Sky, Building Rules and Janitors

bertles86

bertles86

bertles86

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UK
Hi folks,

Bit of a long winded story here, but I would welcome any serious pointers on what to do next.

I have recently moved to a new flat in a mansion block.

My house mate works for Sky, so we get the full VIP package for free.

The building managers of the new place (a Quantity Surveyors) have their own rules (nothing to do with listings or H&S regulations) that absolutely nothing can be affixed to the exterior of the building.

This includes: aerials, satellite dishes, brackets etc.

There is also no communal system in place for terrestrial or satellite.

I have just had the Sky engineer come around, and he and I had long chat and the result was - no Sky. The janitor of the building actually chased him down the stairs, shouting that he cannot fix a dish to the wall.

So...where do we go from here?

Currently the only options are:

1. Freeview with an Indoor aerial - this won't work as our living room window is West facing, and the Crystal Palace transmitter is South East.

2. Virgin - why should I pay for a service, when Sky or Freeview are free.

3. BT Vision - ditto plus it's rubbish.

Any help?
 
1. Is there no communcal aerial sysetm at all?
2. Because you chose to live there?
3. A lot better than when it started :p Still relies on your freeview reception tho.

Do you have a balcony? Maybe a satellite dish there on some sort of stand?

Weren't you aware of these conditions prior to moving in?
IIf not and you were only told about then upon moving in I'd speak to LL and either work something out with
regards to getting some for of sky dish setup or with regards to moving out tbh (if its that much of an issue).
 
Speak to the building managers about having a Sky system fitted? Might be worth speaking to other residents to see if they'd be in favour of it too.
 
My friend lives in a communal block with an integrated Sky system. There is no dish visible anywhere. Not sure how it's done but all flats have a Sky socket and just need the switch flicking to turn them on.
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
1. Is there no communcal aerial sysetm at all? No
2. Because you chose to live there? Ta


Do you have a balcony? Ground Floor Alcove, adjacent to Janitors flat

Maybe a satellite dish there on some sort of stand?

Weren't you aware of these conditions prior to moving in? The agents stated Sky would not be a problem
IIf not and you were only told about then upon moving in I'd speak to LL and either work something out with
regards to getting some for of sky dish setup or with regards to moving out tbh (if its that much of an issue).
Click to expand...
 
Okay you could have sky free but that's only cause you know somebody. A lot of people prefer Virgin to sky anyway so stop griping and just pay out for Virgin cable.

A lot of buildings don't allow sky dishes. You should always check before moving in if it's that important to you.
 
How high up is your flat?

Spray the dish and cable brick / building colour? if your pretty high up no one will notice?

If you have a balcony in line of sight of the satellite, mount it on the floor / or a parasol pole etc
 
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I just moved from flat that did not have sky so had to have virgin, just as we left they put the giant aerial on the roof for sky, however I believe they only fit that if there are 10 or more flats in the one block.

Seems expensive business also as they were charging around £200 to wire up the flats.

I understand why they don't like people to have dishes as lot of them would not look nice.

However in the block we jut moved into other flats did have sky dishes so they must have had permission, so maybe you could ask if they would accept.
The properties that did have them at my old flats were ones that were not visible to the public
 
I had a friend who lived in a similar sort of mansion block before which has the same kind of rules and faced the same problem.

Basically, if you want satellite, you are going to have convince all the other residents to get it too, as you will all be paying for it to be installed communally in the building. This would mean one satellite dish on the roof somewhere, out of sight, also likely requiring satellite engineers who are trained to go on roofs and such due to health and safety.

It didn't happen though where he lived, because of the reasons some have already pointed out; not everyone is fussed about Sky and when there are alternatives, there is not much desire to pay an expensive installation fee.

Your situation is just different because you wouldn't be paying for Sky.
 
HardwareGeek said:
You can also get non dish like dishes, you can get flat panels or bricks, might disguise it abit more, especially if set into the wall rather that mounted on the wall if you can get the angle right.
Click to expand...

If the alternatives are allowed then that's fine but from what the OP says nothing is allowed to be attached to the exterior of the building.

The OP shouldn't be doing anything that's in breach of his lease.
 
if you can get one of these on a balcony then you have nothing fixed to the side of the block. you might need to anchor it in some way to stop it from moving but it will do the job. The other option is a pole in the garden or on the balcony.

of course you could speak to the other owners/tenants, approach the surveyors/letting agents as a united front and ask them to look into a communal system, installed by Sky with a single dish hidden on the roof so it can't be seen. Really their rules are archaic and severely behind the times. I have no doubt that the people that made up this rule probably have Sky at home, with a dish on their wall.

More info at www.sky.com/flats
 
It's the paying for a communal system that will be the issue, as I'm sure the Landlord/Agency will agree to a single hidden satellite, especially if you have a residents association to pressure them.

When I moved into a new build a few years back, every flat already had Sky wired up. When I called Sky though, they weren't able to connect me and setup an account. Instead I had to call the satellite company who paid and installed the system during building and through them they would sign me up to Sky. Obviously they took a cut because they had paid to install everything.
 
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