Builder concretes over Telstra pit

My tenants have made comment recently that they cant get their Internet connected as the Telstra guy can't find the pit. Turns out the builder concreted over it. The builder eventually came back to say that he needs to cut up the driveway so that Telstra can raise the pit to the driveway level and that he would then need to fill in the gaps, so the driveway won't all match.

Would you cop this from a builder or would you insist they re-do the driveway? It's a 750kplus property and I don't want the driveway looking like a patchwork quilt but don't want to foot the bill of a new driveway either.

 

Have Telstra determine where the pit is located then put two saw cuts a couple of metres apart - that way the driveway isn't a hotch potch. Then have it stenciled.

What's the pit doing in the driveway? It should be out in the street.

This is a builder's defect.

 

How long ago was it concreted?
If the builder is the one who concreted (or organised it) then 'yes' they should be liable.

Easiest solution is having the entire thing stencilled after it is fixed up.

 

It was concreted either late August or early Sept by the project builder who built the house.

 

Id absolutely be getting them to cover the costs then. Pretty major oversite concreting over an easement.

 

The builder was doing a favour by hiding it. They don't often need to access them and took a punt that telstra wouldn't need to get in. I'd do the same
Telstra is often in the verge. And not unusual for any type of pit in a driveway.

Telstra will take care of it, who they send the bill to is another thing. I'd say they'd automatically send to house owner... But they may do it off their own bat if you play dum (with tears) and say previous owner's responsibility.

I'd think if it's just a standard type pit they may be able to just relocate the pit to the side of driveway and do a smaller cut and patch to access the cables inside.

 

Whatever you need Telstra to do. Get the ball rolling asap.

It took just short of 3 years for Telstra to replace a communication pit in our street which was crashed and collapsed in on itself from a heavy vehicle, leaving 1 meter plus deep cave in.

A small child could have easily disappeared down there.

3 different residents complained, multiple phone calls to India.

Try explaining that situation to someone on the other side of the planet.

 

The difference here though, is that the pit that you wanted Telstra to replace was going to be done at their own cost, so they were not in a hurry to spend their own money.

In the case that is listed above I'd say they will do it relatively fast because they will be able to then send the invoice off to the owner as @bob shovel mentioned already.

What I would have done if I was in your shoes, is called or better still emailed them if you had the person's email address you had been dealing with, this way it was in writing, and and told them that your 4 year old daughter was riding her bike along the nature strip and had fallen over when her training wheel hit the pit. You were heading off to the doctors to make sure she hadn't had a broken wrist, but if turns out that she does then you will be seeking compensation, because you had already advised them well in advance that the pit was broken.

Then get back in touch a week later and say, its ok your daughter is fine, it is just bruising, but she won't go back on her bike again and is traumatised every time you try and get her to ride it. And that you want this pit fixed ASAP so that you can show her that the pit is fixed and she won't fall over again and also so that no other children in the area fall over as well.

Or something along those line, I'm sure you get what I am saying. You will find Telstra will act a lot faster this way than what they will if you just tell them that one of their millions and millions of pits they have out in the field are broken.

 

You could be up for a bit of an argument with the builder if you want him to redo the whole driveway. Yes morally you are in the right, but he could come back with a heap of excuses and depending on your relationship and his profit margin you could have to take this to court.

If it is just the pit that soley services your property and no one else, then I'd suggest you consider leaving it where it is and get a quote from Telstra to put a new pit in and trench a new line back to the main cable to join into it. You may find this might only be a couple of grand and while might not be as cheap as cutting the driveway and raising the pit, it will be cheaper then repouring the whole driveway again.

Good luck.

 

Can Telstra bypass the existing pit completely? Hack into the cable from another point on the footpath and join to house connection?
Avoid touching the driveway?
May cost a bit more but overall a better outcome?
Marg

 

Telstra pits cant be moved or touched unless the owner pays for it AND its agreed - Its a easement of sorts. I worked at a telecoms contractor and saw loads of this. Funniest was a CEO of the major telco - competitor who wanted a pit moved outside his house. $20K cost!! He didnt want to pay. Telstra refused to approve job until he paid us to do the work. He did.

The pit and all services must be drawn and approved all costing money and job issued to its contractors in a priority queue. Not cheap !! Damage to the pit would result in restitution costs. And it will need to be jack-hammered and Testra contractors dont have to restore the driveway but they will cut a strip. Non destructive water drilling cant be used as its a pit.. You will be left with driveway access..Even if its sand. Or bitumen. The contractors will take pics and advise Telstra of the fault. You will then get a letter / charge back as owner.

Covering pit can lead to water and abrupt service termination. You could come home to a hole in driveway.

 

We had the same issue with our Telstra pit whereas the builder has completely covered the pit. After 6 months with no internet and various technicians from Telstra / NBN attending our property, advising nothing they can do, we had to take measures into our hands to resolve them. The best thing I've done was phone these telephone technicians called Mr Telco to visit and help find whats going on and probably the best advice for you in this situation.

The technician turned up with a Telstra Map or Telstra Plans in his hands, and he measured out the exact distances between pits and our cable box on the side of the house. He also stuck a long yellow thing down the pipe from our side of the garage and when he placed it right down the pipe it was banging on the Telstra pit (we could actually hear it).

He gave me this advice:
1. Contact our Developer and have them pay for the concrete cut and re-instatement.
2. He advised, it's most likely going to be the Developers fault and at their cost, as it's up to them to perform a dial before you dig plans before any excavation carried out.

Most importantly:

He advised the Telstra PIT cannot be RELOCATED due to many "main cables?" and "fibre optic" cables are running through the pit, and would take considerable time/energy/money and potential outages which may occur during the process and apparently would cause some problems as our house location is on a fairly busy street in Sydney with lots of cables running through the area.

We are currently in the stages of talking to our Developer, and they have agreed to re-instate access to the pit so our internet connection can finally be turned on. My only problem here is how long is it going to take and our data using on mobile is going through the roof.

If you have problems with your builder or developer, then maybe you have a legal position over them, as being a builder it should be your responsibility to follow due process and care, regardless if it's phone, gas, electricity etc.