NBI installed a public box on my property 800ish metres down a private laneway, looking for advice.

Hi all,

In brief. Can NBI install a public box on private land without a wayleave agreement? Can I ask for a guarantee that no more lines will be brought 800m into the centre of my private property and back out to the road to connect houses that are right by the road? for full details see below.

Several years ago I was delighted to see NBI working in the area, then to my surprise a crew came all the way down my lane right up to my house. I was surprised and asked if that was normal, they said "no, but that's what's on my map" and they proceeded to install an overhead cable and box. I didn't think much more of it and assumed that was how they were connecting farmyards. 6 months later I still couldn't get a connection but a neighbour who has right of way over my land approached me and said he had requested a connection and had been told he would have to connect to the box at the end of my lane. We both scratched our heads at the oddness of having to run a line all the way back up my lane to split off to where his lane crosses my land but I didn't object as he is far from the road too and had no other fixed line option. At this point i still couldn't get a connection from that same box myself.

Another 5 or so months later a crew suddenly appears on a piece of shared laneway which I don't own but have right of way over. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were installing bigger ducting so that a house by the road could get fibre broadband. I asked why they were coming up the lane and they said that the active public box was the box which was on my lane by the house and yard, this is over 800m from the road into the centre of my Land. These guys parked their diggers on my land and left my gates open without asking any kind of permission. At this point I became worried and started calling and emailing NBI with questions. a few weeks later I walked down my lane to find a wire laid out along the side I immediately contacted NBI again but got no answers. The installers didn't seem to have any intent to ask for permission to work on my private property so I put a sign in the middle of the laneway stating that there was no access without the owners permission. This worked and they walked down the lane to tell me that they were installing an overhead wire to connect a house by the road and that the box on my propety was a public box and that is where they were going to connect. I am a coward and hate confrontation so I let them. I am still emailing and calling NBI and to date the only solid answer they ever gave is that the property owner is responsible for maintaining the line/hedgerow and trees under the line.

As a result of the above I now have 3 overhead fibre lines running for about 650 meters alongside my lane connecting to a box about 20m from my house. the total length of the cables that were run is over 800 metres as there is a section in underground ducting just before it reaches the road. None of these wires are of any benefit to me as I have wireless broadband.

Ideally I would like NBI to move that box so it is no longer my problem and makes more sense for any new connections that might need to be made. At the very least there should be some sort of wayleave agreement so that I have it on paper that there will be no more connections and that it is up to NBI to maintain their own line, even if they probably mistakenly placed a public box on a private lane.

Any advice would be gratefully received, thanks for reading it all if you got this far.