Help! Relocate neighbouring power line

Eiji · Mar 13, 2024 8:34 pm

Hi all,

We are looking to knockdown rebuild our property, however our neighbour's power line runs across the front of our property and builders are suggesting it to be relocated either into a pit or to another pole.

I have spoke to my electricity distributor and they have referred me to Zinfra, who have told me to speak to an electrician. I have spoken to an electrician and he says the easiest thing to do is to have the line relocated to the pole across the street and to speak with my electricity distributor, so I am now back at square one!

If anyone has any experience, advice or can recommend an electrician for the job (Victoria, eastern suburbs) I will be forever grateful!

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Denali · Mar 15, 2024 9:10 am

We had very similar situation (Sydney build) and installed a private power pole on the corner of the neighbours property for their line. Its high enough for trucks to get under and cranes to make deliveries.

Our neighbour power pole on LHS of pic
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Do not do this. A knock down up the road did this and the build has been shut down for weeks. This was after the tiger tails were installed on a Sunday by emergency crew because for 3 days there were no tiger tails so live wires were going through the scaffolding. Site still shut down. My SS was stunned when we told him so he took a walk to take pics.

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Eiji · Mar 18, 2024 7:29 pm

Wow denali ! Those wires going to the scaffolding is insane! I'm surprised they let it get that far before works got stopped.

With the power pole you put up for the neighbour, what happened after you finished your build? Were they able to run the line over your property again? Or did you have to put their line into a pit underground?

Denali · Mar 19, 2024 7:08 am

The wires through the scaffolding build are still shut down and yesterday the builder paid for the neighbour’s private power pole (like we did) to be installed. So, I’m guessing the Grade 2 electricians will be back to remove the wires from the scaffolding and attach them to the power pole in the next few days. Neighbourhood gossip is up the road build is suspect and everything has been side eyed by the neighbours. The demo took weeks because of the suspect works/asbestos/tradies.

For our build, the private power pole is the neighbours/owners’ property to keep, and the pole stays where it is/wires connected, and the wires go from their pole to their house roofline/connection thingy. It’s in the far corner and barely noticeable as there's a couple of 3mtr trees in front so we/neighbours will keep it cut to about 3-4mtrs. They are having a trim this week by our lawn guy.

We also have a private power pole on our knock down in the far corner and from that the wires run underground to our metre box.

Depending on your relationship with your neighbour, maybe offer to pay for the pole? Google says its about $2.5K, we paid $1.3 as hubby worked in the industry for decades so mates’ rates and they're coming back after handover to do our electrical lights/fans/outdoors fit out.

I'm also wondering how low your neighbours’ wires are at their property and do they meet today’s standards? Our neighbours were about 2.5mtrs so lower that standard so we used that as an reason they should to be updated and moving them to 4mtr pole.

Good luck!

Eiji · Mar 19, 2024 8:53 pm

Our relationship with the owner is good, but I'm not sure if I want to impose putting a pole on their property. Your conversation with your neighbour must have gone well given they allowed the pole on their property. The large trees to sort of hide it must have helped?

$2.5k for the pole solution is pretty good! Right now the most direct solution is to pit their line so we're looking at a $7k pit (though that can be shared), then another $3k to do the conduit into their meter box, but their meter box has asbestos so will need to have to pay to have that removed, and then misc fees for the permit and inspections.

Denali

I'm also wondering how low your neighbours’ wires are at their property and do they meet today’s standards? Our neighbours were about 2.5mtrs so lower that standard so we used that as an reason they should to be updated and moving them to 4mtr pole.

This I'm unsure of, I'm in the process of finding an electrician for the measurement, but we've had different builder site inspectors come out and some say they can build with it there and maybe use spotters on a as-needed basis.