Cancellation fees now leaving BT's "auto-renewed" contract)

AndyLiverpoolFC

I recently signed up to Sky Broadband and Unlimited calls and line rental as it will save me a lot of money long-term.

I'm currently with BT and received a telephone call from them saying that I had to pay £51 in cancellation charges as I was still under contract. I had assumed that I was out of contract as my original one expired in April and I hadn't knowingly renewed. In fact, I called BT a few weeks ago to double-check and was told there wouldn't be any cancellation fees.

It appears as though my contract automatically renewed in April and I'm now stuck in another 12 month contract and need to pay to get out of it.

Is this right? Is there anything I can do about this (especially as I was previously told there wouldn't be a cancellation fee) or am I completely stuck and £51 lighter?

I know there's been a big furore about these so wondering what the latest updates were...

Thanks in anticipation,
Andy