When you decide to purchase a property you’re buying it for what you see above ground, namely the house sitting on the land, as well as its surrounds and gardens. Have you ever considered what may be sitting underneath the surface though and the impact this could have on your purchase.
The ground under our feet is becoming just as crowded as what sits on the surface these days, with a huge increase on the cabling required for communications services, such as pay TV, electricity, mobile phones and most recently the national broadband network. As part of the conveyancing process when you decide to purchase a property your lawyer will undertake a number of standard searches to ensure the property is as described and suitable to your needs.
These standard searches though will not discover the existence of any underground cables that may run across the property. This is due to the fact that communications carriers have been granted special powers under the Telecommunications Act that enable them to lay cables without the requirement to take out easements which will show on the certificate of title.
A carrier when deciding to lay cables through private property, must inform the owner of the property of their plans and compensate the owner for any loss that they suffer as a result of the installation of the cables. However if the property changes hands the carrier is under no obligation to notify the subsequent owner of the existence of these cables and the new owner does not receive any compensation for the cables presence under the property. This means the that when you buy a property you will be completely unaware of the existence of these cables in most circumstances, unless you instruct your lawyer to conduct an additional search as part of the conveyancing process.
While most people do not elect to undertake any searches beyond the standard requirements, the cost associated with these can often be extremely low and their results invaluable. A telco search for instance, only costs around $50.00 in Queensland and by conducting it your lawyer will discover whether any communication cables are running under the property. They will be able to advise you how these will affect you, the property and the value of the property.
If you fail to undertake this search and later discover the existence of these cables the cost to you can be much higher. This can be due to the fact that you may be restricted in what you can do over part of the property, the carrier may have the right to enter your property to maintain and repair the cables and worst of all as you’re unaware of the location of the cable you may accidently dig it up and end up facing a large repair bill.