Wonder if anyone can give an opinion as to what would be a good idea to do here! We are currently having a new roof fitted on the house, and as such there is a fair amount of scaffolding put up. Roofing gets started next week. Just had the neighbours Mrs come round saying the scaffolding has knocked their sky signal out. Apologized and said it would be gone in a couple of weeks but it was quite necessary in order to replace said roof. She then said they had a aerial man out and said it would be £40 or £50 to relocate the dish on the scaffolding as a temporary solution and they want us to stump this up Do not wish to fall out with them but it doesn't sit that well with me at the moment. Oh and if it makes any difference they are not the adjoining neighbour to the semi, they are the following house along. Any ideas?
Bit of a tricky one really. I'm assuming by knocked out you mean interfering with the signal? My other questions would probably be how you relationship is with them currently? If you have a good relationship and want to maintain it I would be tempted to offer to pay half, otherwise I would pay nothing. Linkie below to a similar issue. http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=672747
Is the view of the dish totally obscured? Legally, not your problem, Hunter vs Canary Wharf in 1997 established there is no legal right to TV or satellite reception so they don't have a leg to stand on. They do need your permission to mount the dish on the scaffolding though. It's an interesting one. Demanding money just like that seems a bit silly but I can understand why they would be annoyed. In the interest of neighbourly relations, I would offer to split the difference, probably. It stinks but there isn't much else to it. You either pander to them or tell them to sod off.
Just blocked signal I guess. Non of the scaffolding is on their property and certainly will not have made contact with their dish. Its prob a good 3 or 4 ft away from their house. Relationship was fine, the Mrs knows them more than me I tend to mind my own business. Thing that caught my Mrs off guard was they just came round asking for it, I would have been fine to go halves otherwise. We haven't got a sky dish ourselves no.
Speak to your scaffolding company, see if they can move anything that may be blocking signal or ask them if they can temporarily move dishes and mount it on the scaffolding, they must have this problem a fair bit so more than likely have solutions. Do you have a sky dish? Is it unaffected by the scaffolding? If yes, do you have spare lnb outputs that you could run a cable and connect to your neighbour's cable?
If it was me I'd probably have a word with the workman and offer to move the dish myself. Done this quite a few times for other people.
Have you paid yet? why not? OK the neighbours could have gone about their request in a more neighbourly fashion, but you've got to appreciate their frustration. Ignoring the legal side of things, because we're decent human beings and prefer to settle things in a fair manner, ask yourself this, 'what service do I pay for that I would be happy to be denied access to whilst still paying for it???' Either pay to have their dish moved or refund them 2 weeks of their subscription to Sky TV, it's the only decent thing to do.
Based on the fact they demanded money (cheeky gits) I'd first tell them politely to bugger off. If they wanted you to pay, the correct course of action would be to ask you if you'd pay for it, and only then get the work done. So based on that, it'd be a "bugger off " and/or an offer to move the dish for them if they were persistent Do they send the weather gods a bill when a storm blocks the signal for half an hour or so while it passes?
lots of strong winds recently, could they be pulling a fast one? Having not agreed to assist in the first place I would not stump up, they should have discussed with you first not expected some payment after the fact.
Mrs has been onto the roofer who has in turn kindly said he will pop over and see if there is anything he can move to improve the signal, top bloke didn't have to do that. Also said they were being unreasonable and cheeky, after all who replaces a roof for the fun of it! Mrs went round and told them this, then as a gesture of good will said will will go halves on it if that doesn't sort it. They looked and said cant we pay all of it. Think that's a bit much tbh and I cant help feeling they waited till I wasn't in to go round. I totally understand why they want it sorted but demanding money and rebuffing the gesture to go halves when we have no obligation to pay anything has prob killed any notion of further effort to sort it bar the roofer taking a look at it.
Good man Cheeky buggers (hah just saw your location. they sound like typical wolverhamptoners. i'm wolves born & bred :/ )
I think your offer to go halves was more than generous. I wouldnt have made an offer like that. Surely than can use Sky over the broadband? As you said the scaffold is on your property and is a tempory structure. Unlucky but tough luck.
Haha I know the area well being from Wolves. I agree with the fine folks here. Ask nicely and maybe you get an ok. Demand and you get sweet f a. Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Did you point out to your neighbours that in the event that their dish is accidentally damaged if/while it's sited on your property/scaffolding, you will not be held liable for any costs? Cos it can happen and you don't want to be stiffed for that too so make it plain to them that it's at their risk, preferrably in writing!
assuming you're likely to be living next to them a while, and have no reason to get closer acquainted (or you already would've done so) i'd make it clear you made them a fair offer that you didn't have to, they've refused, that offer is now off the table and they can deal with it however they want. you could be living by them a while, make it clear you're not going to tolerate chancers like that.
So they're fine paying for sky every month, but can't afford £20 to go halfs moving the dish! I better stop there, The very cynical part (must be my dads fault) of me almost wants to say they've heard scaffolding can mess with the signal and think they can cash in,
also if you pay to have an engineer out to fix the dish onto the scaffolding...wont you have to pay for ANOTHER engineer to come out when the scaffolding is taken down again ?
