Hi everyone

I am in Gisborne and my neighbour had fibre installed. 

They had to run the cable across "my" driveway, which is in fact council land, so it wasn't a huge issue. The sections slope down from the road. The fibre installation point isn't actually on my property, but on the berm just at the edge of the retaining wall, (council land) which is grass/ivy hedge over the retaining wall. It gets treated as my property as my neighbour doesn't use "my" driveway (actually belongs to the council). Drawing attached to make things a bit clearer!

On Sunday I was tidying up the berm and ran a hedge trimmer over the grass/ivy at a height of about 15 cm. 

It turns out that the installer did not bury the fibre cable at all at the the installation point, but left it looping out of the ground in a 30 cm (approx) loop. There is a small sign that says "caution, buried cables". My hedge trimmer went straight through the cable that was certainly not buried. I knew the fibre was there but I trimmed above the "caution" sign and assumed the cables were buried. I wish I had looked closer an noticed the loop. 

Chorus have been pretty helpful but they cant connect the cable and have to run a whole new 200 m of cable under the road to fix it. My neighbours have no internet now (they are great so they aren't angry at me, but I still feel bad). The guys working at chorus were pretty disgusted with the install and took photos for me of the cut loop etc so if I do get a bill I can contest it.

My question is, how likely am I to get a bill? My understanding that cables on council land have to be buried at 400mm. Also its a pretty big health and safety issue leaving a cable looped like that in a clear grass/hedge area that would need trimming.

Anything I should do at this point? Many thanks and photos below.