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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.
00:34This 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
00:58another S, 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 open reach and then I had to go
01:15back to my
01:16landlord who went back to the freeholder and this went back and forth over and over and over.
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 sure
01:42that 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 from the
01:50start but the insurance claim that followed has been beset with problems and rejections
01:55which has left them feeling that the people making decisions about their claim don't really
02:01understand the problem.
02:02Which doesn't bode very well because as climate change leads to hotter drier summers which cause
02:08the ground beneath our homes to shrink subsidence could become a problem more and more of us have to face.
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. I've been here for 25 years and we're just ready to lead
02:29city 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.
02:47But 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
02:59by far the biggest crack and over time it's grown. You can even fit a 50p piece in that crack.
03:08Subsidence is when the grind beneath the building sinks, making the foundations unstable
03:13and often causing cracks and structural damage to the property.
03:17Helen and Josh discovered it in August 2022.
03:21We were really shocked. This was a house that we had just bought that was going to be our dream
03:26house
03:27and we had lots of plans and ideas and suddenly everything was put on hold. So we were pretty devastated.
03:33Helen and Josh called their home insurer AXA and asked for help. AXA instructed loss adjusters,
03:40Crawford and company to investigate. Their report focused attention on the 23-year-old extension at the
03:47back of the house and 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 and revealed,
04:00much 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. But this came as news to Helen and Josh,
04:22who'd only bought the house a year earlier. We kind of couldn't believe it because when we bought the house,
04:28you know, we had building surveys, we 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 to do their
04:50own assessments at a cost of £450 and it disputed Crawford's findings. So Crawford sent in subsidence
04:59specialists for yet more tests. They dug another two trial pits and they came back with the same
05:05conclusion that the foundations weren't adequate. By now it had been a year since the cracks had first
05:11appeared and they were no closer to a resolution. We were pretty devastated at that point. We were pretty
05:18angry as well that 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
05:50of expense. So after the two reports were rejected, we were really determined we weren't going to take
05:57this line down. We were so convinced that we were right, that this building was fine and ultimately we just
06:04wanted to get our house repaired. To prove Crawford was wrong about the depth of the foundations,
06:09the couple got an independent firm to dig their own trial pit and found that the foundations were not
06:1512 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. We thought this was going to be
06:34the beginning of the end effectively and we were going to be able to move and sell the house.
06:39By now it was October 2024. Helen and Josh had spent £1,740 and 25 months proving something that
06:48Crawford should have got right from the outset. When presented with the proof, AXA finally agreed to pay out.
06:55I was in my office at work when I got a phone call from the insurance company and it was
07:01just total
07:03jubilation. I honestly couldn't believe what I was hearing. We had just been fighting this for two and
07:07a half years and suddenly they believed us. Things could at long last get moving. Crawford and company
07:15apologised, admitting that the site investigations weren't up to scratch and reimbursed the money Helen and
07:21Josh had spent on independent surveys. Attention turned to stopping the subsidence by removing the tree
07:30and after 12 months of monitoring 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.
07:41We were thrilled we could move to repairs.
07:45But a further six months down the line the property has still not been fully repaired. Helen says that
07:52it's been a fight to get the work signed off. Right now we're having to painstakingly go
08:00crack by crack, issue by issue, damage by damage and say this isn't subsidence or proof that this is
08:06and it's just a long long period. Helen believes that the subsidence has damaged the floor of the extension.
08:15You see that the door sticks a little bit. But the loss adjuster Crawford doesn't agree.
08:23We've lost all trust and faith in their assessments on the house because they've been proved wrong so many
08:30times. So we just can't trust their word. The delays have come at a significant cost
08:35since Helen and Josh's fixed rate mortgage term has expired. And until the work is completed
08:41they can't get a new deal and they're stuck on a higher rate. So we've ended up actually having
08:48to pay around £500 a month more on our mortgage. So again it feels like we're being trapped in this
08:55house
08:55and we're kind of being held ransom to it until we solve the subsidence issue. We are just totally
09:03and 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,
09:38we have to state the fact that the property has had a history of subsidence. If you were to go
09:42to
09:42market without rectifying the issues obviously buyers are going to be put off when they see it.
