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00:00Today, more than three years after cracks appeared in the walls of their home, we meet
00:05the couple stuck in a battle with their insurer to fix damage caused by subsidence.
00:10This is by far the biggest crack and over time it's grown.
00:14You can even fit a 50p piece in that crack.
00:18Plus the mysterious subscriptions that could be hitting your bank balance.
00:22We meet one man who didn't notice the monthly payment that ended up costing him hundreds
00:27and we'll have all you need to know to flush out any sneaky subs that might be lurking
00:32in your account.
00:33Helping you to protect your money.
00:35This is Ripoff Britain.
00:43Hello and once again welcome to Ripoff Britain HQ in Salford.
00:48Now this is the base for the team that lives just to investigate your stories.
00:53Well, as we just heard today, those stories include subsidence and subscriptions plus another
00:59S, slow broadband.
01:01In the race for a super fast connection we meet the people stuck on slow because whoever
01:06owns their building wouldn't sign the right paperwork.
01:10I had to ask my landlord, then I had to go to Openreach and then I had to go back
01:16to my
01:16landlord who went back to the freeholder and this went back and forth over and over and
01:20over.
01:20Now, it's a problem that could affect anyone who rents their home or doesn't own the freehold.
01:26So later on we'll be finding out what you can do in that situation.
01:30But first, to subsidence.
01:32It can be an absolute nightmare for homeowners, not just when it comes to fixing the damage
01:37it can cause, but also when tackling the source of the problem itself in order to make
01:42sure that your home is safe for the future.
01:44For the couple in our first film today, the cause of the cracks in their home seemed clear
01:49from the start, but the insurance claim that followed has been beset with problems and
01:55rejections, which has left them feeling that the people making decisions about their claim
02:00don't really understand the problem.
02:02Which doesn't bode very well, because as climate change leads to hotter, drier summers, which
02:08cause the ground beneath our homes to shrink, subsidence could become a problem more and more of us have to
02:13face.
02:16The dream for Helen Jenner and husband Josh was always to move back up north one day.
02:22We're really keen to move away from London.
02:25I've been here for 25 years and we're just ready to lead city life.
02:31They want to sell their home of five years in Romford and head to greener pastures.
02:36We want a bit more outdoors, we want to look out and see green space.
02:40We have two dogs, we want to go out on long dog walks, you know, country pubs, like that's the
02:46dream.
02:46But those plans have stalled because beneath the surface of their house is a problem.
02:55This is where we first noticed the subsidence and this is by far the biggest crack and over time it's
03:02grown.
03:03You can even fit a 50p piece in that crack.
03:08Subsidence is when the ground beneath the building sinks, making the foundations unstable and often causing cracks
03:14and structural damage to the property.
03:17Helen and Josh discovered it in August 2022.
03:21We were really shocked.
03:23This was a house that we had just bought that was going to be our dream house
03:27and we had lots of plans and ideas and suddenly everything was put on hold.
03:31So we were pretty devastated.
03:33So Helen and Josh called their home insurer, AXA, and asked for help.
03:38AXA instructed Los Adjustice Crawford and Company to investigate.
03:42Their report focused attention on the 23-year-old extension at the back of the house
03:47and concluded that the subsidence was caused by what it called root-induced clay shrinkage.
03:55The investigators dug a trial pit to measure the extension's foundations
03:59and revealed, much to Helen and Josh's shock, that they were just 12 centimetres deep.
04:05We suspected that the issue was caused by a huge sycamore tree that was on our boundary.
04:11When the report came back, it said that the extension itself was a bad build
04:16and that they wouldn't pay the claim at that point.
04:20But this came as news to Helen and Josh, who'd only bought the house a year earlier.
04:25We kind of couldn't believe it because when we bought the house, you know, we had building surveys,
04:31we had all of the building regs, we had done our due diligence.
04:34We had all the documentation to show that this build was absolutely perfectly fine and adequate.
04:39So we couldn't really understand where this term bad build had come from.
04:45Convinced that there must have been a mistake, the couple hired an independent surveyor
04:50to do their own assessments at a cost of £450 and it disputed Crawford's findings.
04:57So Crawford sent in subsidence specialists for yet more tests.
05:02They dug another two trial pits and they came back with the same conclusion, that the foundations weren't adequate.
05:09By now it had been a year since the cracks had first appeared and they were no closer to a
05:13resolution.
05:16We were pretty devastated at that point. We were pretty angry as well,
05:20that we were paying this money for our insurance premium but they weren't doing anything.
