Are there any laws or legal requirements to have a phone service accessible to an elder in their own home?

Contact the local phone company. They should repair the lines, but the contractor is the one who has to pay. If he's long gone, you may have to pay for it yourself.

My dad was an engineer for ATT and C&P Telephone company. In one of his assignments, he was a coordinator with the Public Utility Commissions in three states and DC. He handled getting cut lines repaired in WV, VA, MD and DC. The PUC will call the appropriate phone or cable company to repair lines and restore service and repairs have to start in a specified time. You should call the Public Utilities Commision for your tate or locale. In some areas it's called the Public Service Commission. If cut by a private contractor, they can contact them or they can contact an individual. Occasionally a telephone would be cut by an individual in a domestic dispute.

I am a contractor and here's what I would do.

Contact the Blue Stake and find out when the contractor had the job Blue Staked. This is what guarantees whomever is digging holes knows exactly where and how deep every utility is.

Then call the contractor and find out when they are going to be out to fix their error. If they tell you they aren't responsible, tell them you were offering a courtesy by calling them and you will call the Registrar of Contractors for your state and file a complaint against their contractors license.

The General Contractor for the job is fully responsible to restore these services. If you can find out who holds the ten year warranty on the new build, that is who you want to speak with. Don't let them try to brush you off. This is absolutely an insurance claim against their general liability policy, if they choose to take the hard route.

I promise you, no contractor wants complaints filed against their license. It is bad for business.

Speak with the owner, you will find that information at the registrars website and make it known that you know they are responsible for ALL of the job and ALL of the sub-cobtractors, venders, suppliers and anyone else that occupied the jobsite. It is fully on them to deal with this issue.

As far as the satellite service, you need to contact the provider. This service should be more dependable then landlines. We used a satellite when full-time rving and we had service everywhere. Sounds like a poor installation job.

JoAnn, I was amused by your answer as I compared it to the situation I faced when I had cable installed. The service person put in new cable, but said that there was about 20' left over. He claimed it was Detroit Edison's responsibility to cut that cable. I thought that odd, but I know that dealing with utilities can produce some strange situations

So I called DTE; got the same response -"not our job", "cable company has to cut their own lines". Called cable company again. Guy came out, took a look at the orange lines hung in a circle, said "not our job" and left.

I felt like telling him that it's about time the company grew up and accepted its responsibilities. But I knew that wouldn't produce anything except perhaps a comment on some hidden client data and I'd have trouble getting service if I ever needed it again.

I decided to just leave the cable alone; it was clear that there were some issues between the two, turf wars perhaps?

I cannot see why your local Cable company can't come out and repair the lines. No different than a house not having cable and then having it put in. And why does she need Cable. Can not she get a regular phone line to her house, like Verizon? Each utility company handles their own lines. Must be some utility company that can come out and set up a phone line for Mom. Make sure when you do this, that Mom has no phone features that need an electrical outlet. Because, when the electric goes out, so does the phone. I have this problem because I have a wireless phone connected to my landline.

In TN, VA, NC or SC (states where my nephew is a licensed contractor) the contractor is not only NOT allowed to deliberately cut utility lines; he must restore service within 8-24 hours if he accidentally cuts them, although he may be given another day or so if he encounters delays with the utility company.

Sounds like no one was using the lines when they were cut or they were private lines when they were 8pcut. My home has public lines on the right of way and then we run private lines from the public souce across our private property to our home. If the private line is cut, the home owner is responsible for the repair. I set my own private utility poles and strung my power, phone, cable, and internet lines to my pole then underground (about 6') to my home. I chose this method because there is limestone rock formations in my area just below the surface. I did not want to blast a trench (like I needed for a section of my water line).

In our rural area, most utilities are monopolies govern by either the state or a local municipality so we have a well known governing body to call with problems.

You can also call local, county and state elder care agencies and let them know there are vulnerable seniors in an area w/o inadequate service b/a contractor cut the cables.

A local tv station might be willing to take this project on, doing some background research and working toward a solution. I think stations like this "feel good for helping" projects.

What type of contractor is this? What work was it performing? There are various contractors' organizations in various counties and states. Do some research and determine if this contractor is a member of a trade organization and contact them. I'm not intimately familiar with them but believe that they do maintain standards which members must meet.

Who hired this contractor? You could also let that individual know what the contractor did.

You could also contact the builder of the new home and alert it to the fact that a contractor wasn't appropriate in carrying out its duties, creating an unsafe situation for your parent and other elders.

In the meantime, you might want to consider getting a life alert pendant. The one we got for my father activated even when he leaned over. The company selling it and providing service would respond to an activation and if necessary, notify (in our case) 3 individuals: me, police or fire department, and unfortunately I've forgotten who else we chose.

Call the state public utilities commission. They will force the phone/cable company to repir the landlines.

I would try a simple jitterbug. Mine has verizon service, and I haven't yet found a place, even remote, where I cannot get service on it. It is surely worth the try as you can get one for about 100.00. Very simple and easy to use.