09:47And 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
10:00are completed quickly and properly. I think if you've dealt with everything correctly I don't think it's
10:06going to stop you selling it and I don't think it's going to affect the overall value massively.
10:10What it will do is put off a few people, maybe drop the value anywhere from around the 5%
10:17mark
10:17from what it should be. Even with a drop in the likely sale price, Helen is relieved.
10:23Hearing 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 and
10:34ready 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
10:46Crawford's assessments wrong, things you know might have been very different.
10:51So joining me now in HQ to discuss what we can all take from their experiences are building industry
10:58expert Roger Bisbee and solicitor Gary Rycroft. Gary, when mistakes are made like that by official people
11:07what are your rights overall? Well the mistakes were made by the loss adjusters. Now loss adjusters are
11:14appointed and paid for by the insurance company. I'm not saying they're biased but certainly if you're on
11:20the receiving end of their reports you can absolutely question their conclusions. You can ask questions and if
11:27things don't stack up you can commission your own report. Now that does have a cost but it might be
11:33a
11:33really good investment if the outcome of commissioning your own report is an insurance claim that is
11:38successful rather than one that's rejected. Gary says getting your own survey can also be used as
11:45evidence if 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 very sorry
11:58for the
11:58distress and frustration that she and Josh have experienced. It says subsidence claims can be particularly
12:04challenging, often requiring extensive investigation, monitoring and engagement with multiple parties to assess the
12:11cause and deliver an effective solution. Crawford said that it is now working to resolve the outstanding issued.
12:19Meanwhile, AXA admitted that the service the couple received fell short, adding that it is reviewing
12:24what went wrong and working closely with its suppliers to ensure that it doesn't happen again. AXA confirmed
12:31all aspects of the claim will be covered in full, the remaining work will be completed as quickly as possible
12:37and that Helen and Josh will be reimbursed for the cost of the independent surveys and provided
12:43with compensation. So they'll be very glad to hear that. And I'm very pleased to say that since filming,
12:50AXA has appointed a new claim handler to manage the claim and Helen and Josh will soon be moving into
12:56alternative accommodation while the repairs take place. But aside from Helen and Josh's experience,
13:03subsidence is something more and more of us may soon experience thanks to the impact of climate
13:08change on the ground that our homes are built on. Roger, we're going to turn to the problem of the
13:14subsidence itself. It is apparently getting more common, but why is that? The weather that we're
13:20getting now, they tell us we just had the hottest summer on record, then we have the wettest winter and
13:24it does play havoc with ground conditions. It will heave when it's wet and it will shrink when it's dry
13:31and
13:31that will have an effect on the house and the foundation. So that's why we're getting more
13:37building movement than we used to get. Roger says the ground in which your property is built on
13:42can be crucial in determining the risk of subsidence. And it turns out that over four million homes in
13:49Britain are built on something that's especially susceptible, clay. What happens is it swells when it
13:56gets wet and then it shrinks when it gets dry and it's causing these problems with the cracks. And
14:02then something like sand is all right most of the time. It's the water that will wash the sand away
14:08and then you'll get the subsidence. So if you're buying a house that's built on sand, get the drains
14:13checked out, get a camera survey on the drains. Then you get things like chalk. Chalk's pretty good,
14:18except that sometimes you get underground streams and that will open up chasms suddenly and sometimes
14:23catastrophically. So Roger here's the big question. How can we all tell actually if we want to
14:28investigate what our home is actually built on? Well there's a great thing called the British
14:34Geological Survey and it's free. So we put a postcode in here and it zooms straight into exactly where we
14:41are now. And if we click on that it tells us that the bedrock geology here is a chest of
14:49formation
14:51sandstone, 247 million years old. Is that all? Well it could be 250. They're a bit vague on that.