05:26We knew that we would have to take this further ourselves.
05:30Coup, a second independent survey and a second conclusion that Crawford had got it wrong.
05:37Helen sent the report to AXA but after a six month wait, the insurer rejected his findings.
05:44I was really disappointed and just really frustrated because it was a lot of work at this point and a
05:50lot of expense.
05:50So after the two reports were rejected, we were really determined we weren't going to take this line down.
05:58We were so convinced that we were right, that this building was fine and ultimately we just wanted to get
06:04our house repaired.
06:06To prove Crawford was wrong about the depth of the foundations, the couple got an independent firm
06:11to dig their own trial pit and found that the foundations were not 12 centimetres but two metres deep.
06:21We were really relieved when we could finally prove we were right all along and the foundation
06:27depths were absolutely perfectly adequate. We felt really vindicated.
06:32We thought this was going to be the beginning of the end effectively and we were going to be able
06:37to
06:37move and sell the house. By now it was October 2024. Helen and Josh had spent £1,740 and 25
06:46months,
06:47proving something that Crawford should have got right from the outset. When presented with the proof,
06:53AXA finally agreed to pay out. I was in my office at work when I got a phone call from
06:59the insurance
07:00company and it was just total jubilation. I honestly couldn't believe what I was hearing.
07:05We had just been fighting this for two and a half years and suddenly they believed us.
07:10Things could, at long last, get moving. Crawford and company apologised, admitting that the site
07:17investigations weren't up to scratch and reimbursed the money Helen and Josh had spent on independent
07:23surveys. Attention turned to stopping the subsidence by removing the tree. And after 12 months of
07:31monitoring for any further movement, there was good news.
07:34The house had effectively stopped moving. So when the tree was removed, the subsidence was resolved.
07:42We were thrilled we could move to repairs.
07:45But a further six months down the line, the property has still not been fully repaired.
07:51Helen says that it's been a fight to get the work signed off.
07:56Right now, we're having to painstakingly go, crack by crack, issue by issue, damage by damage,
08:02and say this isn't subsidence or proof that this is. And it's just a long, long period.
08:11Helen believes that the subsidence has damaged the floor of the extension.
08:15You see that the door sticks a little bit.
08:19But the loss adjuster, Crawford, doesn't agree. We've lost all trust and faith in
08:27their assessments on the house because they've been proved wrong so many times. So we just can't
08:32trust their word. The delays have come at a significant cost since Helen and Josh's fixed
08:37rate mortgage term has expired. And until the work is completed, they can't get a new deal,
08:43and they're stuck on a higher rate. So we've ended up actually having to pay around £500
08:49a month more on our mortgage. So again, it feels like we're being trapped in this house and
08:56we're kind of being held ransom to it until we solve the subsidence issue.
09:01We are just totally and utterly destroyed by this whole situation. And we just want to move.
09:10With that dream move to the country in mind, and with the subsidence now thankfully under control,
09:16Helen wants to know how easy it would be to sell the house.
09:21So local estate agent Tony Varghese is taking a look around.
09:26What is the general reaction when people come into a house and they hear this house has had subsidence?
09:33So with anything to do with subsidence, we have to put it on the property particulars. We have
09:38to state the fact that the property has had a history of subsidence. If you were to go to market
09:43without rectifying the issues, obviously buyers are going to be put off when they see it.
09:48And that could mean only being able to sell to cash buyers and taking up to 25% less than
09:54the house
09:54would be worth with everything fixed. So it's paramount that the insurance claim and the repairs are
10:00completed quickly and properly. I think if you've dealt with everything correctly,
10:05I don't think it's going to stop you selling it. And I don't think it's going to affect
10:08the overall value massively. What it will do is put off a few people, maybe drop the value
10:14anywhere from around the 5% mark from what it should be.
10:19Even with a drop in the likely sale price, Helen is relieved.
10:22Hearing him talk about that houses are sold after subsidence claims have completed actually gives
10:29me a lot of hope and it makes me think we really can get this resolved. We're just ready to
10:34move
10:34and ready to start new lives. And we'll certainly be keeping in touch with Helen and Josh as they get
10:40closer to starting afresh. But if they hadn't been so dotted in their determination to prove Crawford's
10:46assessments wrong, things you know might have been very different. So joining me now in HQ to discuss
10:54what we can all take from their experiences are building industry expert Roger Bisbee and solicitor
11:00Gary Rycroft. Gary, when mistakes are made like that by official people, what are your rights overall?
