Potential landlord insisting on paying for broadband

richgk

We are due to move into a rental in two weeks time and the landlord has suddenly insisted that they pay for the phone rental and broadband use. Their argument is that the last tenants cancelled the phone and the landlord incurred a cost to sort out a new one.

Can anyone think of anything bad that could come of this?

agrinnall

The bad thing is that you are stuck with whatever provider the landlord has a contract with, which may not be the best available for your purposes. You really need to find out who the supplier is and what the contract you'll be paying for is. I don't know whether there's much you can do about it though, the LL may not be able to cancel the contract anyway, and if he can and you want to get your own you may have to pay a reconnection fee.

richgk

They will be paying for the contract (BT). Well unless they priced it into the rental price but it doesn't look like that is the case.

My main concern is is there anything fraudulent that can come of renting a property and having a bill in someone elses name?

G_M

Yes. The tenants could download, say, child !!!!!!, and as the broadband is in the landlord's name, it would be the LL's responsibility....

Seriously, if the LL has a contract with BT, and the tenants are happy to pay BT's prices, I don't see a problem.

johnmcga

There's a potential loss of control for you:

- If it's all in their name you won't be able to call the provider if there's a problem.
- If they doesn't pay the bill it's that suffers.
- If they decide to cancel you may find there's a gap in service before you can get a new package installed.
- You don't get any choice over the package - for instance, if they've bought a super-cheap package but you download a lot, you might have a problem.

This would really bother me, but then I use the internet a lot and work from home most of the time, so it's very important for me.

In reality, you might find everything is actually fine. Broadband outages are rare, and if you're not a heavy user you probably won't run into any problems with download limits etc.

There's an upside too: you're not tied into a contract with a provider and you're not liable for the bills!

Personally, I'd get it written into the contract that the landlord will maintain an acceptable broadband connection for you.

I can't think of any reason for having a bill in someone else's name at your address. I presume this happens in other situations - for instance, where utilities are included with the rent.

dacouch

agrinnall wrote: »

The bad thing is that you are stuck with whatever provider the landlord has a contract with, which may not be the best available for your purposes. You really need to find out who the supplier is and what the contract you'll be paying for is. I don't know whether there's much you can do about it though, the LL may not be able to cancel the contract anyway, and if he can and you want to get your own you may have to pay a reconnection fee.

Assuming a telephone / broadband is classed as a utility then this is not correct according to the OFT.

Page 64 http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/unfair_contract_terms/oft356.pdf

AlexMac

Irrespective of the legalities, if this happens it won't be a big problem in practice. And maybe your LL is being sensible if previous tenants have messed about by opening long contracts with less reliable providers, or which prove difficult to terminate? Our kids thought they'd save a few quid, so a couple of years ago abandoned BT for another provider, which was so poor they went back to BT

We like BT broadband because altho' it's not the cheapest, it's a good service, with fantastic free technical support, and good add-ons ( their cheap 'vision' tv service is very user-friendly).

As long as your LL is reasonable, subscribes at your address and tells you the name she or he holds the account in, you'll be able to access the tech support- they have never asked me for more than the telephone number, subscriber name and address when I've called for help. They do ask 'are you the account holder' so just say yes.

anselld

richgk wrote: »

We are due to move into a rental in two weeks time and the landlord has suddenly insisted that they pay for the phone rental and broadband use. Their argument is that the last tenants cancelled the phone and the landlord incurred a cost to sort out a new one.

Can anyone think of anything bad that could come of this?

You are not obliged to accept but if you do make sure the LL does not pass on the cost of sorting out the previous problem.

The LL should not in any case have incurred cost. Any cost due on the previous account should have been left for the provider to collect from the outgoing T. Then you should have been left to make your own arrangements with the supplier of your choice.

richgk

I have now contacted the agents with a few requirements of my own so that this is all kept above-board and so that we can sort out issues ourselves.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

PasturesNew

I've just moved into somewhere and the previous tenant must have taken the number etc with them because it's taken me 6 weeks to get a phone/broadband installed.

Just ask the LL what'd happen if you want to change providers - they might be fine to "do it for you", but just want to prevent the faff involved in getting a line/BB sorted out every time a tenant leaves.

dimbo61

Many BT phone/broadband contracts are 18 months so is your tenancy agreement at least 18 months ?
many student landlords are now providing bills inclusive rents as foreign students can not get bills set up in there names, home students do not want the trouble of chasing every member of the household for there share of a bill. etc
If the service is good what is the problem ?