Terminating Code Agreements
The Digital Economy Act 2017 (‘’the Act’’) sets out statutory rights for the benefit of certain telecommunication providers (‘’the Operator’’), giving them ability (where a Code Agreement is established) to install and maintain telecommunication equipment on third party land.
Our previous article, “Top Tips for Landowners and the Electronic Communications Code“, released in October 2023, set out how Code Agreements are established.
Site providers have the ability to terminate these agreements though must only seek to do so in accordance with the Electronic Communications Code (‘’the Code’’) as set out in the Act.
Site providers must serve notice on the Operator and must meet certain conditions for the notice to be valid.
The notice must, amongst other conditions, state the ground on which the site provider proposes to bring the code agreement to an end.
The statutory grounds enabling termination include;
- Substantial breaches by the Operator of its obligations under the agreement;
- Persistent delays by the Operator in making payment to the site provider;
- The site provider intends to redevelop all or part of the land to which the code agreement relates, or any neighboring land and cannot do so unless the code agreement came to an end;
- The Operator is not entitled to the code agreement because the test for the imposition of the agreement on the site provider is not met.
Service of the notice does not mean an automatic termination of the agreement, the Operator will have an ability to serve a counter notice on the site provider within three months from when the notice is given and can within three months of service also apply to the court for an order under paragraph 34 of the Code.
If on an application to the court by the Operator the court finds that the site provider has established one of the grounds stated above in its notice to the Operator, the court has to make an order that the code agreement comes to an end, otherwise the court must make one of the orders specified in paragraph 34. The orders the court can specify include; the Operator continuing to exercise the existing code in accordance with the existing code agreement, modifying the terms of the code agreement relating to the exercising the code right; order to provide that existing code rights are not to be conferred by or bind the site provider, modifications of the existing code to include additional rights on the Operator or the site provider being bound by an additional right and other orders.
For further information on whether you have the ability to end your code agreement please contact Adele Walker or Umara Zafar or reach out to us using the contact form below.
