The legislation that governs mobile phone masts on private land has changed and our experience is that mast operators are trying to use it to their advantage to be more bullish than ever. In the past, there was a relatively free market for landowners and operators to agree terms and, usually, if they couldn’t agree, no deal was done.

However, things have now changed as operators are under greater pressure to increase coverage and the new code does give them power to apply to the court and impose a lease on a landowner.

Don’t be fooled however, what some of their agents and contractors say isn’t always strictly true, so it is important if you are involved in a negotiation that you take proper professional advice. They still have to be reasonable and the rent shouldn’t be too different from existing deals.