Shared Driveway Consenting Nightmare

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Shared Driveway Consenting Nightmare - please help!

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Mad Scientist
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#1260250 16-Mar-2015 13:34

Bung: I thought that before the last election Chorus were trying to get an ammendment so that rather than needing approvals an interested party had to object. That would stop things stalling just because someone was ignoring the issue. Hopefully the objection would have to have a reasonable basis. What's happened since?

that would be so sensible

MikeAqua

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#1260322 16-Mar-2015 15:10

Unfortunately the default position for most people seems to be to refuse consent when asked.

Mike

richms

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#1260347 16-Mar-2015 15:31

There seems to be a lot of internet hate among boomers as well, so anyone getting internet has to be a bad thing, people dont talk face to face anymore, all that time wasted on the internet blah blah.

I have no idea who owns the house that shares the driveway here. There is a not terribly old person living in it so they may own it, or they might be renting. But will cross that bridge if its still a problem in 2018-2019 when I can get fiber if chorus are to be believed.

Richard rich.ms

floydbloke

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#1260403 16-Mar-2015 16:37

MikeAqua: Unfortunately the default position for most people seems to be to refuse consent when asked.

Maybe this depends on how the asking is done, because this doesn't reflect my experience.

I needed consent from 6 other property owners for my installation. 4 of these are owner occupiers so I went and knocked on their doors and took the chorus consent form, completed with as much detail as I knew, and explained what my intentions were. (Required a bit of re-assurance for a couple of them as the installers had made a bit of a mess of the berm when the street ducting was laid.) The other two properties are rented. These consent were sorted problem-free via email. Took a little longer than I would have liked because one of them 'hadn't got around to it', but certainly no refusals.

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

quickymart

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#1260595 16-Mar-2015 20:28

Once you got all the consents, how long did it take for installation to be completed and you to get connected?

floydbloke

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#1260711 17-Mar-2015 05:29

quickymart: Once you got all the consents, how long did it take for installation to be completed and you to get connected?

2 months.

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

Chainsaw

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#1261000 17-Mar-2015 12:55

There will not be an easement, there is no ROW in this case - because it's Cross Lease. In a Cross Lease all the owners own all the land, generally in equal shares. They then lease each building off each other, for $1 a year, and then have areas set aside for their exclusive use (usually). Becasue all owners own all the land it seems logical in a Cross Lease that Chorus require everyone's permission - unless of course the lease agreement states that it's not required.

In a freehold situation it's different, there should be easements for utilities crossing others' land. And if the appropriate easement is already registered on the Title then you have the right to do stuff, but depending upon the Easement Documents as well for you can actually do.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

qyiet

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#1261032 17-Mar-2015 13:34

richms: What happens if, when for example I have to replace my water main which I will probably have to do, there was a piece of the microducting accidentally dropped along side it, and when chorus came to do the fiber install in the street they found this pre-exising duct ready to go?

I actually did exactly that. (Because our water pressure sucked... not because of consent issues). But we may as well have the ducting at the same time.

Warning: reality may differ from above post

Amosnz

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#1261086 17-Mar-2015 14:19

UFF wanted me to get ROW consent from my neighbour when I applied too. We live off the street and there are 2 side-by-side driveways coming down to each property. Because the other property is just a vacant block and has never been built on, there isn't any fence between our 2 driveways, so UFF were looking at it as a 'shared driveway'. Via my ISP and with the aid of some council property boundary maps, I managed to get them to send someone out, and once I explained it to him in person it was all sweet.

Speedtest

richms

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#1261088 17-Mar-2015 14:22

qyiet:
richms: What happens if, when for example I have to replace my water main which I will probably have to do, there was a piece of the microducting accidentally dropped along side it, and when chorus came to do the fiber install in the street they found this pre-exising duct ready to go?

I actually did exactly that. (Because our water pressure sucked... not because of consent issues). But we may as well have the ducting at the same time.

Mine has leaked again, and luckily this time outside the 2 years that you have to be leak free to get a rebate on the leaked amount. Old pipe will probably leak again somewhere else.

I only share a driveway with 1 other house, but the phone cables all come down under the neighbours driveway to a pole then overground to the house. Am toying with the idea of getting a guy to bring new power, water, and a UFB duct down under my drive so I only have to deal with one neighbour not a whole lot.

Richard rich.ms

webwat

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#1269323 27-Mar-2015 22:30

WagtheDog: Yes, but they don't have to 'enter' the property surely consent isn't required?
The access point is on public land and the final point is on my property - even if they started their installation on my property and worked back to front - no work would take place on the shared driveway.
C'mon Chorus, surely you can think outside the square? I can't be the only person with issue?

I have the ROW consent and both have told me they have returned this to you, however I am told that not all the paperwork is in place. I have tried to find our whether it is one or both of the owners I have to chase to get then to do the paper work, but you will not release this information. So frustrating as it took 4 months of constant negotiation to get them to consent to me in the first instance and now if I go back to one of the parties & their consent IS with you, it appears I don't take them at their word. Both are absentee owners, so hard to pin down & have little interest in being good neighbours. To add insult to injury, one of them has expressed interest to get connected and is MY consent required - of course not!

Chorus, all I am asking for is some lateral thinking in solving this issue - if you even issue the scoper, I can then take his/her report BACK to my neighbours for reassurance & reissue ROW consent, or approach the two sets of adjacent neighbours (both who are owner occupiers) to see if they would consent access through their properties, but you take ANY option for other solutions away but not letting the first step of the process take place.

I am not asking you to break the law - I am asking for you to help me work within the law to find a solution instead of having a very linear approach - show some #8 wire ingenuity Chorus - I dare you!

Once they start work they may find the existing duct unusable for whatever reason, so you can't really guarantee they will not need to work on the driveway. They can now saddle a cable onto the fence or shallow bury it along the fence line, but not sure how that will help convince the neighbours to give the consent. Good luck!

Time to find a new industry!

Darren0

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#1273851 30-Mar-2015 22:56

coffeebaron:
sbiddle: I've been working recently in a brand new just completed apartment building in Wellington that despite being in a UFB area is fully cabled with cat3 25pr cable and BT jacks in rooms. Running fibre in such buildings isn't possible without significant expense, and it's likely we'll see many buildings where body corps simply aren't willing to front up with cash to sort these sorts of issues.

Chorus should refuse to install new copper where UFB is; that would make developers rethink things once they realise no one in their new building can get phone and internet.

Chorus do this in the Waikato. If you look at their maps in cities they're not the LFC, you'll see some nice blue zones of UFB and no copper services available :)

TonyR1973

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#1273870 31-Mar-2015 01:21

Bung: Isn't it the OP's point that there is an existing service duct that removes the need to dig?

It MAY remove the need to dig. But Chorus' position is that in the event they do need to dig, say something goes wrong with the install through the duct, perhaps because of damage, they want to be able to dig immediately and because it's not specifically classed as an essential service they need specific landowner permission regardless of existing agreements.

MikeAqua

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#1273959 31-Mar-2015 09:27

I wonder if Chorus could apply for a declaratory judgement determining UFB to be an essential service?

Chorus and their subbies probably have a massive workload just getting the legally simple installs done.

Perhaps this issue will be revisited when the low hanging fruit have all been picked?

Mike

richms

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#1274419 31-Mar-2015 14:26

I think once they are not massivly backlogged with installs they will probably stop allowing new copper connections in areas with fiber. "no pairs in the street" - and stop repairing damaged ones. Then that will get people crying that grandma cant get a phone because of some other busybody in the development and might get some traction on sorting this mess out.

Richard rich.ms

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