14:57So we're on sandstone, which is pretty solid stuff, but over the top of it are 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 money in
15:16the 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
15:26surveys and
15:27so on. So would the risk of subsidence turn up on the survey? I've read lots of surveys over the
15:33years.
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
16:07will put you in a better position if you do eventually want to make an insurance claim because
16:12in effect, that's your first report. I want to go to the selling aspect of it. If you know that
16:18you
16:19have a risk of subsidence, presumably there must be very strong advice that you have to give people
16:23like that about what they declare up front. Absolutely, 100%. If you are selling a property,
16:29you have to be open and transparent about any historic issues that they've been with regard to the
16:35structure. And if you aren't, it's a potential misrepresentation and you can be sued by the
16:41buyer. What good advice. Well, thank you both very much. Really a lot to absorb and I appreciate you
16:46coming in. Thank you. And we've put all of that advice and a link to the website that Roger mentioned
16:51on our own website. That's bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain. But now it's time to put more experts to work
16:59on your
16:59problems in the advice clinic. The 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 to get
17:14your money back to you. Here's our home today for the advice clinic, BBC Radio Berkshire in Reading,
17:24which is super exciting for me because this is where I began my career as a reporter over 30 years
17:30ago. The team are inside. They'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
17:41for Amazon's audiobook service, Audible, that's been leaving his bank account without his knowledge
17:47for years. Solicitor Lisa Webb from Consumer Group, which is on hand to help.
17:54Jeff, come in here. Hopefully we might be able to get some answers to some of your questions.
17:58Take a seat there. This is Lisa Webb. Jeff's issues began in October 2025 when he was checking his bank
18:05statement and spotted an £8.99 payment to Audible, which he hadn't approved. And when he checked his
18:12old statements, the same payment kept occurring. Had you ever, as far as you remember, had an account
18:18with Audible? No, not at all. Never. I called up Audible to find out what was going on. They said
18:25there was an account with Audible, that my name had been used. And so I gave them my email address
18:31and they said, well, no, that's not the email address we've got here. So I said, but that's my bank
18:37account details and the money is going out of my bank account. The email address used to open the
18:44Audible account was not one he'd ever used. And Jeff says Audible told him it couldn't close the
18:50account because he wasn't the account holder. And in the meantime, he calculated he'd spent hundreds
18:56of pounds on what appeared to be someone else's Audible membership. So what did you want from them?
19:02A refund or what did you want? Yeah, I wanted a refund for all the payments they'd taken from my
19:08account. And they were having none of it? No, they wouldn't do it at all. And I went and told
19:14my
19:14bank about it and they refunded me for three years. They refunded you? A payment. And did they stop
19:20those payments? Yeah, they stopped the payments, but they said I had to reimpose the block on Audible
19:26every 13 months. That 13 month time period is all to do with the way Audible
19:32memberships and a lot of other subscriptions are paid. So there are different types of payments
19:38that go out each month. Sometimes people have direct debits, sometimes people have standing
19:41orders, and 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
20:06they've told you. Jeff, I mean, you've tried to detangle this, haven't you? How much stress has it put
20:11you under? It's making me really worried about, you know, what else is going on in my account that I
20:18haven't detected yet or I haven't seen. And then there's the whole stress of I've got to think when
20:25I'm going to reimpose this block on every 13 months.
20:30I can understand why you're getting so annoyed with this. When you have spoken to Audible, what
20:35information have they been able to give you about the account?
20:37They 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 for an
20:51Audible subscription. If you still do not recognize this charge, this is a fraudulent charge. Please
20:57dispute the charge with your bank. So looking at what Audible have said to you here, they're admitting
21:01that they are taking your money for someone else's account, which means they need to stop taking it.
21:08Yeah. I really think they've got it wrong here.
21:09Yeah. So 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 about
21:28what's happening with your own bank. They can consider whether or not the bank's being reasonable by
21:33saying they'll only apply a block for 13 months. And actually, they might be able to step in and tell
21:37your bank to extend that block for longer. One other step would be for Jeff to cancel his card or
21:43change
21:44accounts altogether, which would stop the payments and any need to reinstate the block.