11:09Well, the mistakes were made by the loss adjusters. Now, loss adjusters are appointed and paid for by
11:16the insurance company. I'm not saying they're biased but certainly if you're on the receiving end of
11:21their reports you can absolutely question their conclusions, you can ask questions and if things
11:27don't stack up you can commission your own report. Now, that does have a cost but it might be a
11:33really
11:33good investment if the outcome of commissioning your own report is an insurance claim that is successful
11:39rather than one that's rejected. Gary says getting your own survey can also be used as evidence
11:45if you need to refer a complaint about your insurance company to the financial ombudsman service.
11:52When we spoke to the loss adjuster Crawford and company about Helen's case, it told us it was
11:57very sorry for the distress and frustration that she and Josh have experienced. It says subsidence
12:02claims can be particularly challenging, often requiring extensive investigation, monitoring and engagement with
12:09multiple parties to assess the cause and deliver an effective solution. Crawford said that it is now
12:16working to resolve the outstanding issued. Meanwhile, AXA admitted that the service the couple received
12:22fell short, adding that it is reviewing what went wrong and working closely with its suppliers to ensure that
12:28it doesn't happen again. AXA confirmed all aspects of the claim will be covered in full. The remaining work
12:35will be completed as quickly as possible and that Helen and Josh will be reimbursed for the cost of the
12:41independent surveys and provided with compensation. So they'll be very glad to hear that.
12:47And I'm very pleased to say that since filming, AXA has appointed a new claim handler to manage the claim
12:54and Helen and Josh will soon be moving into alternative accommodation while the repairs take place.
13:00But aside from Helen and Josh's experience, subsidence is something more and more of us may
13:05soon experience, thanks to the impact of climate change on the ground that our homes are built on.
13:11Roger, we're going to turn to the problem of the subsidence itself. It is apparently getting more
13:17common, but why is that? The weather that we're getting now, they tell us we just had the hottest summer
13:22on record. Then we have the wettest winter and it does play havoc with ground conditions. It will heave
13:27when it's wet and it will shrink when it's dry and that will have an effect on the house and
13:34the
13:35foundation. So that's why we're getting more building movement than we used to get. Roger says the ground
13:41in which your property is built on can be crucial in determining the risk of subsidence. And it turns out
13:47that over four million homes in Britain are built on something that's especially susceptible, clay.
13:54What happens is it swells when it gets wet and then it shrinks when it gets dry and it's causing
14:00these
14:00problems with the cracks. And then something like sand is all right most of the time. It's the water
14:07that will wash the sand away and then you'll get the subsidence. So if you find a house that's built
14:12on
14:12sand, get the drains checked out, get a camera survey on the drains. Then you get things like chalk.
14:17Chalk's pretty good except that sometimes you get underground streams and that will open up chasms
14:21suddenly and sometimes catastrophically. So Roger, here's the big question. How can we all tell actually
14:27if we want to investigate what our home is actually built on? Well, there's a great thing called the
14:33British Geological Survey and it's free. So we put a postcode in here and it zooms straight into exactly
14:41where we are now. And if we click on that, it tells us that the bedrock geology here is a
14:48chest of
14:49formation sandstone, 247 million years old. Is that all? Well, it could be 250. They're a bit vague on
14:57that. So we're on sandstone, which is pretty solid stuff. But over the top of it, there's some clay,
15:03some sand and some gravel, which would have been washed down by the river. It's amazing, isn't it?
15:07Yeah. All that information. This is open to anybody countrywide. Absolutely. Everyone
15:11will look at it and I spend hours on it because I'm such a sad person. But it saved me
15:15a lot of
15:15money in the past because when I've been looking at a building project and I've been able to do this
15:20bit of research, first of all, it's worth a lot, you know. Now, Gary, you deal with a lot of
15:27surveys and
15:27so on. So would the risk of subsidence turn up on the survey? I've read lots of surveys over the
15:34years.
15:34Now, the bottom line is that the risk of subsidence might not be revealed by a survey. But I would
15:41say
15:41it's always really important to have a survey because number one, it gives you a baseline for
15:48your starting position with regard to the risk. Whatever it turns out to be, you've got a baseline.
