engineers refused to go down
into the basement because it was unsafe (may have been, i don't know). There
was a whole bit of argy-bargy about them not installing new services because
of the unsafe nature of the workign environment in the basement. So the
building management (on behalf of the housing association) sat down with
Senior reps from the cableco and thrashed out a set of standards and
requirements for safety of workers, etc. They then spent a ton of money
bringing the basement up to code, and instituting practises like needing two
people to go down there, etc.
What on earth is in your basement that makes it so unsafe even after
spending a ton of money on it?!! Some sort of scary engineer-eating monster?