21:53But Jeff didn't need to take any of those steps after we got in touch with Audible. It told us
21:59that the
22:00account was originally set up in 2018, but had laid unused for years. Audible also said it takes
22:07allegations of unauthorised charges very seriously and understands Jeff's concerns. However, its strict
22:15privacy policies mean it cannot disclose details about one customer's account to another, even in
22:21cases where fraud is alleged. Audible encouraged people to get in touch with any similar concerns and
22:27confirmed to us that the account linked to Jeff's bank details has been closed.
22:34Jeff has probably lost at least £400 and Lisa believes his experience shows just how important
22:40it 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 bank
22:51accounts, 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,
23:05Lisa 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 recognise and if you really can't remember,
23:22ask your bank what it was for.
23:25Step three, identify the type of payment, whether it's a direct debit, standing order or a continuous
23:32payment authority like Jeff's and tell your bank to cancel it. Step four, tell the company responsible
23:39to cancel the next payment and check the subscription won't auto renew without your say so. Step five,
23:47remember like Jeff's bank, yours might only be able to block a recurring card payment
23:52for 13 months. So keep checking. It's advice Jeff 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
24:13can, then do let us know. The email address is ripoffwritten at bbc.co.uk and our WhatsApp number is
24:25030306781321. And of course, we remind you of those details and the other ways to get in touch
24:29later on in the programme.
24:31Well, Gary is back and we're also joined by consumer rights expert, Martin James, because in a moment,
24:36we're going to be quizzing them on some of the questions you've sent in. But first, for an update
24:41on a story we first covered in 2025, and I think it was one that you advised on here in
24:47HQ too, Gary.
24:48Do you remember the names Naz and Anita? Yeah, they were desperate for help after buying their first
24:54family home and discovering the dreaded Japanese knotweed in the garden. Here's a quick reminder.
25:04There was these big shoots as big as that that were growing here.
25:09I read about it and it seemed very scary to me because of what consequence it can have on the
25:16foundation. Japanese knotweed is an invasive plant that can wreak total havoc. Its strong roots have
25:24been known to grow through concrete and some people claim undermine building foundations.
25:30One of the pages here specifically asks for the presence of Japanese knotweed on the property or
25:39even in the surroundings, and it's clearly marked no by the sellers. Had the knotweed been declared by the
25:46sellers or in the survey, it could have affected Naz and Anita's ability to get a mortgage on the house,
25:52and might even have stopped them buying it altogether. But as the new owners, they are now stuck with it,
25:59not to mention the challenge of getting rid of it. To help them work out their options,
26:04we've got an expert opinion. Matt Day is the director of Environet. It's one of a number of companies
26:16that can survey your property and detect and remove invasive plant species. And it doesn't take long for
26:24him to establish what Naz and Anita have to deal with. If we're looking at how long has it been
26:30on
26:30the property or within the area for, we're looking at least 10 years, but most likely 20 plus. If we
26:37were to excavate, prices range from around £5,000 to £15,000. That's shocking, Matt. That's a
26:43price because we didn't expect this. No, not at all. And this is additional cost, not of our making.
26:49Yeah, the cost you never accounted for. Yeah. Well, that is very, very scary, I have to say,
26:55and I would hate to find that in my garden with new. But I am thrilled to say that there
27:01is good
27:01news to report because after the advice that they were given on the programme, Naz and Anita raised a
27:06legal claim against the sellers of the house because the knotweed had not been declared on the sales
27:12paperwork. Now, the claim was settled before it went to court. And as a result, hey, Naz and Anita now
27:18have a good chunk of money. And the money, of course, going to be spent on removing the knotweed for
27:23good. Gary, you must be happy with that legally. I'm really delighted, actually, because they're
27:27a lovely couple. And they had a sense that they'd been treated badly. But I think what we did here
27:33is to give them that oomph to make them go forward and to press their claim. And I'm really glad
27:38that
27:38there's been a satisfactory outcome. Well, time to put some more of your questions to Gary and Martin.