15:53And secondly, you've got the surveyor effectively on the hook because they are giving you a confirmation
16:01of what the state and condition of what that property is at that point in time. Having a survey will
16:07put you in a better position if you do eventually want to make an insurance claim because, in effect,
16:13that's your first report. I want to go to the selling aspect of it. If you know that you have
16:19a risk of subsidence, presumably there must be very strong advice that you have to give people like that
16:24about what they declare upfront. Absolutely, 100%. If you are selling a property, you have to be
16:30open and transparent about any historic issues that they've been with regard to the structure.
16:36And if you aren't, it's a potential misrepresentation and you can be sued by the buyer.
16:41What good advice. Well, thank you both very much. Really a lot to absorb and I appreciate you coming in.
16:47Thank you. And we put all of that advice and the link to the website that Roger mentioned
16:51on our own website. That's bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain.
16:57But now it's time to put more experts to work on your problems in The Advice Clinic.
17:04The Advice Clinic is on the road, bringing the best consumer advice.
17:09This is something we hear about quite a lot. Think about going through the small claims court
17:14to get your money back. To you.
17:19Here's our home today for The Advice Clinic, BBC Radio Berkshire in Reading, which is super exciting
17:25for me because this is where I began my career as a reporter over 30 years ago. The team are
17:31inside,
17:32they're ready, we've got lots of things to sort out. Let's get started.
17:37Jeff Haynes is with us today. He's come to us for help with a mysterious subscription for Amazon's
17:42audiobook service, Audible, that's been leaving his bank account without his knowledge for years.
17:49Solicitor Lisa Webb from Consumer Group, which is on hand to help.
17:53Jeff, come in here. Hopefully we might be able to get some answers to some of your questions. Take a
17:58seat there.
17:59This is Lisa Webb. Jeff's issues began in October 2025 when he was checking his bank statement and
18:05spotted an £8.99 payment to Audible, which he hadn't approved. And when he checked his old statements,
18:13the same payment kept occurring. Had you ever, as far as you remember, had an account with Audible?
18:18No, not at all. Never. I called up Audible to find out what was going on. They said there was
18:26an account
18:26with Audible that my name had been used. And so I gave them my email address and they said,
18:32well, no, that's not the email address we've got here. So I said, but that's my bank account details
18:38and the money is going out of my bank account.
18:41The email address used to open the Audible account was not one he'd ever used. And Jeff says Audible
18:48told him it couldn't close the account because he wasn't the account holder. And in the meantime,
18:54he calculated he'd spent hundreds of pounds on what appeared to be someone else's Audible membership.
19:01So what did you want from them? A refund or what did you want?
19:04Yeah, I wanted a refund for all the payments they'd taken from my account.
19:08And they were having none of it? No, they wouldn't do it at all. And I went and told my
19:14bank about it
19:15and they refunded me for three years. They refunded you? Of payments.
19:19And did they stop those payments? Yeah, they stopped the payments,
19:23but they said I had to reimpose the block on Audible every 13 months.
19:28That 13 month time period is all to do with the way Audible memberships and a lot of other
19:34subscriptions are paid. So there are different types of payments that go out
19:38each month. Sometimes people have direct debits, sometimes people have standing orders,
19:42and sometimes there's this thing called a continuous payment authority. Direct debits
19:45and standing orders are sort of one type of beast that the bank themselves can cancel. They can say
19:50that's not going to happen anymore. A continuous payment authority comes from the requesting bank,
19:56which is why it's harder for your home bank to do anything about it. The standard position is that
20:02they'll put a block on that CPA, that continuous payment authority for 13 months, which is what they've told you.
20:07Jeff, I mean, you've tried to detangle this, haven't you? How much stress has it put you under?
20:12It's making me really worried about, you know, what else is going on in my account that I haven't
20:19detected yet or I haven't seen. And then there's the whole stress of I've got to think when I'm going
20:25to
20:25reimpose this block on every 13 months. I can understand why you're getting so annoyed with this.
20:32When you have spoken to Audible, what information have they been able to give you about the account?
20:37Well, they just send me a standard letter, which is that.
20:43Let's have a look. So, they're saying I was able to find the charge on another customer's account
20:50for an Audible subscription. If you still do not recognise this charge, this is a fraudulent charge.
20:57Please dispute the charge with your bank. So, looking at what Audible have said to you here,
21:01they're admitting that they are taking your money for someone else's account, which means they need
21:06to stop taking it. I really think they've got it wrong here.
21:10So, what does he need to do right now then?
