AN OUTRAGED Trevallyn couple say they were given no warning that NBN installers would crawl underneath their home to install equipment.
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The couple said they were shocked on Saturday when they noticed that there was a cable hanging out near their front door and holes drilled into an external wall.
Calling the installation ‘‘an invasion of privacy’’, Rodney Youd and his wife, Terry, said they had no idea workmen would need internal access to their property. The couple are now calling for the equipment to be removed and for their home to be fully repaired.
An NBN spokesman on Sunday, however, said that the occupants had received a notice to say the equipment would be installed. The spokesman said that under the Telecommunications Code, construction partners are legally able to access most land.
Mrs Youd said that she did not know if they had received a letter, but any mail that arrives addressed to ‘‘The Resident’’ does not get opened.
‘‘If they want to tell us something, they should have the common courtesy to put our name on the letter,’’ Mrs Youd said.
‘‘They said they had sent a letter, we don’t know if we received the letter, we don’t think we did.
‘‘We would have made arrangements that somebody was here and we would have also saved them the time it took them to get under the house.’’
The couple believe that the NBN cable could have been installed in a more convenient and less conspicuous place on their house.
An NBN spokesman said that the occupants would have received a notice of intent to install at least 13 days beforehand as required by legislation.
‘‘In this case, the occupant received a notice that provided information on how the property would be connected, the equipment that would be installed, installation timeframes and how to raise concerns about the installation,’’ he said.
‘‘As we did not hear from the occupant, installation proceeded.’’
Mrs Youd said that she wanted to see the equipment taken down and the holes fixed.
‘‘It’s a complete invasion of privacy, it’s our private property,’’ she said.
‘‘I personally don’t even want the NBN, I can’t see any point in it.’’
An NBN spokesman said the company would investigate the occupants’ concerns.