27:44And Martin, one for you from Nigel Williams in Flintshire, who says he paid nearly £130 for a suit
27:50online, but it never arrived. He says his bank account has shown that amount pending since he ordered
27:57the suit. And that means he can't spend the money again. The retailer says they now can't locate the
28:02transaction and isn't being any help. So what can Nigel do? Well, this is one of those frustrating
28:08computer says no moments, isn't it? Because whenever we transfer money, no matter what form that transfer
28:14takes, your bank or the medium that you use to send that money will always know where it's gone.
28:19Now, what I think has happened here is there may have been a problem, which means the details it's
28:24gone through 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 is
28:36your
28:36bank and they should be getting on to this and then it can be sent on to the suit company.
28:42Now,
28:42sometimes banks can be very difficult about doing this. So threaten to go to the free financial
28:49ombudsman service that will get their attention. That should put something under their backsides,
28:54get them moving. Yep, quite well. Well, that's one way of putting it, Julia.
28:58Gary, this one is for you this time. Catherine Lowe emailed on behalf of her dad, who used a courier
29:03company to send a watch that was worth £100 and he was sending it off for repair. Catherine says
29:08the tracking shows that it was delivered, but the jeweller says he never received it. Eight weeks on,
29:13her elderly parents are extremely upset as the courier company is taking no responsibility. So,
29:19is there any comeback for her? In legal terms, Catherine's dad has a contract with the courier
29:25company and their job is to transport the goods to the destination, but we need some evidence in this case.
29:31So, we need a statement from the jeweller to say, I have not received the watch. She then needs to
29:37go to the courier company and say, look, the jeweller has made this statement, the watch hasn't been
29:41received. Please 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, which actually
29:53identifies where goods have been delivered. Now, if she gets that evidence and it shows that the watch
30:00isn't at the jeweller's, then she then has her evidence to go to the courier company and say,
30:06you have not fulfilled your contract and she can then raise a formal complaint. So, she needs to
30:12piece together that evidence methodically and then go for it. Now, next to broadband,
30:19in what feels like no time has gone from a useful service to an absolutely essential one,
30:24which is why so much effort is being plied into ensuring as many homes as possible can access a
30:30super 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 Brinn rents this house in Lewisham in South London
31:12and often works from her own specially adapted home office. I have a muscular skeletal disorder
31:18called Ehlers-Danlos which makes certain things more difficult or more painful. So, I've got a few
31:24things here that help me work ergonomically and this setup helps me kind of look straight ahead and
31:30keep my body in the healthiest position possible. But thanks to unreliable and patchy broadband at home,
31:37Sarah has had to abandon this setup and… Instead, I have to work at coffee shops like this.
31:46Sarah is a regular here. And it's become a rather expensive… I spent a small fortune buying
31:54coffees just so I could legitimise using the Wi-Fi at these coffee shops. Not to mention painful makeshift
32:01home office. I have something called cervical cranial instability. It physically hurts to
32:06look down at a computer for as little as five or ten minutes at a time. It feels a little
32:11unprofessional to be in a busy environment and have a Zoom call. Sarah's been calling this place
32:20working from home since August 2025 when her home broadband started to glitch. I wasn't able to access
32:29the network. It was a mess. The internet quality had become so poor that I wasn't able to work at
32:34all.