21:12So, I think there are a couple of things. We need to talk to Audible, explain to them that the
21:17problem
21:17you're having is that they're taking your money. They have the control. They are able to not take
21:23that money. And then, on top of that, I think you can speak to the Financial Ombudsman Service
21:27about what's happening with your own bank. They can consider whether or not the bank's being
21:32reasonable by saying they'll only apply a block for 13 months. And actually, they might be able to
21:36step in and tell your bank to extend that block for longer.
21:39One other step would be for Geoff to cancel his card or change accounts altogether, which would
21:46stop the payments and any need to reinstate the block.
21:53But Geoff didn't need to take any of those steps after we got in touch with Audible.
21:58It told us that the account was originally set up in 2018, but had laid unused for years.
22:06Audible also said it takes allegations of unauthorized charges very seriously and understands Geoff's
22:12concerns. However, its strict privacy policies mean it cannot disclose details about one customer's
22:19account to another, even in cases where fraud is alleged. Audible encouraged people to get in
22:25touch with any similar concerns and confirmed to us that the account linked to Geoff's bank details
22:31has been closed. Geoff has probably lost at least £400 and Lisa believes his experience shows just
22:40how important it is that we all check our bank accounts for recurring payments every month.
22:46There'll be other people watching who will think, you know, it's definitely worth going through your
22:50bank accounts, isn't it, to watch those recurring payments. Definitely. I'm so glad you checked,
22:55because by checking what you've managed to do is stop this in its tracks.
23:01So, to help you spring clean your bank account for any recurring subscriptions,
23:06Lisa has this advice. Step one, pour over your statements going back more than a year.
23:12That'll mean you can spot charges that are made annually rather than monthly.
23:17Step two, highlight anything that you don't recognize and if you really can't remember,
23:22ask your bank what it was for. Step three, identify the type of payment, whether it's a direct debit,
23:30standing order or a continuous payment authority like Geoff's and tell your bank to cancel it.
23:37Step four, tell the company responsible to cancel the next payment and check the subscription won't
23:43auto renew without your say so. Step five, remember like Geoff's bank, yours might only be able to block a
23:51recurring card payment for 13 months, so keep checking. It's advice Geoff won't easily forget.
24:08Now, if you've got a problem and you think that our advice clinic team can help, and I know that
24:13they can,
24:13if you've got a problem, then do let us know. The email address is ripoffwritten at bbc.co.uk,
24:19and our WhatsApp number is 0-330-678-1321. And of course, we remind you of those details and
24:28the other ways to get in touch later on in the program. Well, Gary is back and we're also joined
24:33by consumer rights expert Martin James, because in a moment we're going to be quizzing them on some of the
24:38questions you've sent in. But first, for an update on a story we first covered in 2025, and I think
24:45it
24:45was one that you advised on here in HQ too, Gary. Do you remember the names Naz and Anita? Yeah,
24:52they
24:52were desperate for help after buying their first family home and discovering the dreaded Japanese
24:57knotweed in the garden. Here's a quick reminder.
25:04There was these big shoots as big as that that were growing here. I read about it and it seemed
25:11very scary to me because of what consequence it can have on the foundation. Japanese knotweed is an
25:20invasive plant that can wreak total havoc. Its strong roots have been known to grow through concrete and
25:26some people claim undermine building foundations. One of the pages here specifically asks for the
25:36presence of Japanese knotweed on the property or even in the surroundings, and it's clearly marked
25:42no by the sellers. Had the knotweed been declared by the sellers or in the survey, it could have affected
25:49Naz and Anita's ability to get a mortgage on the house and might even have stopped buying it altogether.
25:55But as the new owners, they are now stuck with it, not to mention the challenge of getting rid of
26:01it.
26:03To help them work out their options, we've got an expert opinion.
26:08Hi there, Anita.
26:09Thank you for coming back.
26:10Thank you very much.
26:12Matt Day is the director of Environet. It's one of a number of companies that can
26:17survey your property and detect and remove invasive plant species.
26:22And it doesn't take long for him to establish what Naz and Anita have to deal with.
26:28If we're looking at how long has it been on the property or within the area for,
26:32we're looking at least 10 years, but most likely 20 plus.
26:36If we were to excavate, prices range from around £5,000 to £15,000.
26:41That's shocking, Matt. That's a surprise because we didn't expect this.
26:46No. No, not at all.
26:47And this is additional cost, not of our making.
26:49Yeah, the cost you never accounted for.
26:51Yeah.
26:52Well, that is very, very scary, I have to say.
