Couple furious over telco lease

Mark and Wendy Rolston and the Telecom microwave tower on their Ihakara Hill farm near Shannon. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A Horowhenua farming couple are outraged that Telecom is paying them a pittance to lease land for a transmission tower.

Wendy and Mark Rolston say instead of the meagre $199.36 a year they are getting, they should be paid around $10,000.

Sites usually net landowners at least $5000 a year, telco experts say.

But the Rolstons' attempts to negotiate with the company have failed and the couple - who each have Telecom cellphones due to the area's excellent reception - say they are angry about the situation.

"I wish I could afford an expensive lawyer to fight this for us," Mrs Rolston said.

But Brett Jackson, communications manager at Telecom network arm Chorus, said the facility was a digital microwave radio site transmitting regular phone communications but not a cellphone tower site linking networks.

"It is linked to other sites along the Kapiti Coast but is only used for long distance voice/data traffic. This traffic has diminished with the evolution of technology and is now generally carried via fixed network.

"We've been negotiating with the landowner for some time now. We did make an offer of what we considered to be reasonable market value ($3000) and that was turned down so according to the original terms of the lease the $199 rental continues. We are hopeful of reaching an agreement with the landowner and will continue working to that end," he said.

The tower is on a site of just over 500sq m on the couple's Ihakara hill farm near Shannon. As well as the tower, Telecom owns associated buildings on the site and is allowed access through the farm to its installations.

The farm's previous owner struck the lease on January 12, 1988 for just $150.

That edged its way up with inflation over the years to a princely $180.11 by late last year and the lease came up for renewal in January this year for a further 21-year term.

Wendy Rolston said the couple had waited almost two decades for the new payment conditions to be set, expecting a much higher and fairer rent.

But Telecom has so far offered only the $19.25 rise and its argument is that its payments are completely fair and reasonable.

Via David Shaw of DTZ property consultants in Wellington, Telecom initially extended an offer to increase payments from $180.11 to $3000.

"My client Telecom New Zealand is prepared to offer you a revised rental of $3000 plus GST per annum for the microwave site on your property at Arapaepae," he offered the Rolstons on January 23.

The couple wrote back, rejecting that and seeking $10,000.

Shaw in turn wrote back last month withdrawing the $3000 offer because Telecom had decided to stick to the original $199.36.

That left them enraged and vowing to fight on. Mrs Rolston said it was laughable that the payments were CPI-linked, pushing up annual payments from the original $150 paid 21 years ago to today's $199.36. "We're paying at least $60 a month to Telecom for one of our cellphones," she said, adding she would prefer Vodafone but reception was not as good.

TOWER PAYMENT

* 1988: $150.
* 2009: $199.