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 her
32:49broadband 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 form. And I was told
33:04that there was a third party who needed to sign, but they could not tell me who that 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 land
33:23on
33:24which Sarah's rented house was built who had to sign it off. Without it, network infrastructure provider
33:30OpenReach had to put Sarah's full-fiber installation on hold. And although the installation seemed like a
33:39simple job, all they need to do is run a cable underground from here
33:47to here. Getting the paperwork signed certainly wasn't. I had to ask my landlord to communicate
33:59to me from the freeholder what pieces of information they were looking for. Then I had to go to OpenReach
34:04and they had to give me answers to their questions. And then I had to go back to my landlord
34:08who went
34:09back to the freeholder. And this went back and forth over and over and over. So I was really feeling
34:16stuck. I was really feeling overlooked and really frustrated. By November, Sarah had been working in the
34:24coffee shop for three months with no indication of progress with the freeholder. There was no more
34:30information we could give. I was like, wow, this really shouldn't be this difficult. I was like,
34:34do I have to move? Do I have to move to a place where it's not this difficult and complex
34:39to get
34:40internet access? That would be an extreme measure. But it's true to say that while 78% of homes can
34:49access full-fiber broadband, the near 20-year rollout program is sometimes beset by snags. That's because
34:56getting full fibre to the street is often the simple part. The complications tend to arise in
35:03the last few metres where the cable enters your home, since a freeholder can block a householder's
35:10right to upgrade their internet speed simply by doing nothing. It's an all too familiar problem for
35:16this OpenReach team, who are out on jobs in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. And these are all together.
35:21Yeah. Regional Build Manager Tom Westall says the red tape around permissions is frustrating. He
35:29delivers around 5,000 connections to residents in apartment blocks across Merseyside and Cheshire
35:34every three months, but says there are plenty of properties with significant delays. Like this block
35:42of flats. So 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. The actual building itself has been sold to a new owner,
35:54and so we're actually struggling with contact with them at the moment. They're unresponsive.
35:58The previous owner had finally granted permission for the tenants to get full fibre after a year of
36:05negotiations. But the managing agent has changed just before installation, so it's back to the drawing board.
36:14But today there is one site that has finally got the green light after 112 days.
36:21We're here in Altrincham where we've had the successful go-ahead to upgrade their network to full fibre optics.
36:29Specialist engineer Phil Idden is looking after the installation.
36:32So 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 and that will
37:03upgrade the network so that it is capable of ultra fast speeds. This is all completed, so jobs are good
37:10'un.
37:12Back in Lewisham, Sarah has been without fast and reliable broadband for five months, but fingers
37:19crossed, is due her own visit from Openreach soon. That's because after three months waiting, the freeholder
37:27has finally granted permission. I was like, whoa, is this real? Am I dreaming? So I'm glad it's hopefully over
37:35soon.
37:36While Sarah is happy with the progress update, she thinks changes are needed so that tenants aren't held back by
37:43an unresponsive freeholder. Since, as it stands, there are no rules compelling them to engage in the process.
37:50I think it needs to be easier for tenants to gain access to basic services in situations like this.
37:58They shouldn't have to be dependent on a freeholder in order to get something as simple as internet access.
38:07When we put the details of Sarah's case to Openreach, it told us
38:11her situation illustrates how upgrading customers can be painfully slow, as gaining permission to
38:17complete the work can depend on legal processes, landowner consent, negotiations, and sometimes
38:24complex ownership arrangements, and explained that it's a manual, administrative process as much as a
38:31physical engineering one. When we spoke to the freeholder, it blamed a lack of communication from
38:38open reach as the main cause of the delays, while highlighting that its obligations and responsibilities
38:44under the terms of the lease are very limited, and that in this case, it had acted very reasonably
38:51and 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
39:03fibre in the UK. But firstly, I want to share this update from Sarah.
39:08Hi, this is a quick update to say that I have the internet now. I have to relearn what it's
39:13like
39:13to have the internet at home, but I am glad this chapter is over.
39:19Whoa, I'm not surprised. That is one happy lady. One of the things we saw in that film was
39:24open reach, who are obviously very keen for full fibre to be delivered around the country, but they
39:30are facing issues, aren't they? Yeah, so open reach is one of the companies,
39:34the largest of the companies charged with bringing this full fibre or gigabit broadband to our homes.
39:39But actually getting that full fibre 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.
40:35And when I say we, I'm going to be asking the questions and you're going to be doing the answers.
40:38Okay, okay.
40:38Your 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 the side
40:51of the road.
40:51Why 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, 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
41:38of 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.
41:46Do 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
42:45send us any 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.
43:07There'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
43:17everyone on the team, it's time to say goodbye. Bye-bye.
43:47Bye-bye.
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