26:55And I would hate to find that in my garden with you.
26:58Yes.
26:58But I am thrilled to say that there is good news to report because after the advice that
27:03they were given on the programme, Naz and Anita raised a legal claim against the sellers of the
27:09house because the knotweed had not been declared on the sales paperwork. Now, the claim was settled
27:14before it went to court. And as a result, hey, Naz and Anita now have a good chunk of money.
27:20And the
27:20money, of course, is going to be spent on removing the knotweed for good. Gary, you must be happy with
27:25that legally. I'm really delighted, actually, because they were a lovely couple. And they
27:29had a sense that they'd been treated badly. But I think what we did here is to give them that
27:34oomph
27:35to make them go forward and to press their claim. And I'm really glad that there's been a satisfactory
27:39outcome. Well, time to put some more of your questions to Gary and Martin. And Martin, one for you
27:45from Nigel Williams in Flintshire, who says he paid nearly £130 for a suit online, but it never arrived.
27:52He says his bank account has shown that amount pending since he ordered the suit. And that means
27:58he can't spend the money again. The retailer says they now can't locate the transaction
28:03and isn't being any help. So what can Nigel do? Well, this is one of those frustrating computer says
28:09no moments, isn't it? Because whenever we transfer money, no matter what form that transfer takes,
28:15your bank or the medium that you use to send that money will always know where it's gone. Now,
28:20what I think has happened here is there may have been a problem, which means the details it's gone
28:24through to the other party's bank accounts, it hasn't been recognised. Money then sits in a holding
28:30account, waiting to be told where to go. Now, it just needs someone to do that. The obvious choice
28:36is your bank, and they should be getting on to this, and then it can be sent on to the
28:41suit company.
28:41Now, sometimes banks can be very difficult about doing this. So threaten to go to the free financial
28:49ombudsman service. That will get their attention.
28:52That should put something under their backsides, get them moving.
28:55Yeah. Well, that's one way of putting it, Julia. Gary, this one is for you this time. Catherine Lowe
29:00emailed on behalf of her dad, who used a courier company to send a WhatsApp that was worth £100,
29:05and he was sending it off for repair. Catherine says the tracking shows that it was delivered,
29:10but the jeweller says he never received it. Eight weeks on, her elderly parents are extremely upset,
29:15as the courier company is taking no responsibility. So is there any comeback for her?
29:20In legal terms, Catherine's dad has a contract with the courier company, and their job is to
29:27transport the goods to the destination, but we need some evidence in this case. So we need
29:33a statement from the jeweller to say, I have not received the watch. She then needs to go to the
29:38courier company and say, look, the jeweller has made this statement, the watch hasn't been received.
29:42Please prove to me that you have delivered the watch, and where did you deliver it to? Now,
29:48they should have a photograph, they should have perhaps something called a GPS stamp,
29:53which actually identifies where goods have been delivered. Now, if she gets that evidence,
29:58and it shows that the watch isn't at the jeweller's, then she then has her evidence to go to the
30:05courier
30:05company and say, you have not fulfilled your contract, and she can then raise a formal complaint. So
30:12she needs to piece together that evidence methodically, and then go for it.
30:17Now, next to broadband. In what feels like no time has gone from a useful service to an absolutely
30:23essential one, which is why so much effort is being plied into ensuring as many homes as possible can
30:30access a super fast full fibre connection. But if you rent your home, or you don't own the freehold,
30:36then like the woman we're about to meet, you could discover that even though the cables you need for
30:42that lightning fast connection run right up to the pavement outside your house, getting permission to
30:47connect across the final few metres into your living room could be a hurdle that seems impossible to clear.
30:58This is where I live. Come on in. This is my office. This is where I spend most of my
31:05time.
31:07Freelance arts producer Sarah Bryn rents this house in Lewisham in South London,
31:12and often works from her own specially adapted home office.
31:16I have a muscular skeletal disorder called Ehlers-Danlos, which makes certain things more difficult or more
31:22painful. So I've got a few things here that help me work ergonomically.
31:27And this setup helps me kind of look straight ahead and keep my body in the healthiest position possible.
31:33But thanks to unreliable and patchy broadband at home, Sarah has had to abandon this setup and...
31:41Instead, I have to work at coffee shops like this.
31:46Sarah is a regular here.
31:48Hi, I want to get for you today.
31:50And it's become a rather expensive...
31:52It's been a small fortune buying coffees just so I could legitimise using the wi-fi at these coffee shops.
