Phone sockets in new builds

Hughes · 28th September 2007, 15:53

We have just moved into a new build house. There are phone sockets in each room but no wiring behind them (!?) We spoke to the developer who said it was 'our responsibility to connect them'. Is this normal as it seems a bit ridiculous. Is phone socket wiring covered by NHBC?

Tony · 29th September 2007, 11:45

yes it is normal for them not to connect the secondary phone sockets the wire will be there just not connected, they often won't install the TV aerial either. They didn't tell you that in the sales office

Bugbait · 8th November 2007, 10:02

Unfortunately you need to read the fine print and make sure it's explicitly stated in print, be it the contract (best) or the sales brochure assuming no additional fine print attached.

All the apartments in our new build came pre-installed with phone, TV, and even satellite ports with a cupboard full of amplifiers to boost the signals. And yes, I checked the contract for these because it's safe to assume builders are scum

zednine · 22nd November 2007, 23:33

bullsh*t .. there should be cables behind all of the phone sockets, these will end up at the master bt socket, normally by the front door, when bt come and fit this they will connect your cable to it..

if you have phone sockets in your house with no wires the electrician has forgot to put them in!!! why fit a phone plate with no wires behind it???????

compensation

yes the aerials are you responibility

ps i am an electrician

Death_Eater · 12th May 2008, 23:56

I work for BT Openreach on a lot of new sites, I have found that in 99% of new builds only the master socket is connected.

This is due to the fact of internal fault charges being raised, caused by incorrect installation by electrification's.

We are only responsible for the first socket in the house/flat, if you were to accidentally put a fault on the line and required an engineer to visit, you could be charged over £100 to fix it. Initially the developer was swallowing this cost but alas no more.

PaulM · 3rd November 2008, 23:53

Our house is a strange one, it DID have all the extensions wired in, but there was a terrible noise on the line. The BT master socket WASN'T a BT master socket, apparently the people on site have/had "done a deal" with the BT engineer so the house builders provided the sockets, the first socket in the house isn't the standard openreach (or previous BT version) of socket at all, just a plain, regular socket.

I did some googling and just disconnected the bell wire, which seemed to have cured the noise on all the lines. To be fair, the electrician did spend some time trying to fix the noise, but came up blank, so I ended up DIYing it.

GKandR4CH · 27th November 2008, 09:28

We were not so lucky in our new Bryant home.
We have 2 sockets that are completely unuseable in ridiculous locations and I had to wire a 3rd socket into the house. It looks awful having wires running up the front and back of the house.
Our previous home had 4 sockets (2 in the lounge) and they were all connected.
It seems when you complain to Bryant Homes they state they cannot move sockets at the Build stage. Weird how they moved the sockets for our neighbours.

GK