Trees touching my phone line causing unstable connection

[#1]

My next door neighbour’s trees are touching my telephone line when it’s windy. This causes interference and my internet connection becomes unstable. Two separate engineers have been to look at the problem but the situation hasn’t been resolved. The last engineer said it is my neighbour’s responsibility to have the trees cut back. My neighbour tells me that someone from BT used to come regularly and trim the trees away from the phone line (she says he was called John!) so she says it is not her responsibility. I need the problem resolved quickly as I have Alzheimer’s disease and I rely on internet services to keep me safe. Please can anyone help me to understand what I need to do to get the trees cut back and ensure a consistent internet connection?

[#2]

Definitely landowner's responsibility;
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/openreach-phone-and-broadband-cables.364088/

[#3]

I would start here - Report damage, vandalism or a health & safety issue | a number of council websites on this topic also point to this page.

The problem is, if the owner of the tree undertook the work and that damaged the BTOR infrastructure...

I had an issue with trees obstructing a pole DP and BTOR undertook the work to remedy the situation.  Well they said that they would, in the end I got SPEN to do it (was a dual service pole), but that's a long story!

Some discussions suggest that BTOR will do nothing UNTIL there is a fault.  See Trees and Overhead Telephone Wires - Who Is Responsible? (kitz.co.uk)

Then there is the complex question if BTOR (Or BT PLC its predecessor) has a wayleave to run the wires over someone else's property.  If not some commentators suggest BTOR has not leg to stand on.  They fix the issue or re-route the wires.

[#4]

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@Gel wrote:
Definitely landowner's responsibility;

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I don't know the OP's situation, but might it not depend on whether the line was routed across the tree owners property (i.e. the phone line was touching the tree rather than the other way around)?

I don't think I'd be too impressed if I had a tree on my property and someone told me it was my responsibility to cut it back because they'd strung a cable across my property and my tree was now touching it!

[#5]

Thanks for getting in touch @KathleenWood

I'm really sorry to see you're having connection issues and trees are touching the overhead line. I've now raised a fault report into Openreach for an engineer to take a look, which should either be tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

I'll provide an update as soon as I know more.

[#6]

Thank you for all of your replies. I appreciate the time you have taken to respond and for the information you have provided. Hopefully I’ll get the problem resolved very soon.

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to us @KathleenWood

No problem, in the meantime as you've mentioned you have Alzheimer’s disease, I'd recommend filling out our additional support form Here so we're aware and we can make sure we're offering the best support we can, where possible.