So I'm thinking about getting Dish Network installed at my apartment and I just called up my landlord to make sure that was cool with them and got shot down. Luckily, Dish convienently links to the FCC ruling that says you have the right to have a satellite installed at your apartment as long as it's only interfering with your private area. I have a deck off of my apartment which should definitely be covered by this ruling.

I was wondering if anyone else has had to use this FCC ruling as a way to show their landlord they can install a satellite... and if so, if there are any loopholes that the landlord tried to use against you.

FCC Links:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/LLP_Release_Form.pdf
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html#QA

Hmm, that's opening a whole can of worms right there. If you do something like that to your landlord (stick him with fine print laws) it may come back to bite you in the ass later on.

Whether you can do it or not, I think you could make a valid argument but I'm not sure if it would be worth the effort and all unless you really would get something out of having a dish. You watch allot of TV? Sports? If so then that's all the reason you need to do it.

Yeah, mess with your landlord with a fine print law and I bet he could come back with 15 fine print craps that could fuck you over.

The people before us installed a dish (note house rented out by investment) which against the lease contract. We asked about it when we moved in, and they are like...well, now that it is up there we can't tell you not to get dish just don't put up another one.

Yeah, I'm probably going to go talk to them in person tomorrow with the FCC papers. I don't think it's really that small of print, Dish clearly has links to the ruling on a lot of its pages... so I'm sure plenty of people have heard of this.

Anyway, I really want HD channels and don't want to pay $50+ just to get a few from Fidelity, so I'll probably just deal with the landlord. All I'll be doing is having a tripod on the deck most likely, so it shouldn't be a big deal to them.

Some landlords might care because it's unsightly. V V

You can install any satellite dish as long as it is under 36" and it is on your section of the apartment. What that means is that the landlord can not do shit nor do you need his permission to install a satellite dish as long is you place it on your patio/deck. When i lived in rolla i went out to Lowe and bought a 5 gallon bucket, placed a metal fence post in it and filled the bucket with concrete. I had the dish guy install the dish on that metal fence post and it work fine for 12 months. If its on your porch the landlord can not do anything. It's just like having a BBQ.

I'm tempted to say you are an engineer, but your solution is too clever for that.

Not an engineer. Geologist!!!

I don't know who your landlord is but how often do they show up to inspect the place and make sure there is no satellite dish on the property? If I were you I'd just do it no matter what. I am big fan of the just do it because asking forgiveness usually works out better in your favor than asking permission.