You must fight mast rent cuts,landowners told

With mobile phones now out-numbering people in the UK, operators are looking to cut their costs by slashing their rents for masts by as much as 25 per cent.

However a leading property lawyer says that landowners should not succumb to “pushy tactics” from phone companies and not accept reductions in rents without seeking advice.

Ann Laverty, property department partner at York-based Denison Till, said that during the past decade many landowners and farmers have benefited from a cash bonanza of several thousand pounds a year for each mast on their land.

However in recent weeks she said that landowners had agreed to changes in rents without scrutinising the small print and warned that people can also be “stuck with the mast for life”, with removal either too expensive or difficult to bring to fruition.

She advised landowners who are approached by telecoms companies to look at their leases before entering any talks because, if no rent review or break clause was imminent, there is no legal justification for a reduction.

The rents have come from companies such as Vodaphone, Orange and Telefonica as demand for mobile phones boomed and Britain’s mobile phone companies fought to erect their masts on the best sites.

The UK currently has about 52,000 mobile phone masts, including equipment on urban buildings such as schools, libraries, churches and leisure centres, as well as stand-alone rural poles on farmland.

However, the tough economic climate and saturation in the mobile phone market — the UK now has more mobile phones than people — have put companies’ margins under pressure and measures including pooling networks and eliminating excess are being used to cut costs. T-Mobile and 3 aim to save £2bn during the next decade by pooling their third-generation mobile networks.

Vodafone and O2 said they hope to save “hundreds of millions of pounds” by sharing their mobile masts.

Ms Laverty, who is handling a series of cases for rural and urban landowners across Yorkshire, said: “Consolidation in the telecoms industry means many mobile phone networks are merging and sharing apparatus.

“As a result, some mast sites are being decommissioned and telecoms companies are using this as a way to pressure land owners to accept substantially lower rents, often of around 25 per cent, on sites where masts are needed.

“While achieving lower fees for mast sites maybe good news for consumers, those negotiating for the telecoms companies may not readily explain to the landowner that site sharing enables them to increase their revenue.

“Our view is that, if a land owner is going to agree to a site being shared by different companies on their land, they should get a commensurate return.”

She added: “In some areas, such as more remote rural locations, mast sites are important in maintaining an efficient network and landowners should think twice before accepting a big rent reduction.

“If there is a lack of suitable alternative sites, they may be in a far stronger position than they initially realise and be able to resist the ‘pushy’ tactics being used.

“We have also recently acted in cases where clients have signed up to agreements without checking the small print.”

She went on: “Many of the landowners who lease sites to telecom mast operators are private individuals, including farmers who accepted masts as part of Government-encouraged diversification, or charities and the mobile phone masts provide them with an important source of income.

“However, particular care is required in the current round of negotiations not to agree to the operators’ terms which are designed to boost their profits at the expense of land owners already under pressure due to the tough economic climate.”

A spokesman for the mobile phone industry body GSMA said that it could not comment on alterations in rents for mobile phone mast sites.