensure we got no disruption! Came back in the evening and said PSU had gone, we had new poles installed (in keeping with age of buildings) and perfect power ever since.

This is a little different but this is without question one of the best experiences of these things I've ever had.

 

[Thorney]

I'm confused, we have a line on our land with about 6 poles, am I entitled to be paid for it?