31:58Not to mention painful makeshift home office.
32:02I have something called cervical cranial instability. It physically hurts to look down at a computer for as
32:09little as five or ten minutes at a time. It feels a little unprofessional to be in a busy environment
32:15and have a Zoom call. Sarah's been calling this place working from home since August 2025,
32:24when her home broadband started to glitch. I wasn't able to access the network. It was a mess.
32:31The internet quality had become so poor that I wasn't able to work at all.
32:36Sarah's lack of speedy broadband is not for want of trying. In fact, she signed a contract for a
32:42super-fast full-fiber connection with her supplier Vodafone in August 2025, which promised to solve
32:49her broadband woes. But she hit an unexpected hurdle when the engineer came a few weeks later.
32:58It turns out that the technician needed something called a permission-to-work
33:02form. And I was told that there was a third party who needed to sign, but they could not tell
33:08me who
33:08that was.
33:10Permission to work is a type of contractual agreement that's needed by broadband providers to install
33:16cables in other people's land. And in this case, it turned out it was the freeholder who owned the
33:23land on which Sarah's rented house was built who had to sign it off. Without it, network infrastructure
33:30provider OpenReach had to put Sarah's full-fiber installation on hold. And although the
33:37installation seemed like a simple job…
33:40Sarah O'All they need to do is run a cable underground from here to here.
33:53I had to ask my landlord to communicate to me from the freeholder what pieces of information
34:02they were looking for. Then I had to go to OpenReach and they had to give me answers to their
34:06questions.
34:07And then I had to go back to my landlord who went back to the freeholder. And this went back
34:11and forth
34:11over and over and over. So I was really feeling stuck. I was really feeling overlooked and really frustrated.
34:21By November, Sarah had been working in the coffee shop for three months,
34:26with no indication of progress with the freeholder.
34:29There was no more information we could give. I was like, wow, this really shouldn't be this
34:34difficult. I was like, do I have to move? Do I have to move to a place where it's not
34:38this
34:38difficult and complex to get internet access?
34:42That would be an extreme measure. But it's true to say that while 78% of homes can access full
34:49-fiber
34:50broadband, the near 20-year rollout program is sometimes beset by snags. That's because getting
34:57full-fiber to the street is often the simple part. The complications tend to arise in the last few
35:03metres where the cable enters your home, since a freeholder can block a householder's right to
35:10upgrade their internet speed simply by doing nothing. It's an all-too-familiar problem for this
35:16OpenReach team, who are out on jobs in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.
35:20And these are all together.
35:22Regional Build Manager Tom Westall says the red tape around permissions is frustrating. He delivers
35:29around 5,000 connections to residents in apartment blocks across Merseyside and Cheshire every three
35:35months, but says there are plenty of properties with significant delays. Like this block of flats.
35:42So originally this building has probably been within our work stack for just shy of a year.
35:48And there's been a last-minute hitch.
35:51The actual building itself has been sold to a new owner, so we're actually struggling with
35:56contact with them at the moment. They're unresponsive.
35:58The previous owner had finally granted permission for the tenants to get full fiber
36:03after a year of negotiations. But the managing agent has changed just before installation,
36:09so it's back to the drawing board.
36:14But today there is one site that has finally got the green light after 112 days.
36:20We're here in Altrincham where we've had the successful go-ahead to upgrade their network
36:27to full fiber optics.
36:29Specialist engineer Phil Idden is looking after the installation.
36:33So this is a complex building and we can upgrade it fully within three days.
36:40So here we have a typical plant room that we find in a multi-dwelling unit. And in this one,
36:46my good
36:47colleague is just completing the final set of splicers to upgrade this building. We've got our old
36:55copper network that has served us very well up until this point. But this is fresh cable,
37:02and that will upgrade the network so that it is capable of ultra-fast speeds.
37:08This is all completed, so jobs are good'un.
37:12Back in Lewisham, Sarah has been without fast and reliable broadband for five months,
37:18but, fingers crossed, is due her own visit from Openreach soon. That's because after three months
37:25waiting, the freeholder has finally granted permission. I was like, whoa, is this real?
37:30Am I dreaming? So I'm glad it's hopefully over soon.
