The Telecoms Industry

DANGERS

Any landlord granting rights to an operator to erect an installation on his land should be aware of the following: --

Removal

The landlord may not be able to enforce removal of the installation, either at the end of the term or during it (see legal framework) except potentially at great cost. Any owner contemplating development at any point in the future should therefore think carefully at the outset about potential future problems. If he does proceed, the lease should be drafted very carefully to cover various relevant issues and the costs of removal of the operator’s equipment.

Specialist Advice

Landlords approached by an operator who do not have specialist solicitors and surveyors will be unlikely to achieve the best camparable deal.

Security of Tenure

The site agreement may claim to be a licence. It may refer only to “rights” that the owner is to grant to the operator (and not to the land itself). It may nonetheless be a lease, governed by the Landlord and Tenant act 1954 giving the operator security of tenure AND code powers (see legal framework), and creating problems when renewal negotiations start, or when development is envisaged.

Site Sharing

The emergence of new technology and evolving partnership agreements between the competing operators means it is not always clear whether the mobile phone operators are sharing sites or indeed sharing frequencies. It is imperative for landlords to protect their interests by ensuring their leases have robust site sharing clauses. A landlord should not agree to tenant requests for lease assignment rights, frequency sharing, or traditional site sharing without first taking specialist advice; otherwise they risk erosion to the rental values of their leasehold investments.