NTL want to dig my parents garden - compensation??

JDxtra

Ok, so NTL are currently re-cabling the area where my parents live. They want to dig up their front garden to run a cable to the house so they can feed that side of the street.

They were originally going to dig next door, but that neighbour has Sky and has since told them to ‘get lost’ (because they work until 11pm at night with their diggers outside).

Next doors garden is literally in bits however my parents have had a lot of work done. The “first offer” from NTL is the same - free digital cable for four years.

Do you think this can be pushed?

I've told my parents not to agree verbally to anything and that any offer should be in writing. Anything else to look out for?

bushy...

JDxtra wrote:

Do you think this can be pushed?

What would you be looking for ?... Just get it in writing that they will leave the garden/lawn the way they found it, what more would you need ?

RuggieBear

make sure you take a lot of pictures too.

red_ice

i am in the first area that had cable in ireland going back 6 odd years now, maybe more i cant really remember the date. NTL needed to go through our house to open up the whole area for internet.

From what i know we got our TV and internet Free for the first 3 years or something, then a reduced rate on our NTL related bills for letting them do so. Take what you can from them, because once they have what they want, they will treat you like crap.

JDxtra

Good points - cheers guys.

...free broadband on top?

ballooba

Never accept an initial offer. Get five years at least.

And yeah, free broadband.

jhegarty

And be careful you are not giving them rights to come back every few month and dig up again....

steveon

Just be careful to get a contract in writing as stated earlier, and ensist a second connection maybe for the bedroom, after all they can easily put a tap somewhere on your home if there coming through your property.

Aquos76

red_ice wrote:

i am in the first area that had cable in ireland going back 6 odd years now, maybe more i cant really remember the date.

Could you explain this a little clearer. Surely that 6 should be something like 20 years or something

zilog_jones

Yeah what's he on about? There's been cable in Limerick for at least 23 years now - I'm sure there's areas in Dublin that had it even longer...

lucernarian

I'd say he means when he digital cable and broadband service was rolled out, but I thought parts of Malahide and Tallaght aswell had that or a trial of it at least, since 1996?

spurious

It costs them nothing to give you free NTL and will cost them a lot in lost revenue if they can't run it through your parents' garden.
Hang out for as much as you can for free and for as long as the cable is there - never mind five years.
Get a solicitor to draw up and witness the agreement.

TheDriver

Is it really worth it to dig up the garden, awful lot of hassle getting it back in order, let them go get someone else. You will be back picking stones formonths coz they are not going to leave it in prime residential state.