37:36While Sarah is happy with the progress update, she thinks changes are needed so that tenants aren't
37:42held back by an unresponsive freeholder, since, as it stands, there are no rules compelling them to
37:48engage in the process. I think it needs to be easier for tenants to gain access to basic services
37:55in situations like this. They shouldn't have to be dependent on a freeholder in order to get
38:02something as simple as internet access. When we put the details of Sarah's case to Openreach,
38:10it told us her situation illustrates how upgrading customers can be painfully slow,
38:16as gaining permission to complete the work can depend on legal processes, landowner consent,
38:22negotiations, and sometimes complex ownership arrangements, and explained that it's a manual,
38:28administrative process as much as a physical engineering one. When we spoke to the freeholder,
38:35it blamed a lack of communication from Openreach as the main cause of the delays, while highlighting
38:42that its obligations and responsibilities under the terms of the lease are very limited, and that,
38:48in this case, it had acted very reasonably and put a huge amount of time into resolving the situation.
38:58Well, I'm joined now by tech expert David McClellan to unravel what on earth has been happening with
39:03fiber in the UK. But firstly, I want to share this update from Sarah. Hi, this is a quick update
39:09to say
39:09that I have the internet now. I have to relearn what it's like to have the internet at home, but
39:14I am glad
39:16this chapter is over. Whoa, I'm not surprised. That is one happy lady. One of the things we saw in
39:23that
39:23film was Openreach, who are obviously very keen for full fiber to be delivered around the country,
39:29but they are facing issues, aren't they? Yeah, so Openreach is one of the companies,
39:34the largest of the companies, charged with bringing this full fiber or gigabit broadband to our homes.
39:39But actually getting that full fiber into our homes is proving really, really difficult and fraught with
39:45red tape because of landlords, of landowners, freehold owners of blocks of flats and things like that.
39:52Now, there was a piece of legislation called the Renters' Rights Act, and that gained royal assent late in 2025.
39:59Now, at one point, it looked as though that would mean that landlords, that owners of properties,
40:05would need to respond within a much shorter timeframe that would speed up this whole process.
40:11Unfortunately, that was pulled out of the act just before it gained royal assent.
40:16But the good news is that the government launched a consultation late in 2025 to not only include
40:23people who are tenants, but also include people who live in these high rise blocks of flats to make
40:29sure that their voices are heard. So, I've got a good idea. We are going to do a quick speed
40:34test.
40:34Okay.
40:35When I say we, I'm going to be asking the questions and you're going to be doing the answers.
40:38Okay. Your starter for one. What is full fibre?
40:42Okay. So, full fibre broadband is the fastest type of broadband we can get into our homes,
40:46where that super-fast fibre cable comes right into our homes, doesn't stop in the cabinet by
40:50the side of the road. Why might I want full fibre?
40:53Full fibre is super-fast, doesn't slow down at busy times, it's far more reliable,
40:57and importantly, it's future-proof. There's a lot of scope for growth in there.
41:02Is my existing broadband going away?
41:04Copper lines are gradually being phased out and replaced by full fibre, but there are no
41:09national plans to rip and replace the old copper quite yet.
41:13What will having fibre broadband mean I can do that I couldn't before?
41:16Well, things like working from home more reliably, watching television, live-stream videos,
41:21even at busy times without buffering, better video calls. Basically, you'll be able to do all
41:26of the things that you want to do without the kind of spinny wheels that you can get sometimes.
41:31What does it look like outside my home and inside my home?
41:34Really good question. So, essentially, a new line going over the telegraph pole to the outside
41:39of your house or underground to a little junction box on the outside of the house, going into your
41:43house, into another box, into your broadband router. So, very similar to what you've already got.
41:47Do I have to have fibre?
41:48No. If you're moving into a new-build home, then you might have no choice, but generally speaking,
41:53you won't have to. But, for all the reasons above, you might actually want to have it.
41:59Quickfire is over. Thank you.
42:02Well, David McClelland, at the end of that round, you have scored maximum points,
42:07and we look forward to seeing you in the next round. Thank you, Julia.
42:38If you've got a problem and you think
42:41you've got a problem, please include your phone number if you can, and don't send us
42:45any original documents, as we won't be able to return them.
42:52Well, that's just about it for today. But if you've missed anything that we've talked about,
42:56from how to spot and cancel subscription payments to how you can check the type of
43:01ground that your home is actually built on, then you can always catch up this programme and many
43:05others on BBC iPlayer. There's also loads of advice on all sorts of other subjects on our website,
43:12bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain. For today, though, thank you so much for joining us. And from everyone on
43:18the team, it's time to say goodbye. Bye-bye.
43:48Bye-bye.
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