HELP me please

[dentarthurdent]

Hi

I recently replaced my SKY dish with a 95cm motorised system. The leaseholder has written to me telling me that I must take the dish down as they say that dishes are not allowed by the terms of the lease. Before I installed the original SKY dish in October 2004 I contacted the leaseholder and asked if I could have a dish installed - they said yes as long as there would be no more than two dishes on the building.

There are a total of two dishes on my building: my 95cm dish and my neighbours SKY dish. I was very careful about choosing a dish size that was allowed by the planning regs.

They are also saying that no external TV aerials are allowed. This means that without a dish I cannot get the normal terrestrial channels, or Freeview, so I would be forced to pay for cable TV from NTL or have no TV at all.
There is a communal aerial on the roof, but this hasn't worked for years as the distribution amplifier and cabling are no longer maintained.

Any thoughts or ideas to help me get around this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Analoguesat]

I'd move

Do you have written evidence from 2004 that the dish was allowed? If so send them a copy. If it was all done verbally then you probably dont have a leg to stand on.

You could point out that the communal install (which is their responsibility) doesnt work, and you expect them to get it serviced / fixed before you have to take your dish down so you can watch telly.. - but remember that reception of tv signals is not a right.

Do you have a south east facing window? If so put the dish behind it.

Try going back to the sky dish - and paint it so it blends into the wall its mounted on. Someone has probably complained about the big ugly dish on the wall.

[BGonaSTICK]

Well, what you must do first is very simple.

Check the terms of your lease! This is the legally binding document that clearly sets out your obligations. You must have a copy filed away somewhere from when you signed the contract.

Also check to see what it says (if anything) about the communal TV aerial. There should be a section on the leaseholders responsibility for general maintenance.

If the leasholder isn't right, tell them that your dish is legal, and that you don't see why you should comply with their request!

If the leaseholder is right, then you must play by the rules or risk being kicked out. Write to them. Refer to the fact that you were originally given permission. A verbal agreement is as legally binding as a written one, but clearly much harder to prove. Do you have a witness? Mention the other existing dish. Mention the terrestrial aerial isn't working. Be reasonable, but put together a compelling case.

Suggest a communal dish arrangement. This could even be multi-LNB so that others can still have Sky and you can have four sats.

Failing that, ask if you can have your old minidish back. If THAT fails, ask your neighbour if you could use his dish too, and replace his LNB with a quad.

If your lease is indeed restrictive, you've just got to play nicely

The dish-behind-the-window is the last option for me based on how ugly and inconvenient it is, but you may feel differently.

Sorry to hear your bad news :mega: