Ceased phone line in new flat

simonpgabriel

Hello!

First time poster, long time reader.

My girlfriend and I have just moved into our new lovely flat. I'm very happy with it, apart from one thing...

We moved in a week ago. Within the first few days I decided to scope out a good broadband deal. EE was actually the cheapest and best for our area, and with being customers we took advantage of the discounts.

The order went through fine.

The following morning I had a call from a nice chap at EE. But he had bad news. He told me that although they had a line that they could convert in our flat to their service, they were unable to do so until 12th of July because there was a 'cease' on the line.

He suggested this may be down to a previous owner still holding the line. He couldn't get much more information from his end. He suggested I called our estate agent/landlord

I called the estate agent on my lunch break at work. He really didn't know what to say. As far as he was concerned, it had nothing to do with him. Tenants buy their phoneline without giving any information to him or anyone, he said. That's understandable. He did, however, offer to call the previous tenant to ask if they had any information on the subject.

May I add at this point that the previous tenant moved out in March. It's not really a recent move.

He got back to me and said as far as the tenant was aware, all lines were cancelled and nothing should still be held on the line. But they did tell me that the provider they were with was BT.

I then phoned BT. Which was a nightmare. You could barely get through to anyone via their maze of customer service. And when I did they were no help. They couldn't tell me why there was a cease and if I could get it removed, unless I had the telephone number that the line was with (or a reference number). I gave them as much information as I could, address, names of previous tenants. But it was no good, I couldn't get anywhere!

So, now I'm patiently trying to wait until the 12th to get this sorted. I work in Digital Marketing and do a portion of that out-of-hours, but since I have no internet access, I have not been able to do that. As well as my mobile phone bill shooting through the roof due to necessary calls I've had to make from that instead of my landline!

Argh! I don't know what to do! Does anyone have any suggestions, or have suffered anything similar?

Retrogamer

The only option is to install a new telephone line with a new socket and a new number. This would come with an instalation charge however.
Some ISP's can't provide more than one telephone line and number per address though due to restrictions with their ordering methods and systems.

A cease processing on the line means it's still active in someone elses name but it's currently in the process of canceling. Once cancelled it might be the same as above though with a charge for reconnecting a new line.

simonpgabriel

Retrogamer wrote: »

The only option is to install a new telephone line with a new socket and a new number. This would come with an instalation charge however.
Some ISP's can't provide more than one telephone line and number per address though due to restrictions with their ordering methods and systems.

A cease processing on the line means it's still active in someone elses name but it's currently in the process of canceling. Once cancelled it might be the same as above though with a charge for reconnecting a new line.

Hi,

Yes, EE did mention they could put in a new line, although at a charge. They mentioned after the 12th, they wouldn't charge us, so I guess that is good news.

Why does it take BT so long to cancel the line? Surely if the tenant had moved in March it would have been cancelled by now? Do they hold it in the hope that we would purchase a new line with them?

Heinz

Less than 3 weeks for the work to be done?

Disgraceful.

Retrogamer

simonpgabriel wrote: »

Hi,

Yes, EE did mention they could put in a new line, although at a charge. They mentioned after the 12th, they wouldn't charge us, so I guess that is good news.

Why does it take BT so long to cancel the line? Surely if the tenant had moved in March it would have been cancelled by now? Do they hold it in the hope that we would purchase a new line with them?

The service provider would have no reason to cancel the service at this address unless payments stopped being made, or if the account holder requested cancellation. The request might have only been made recently.

money_saving_matt

simonpgabriel wrote: »

Hello!

First time poster, long time reader.

My girlfriend and I have just moved into our new lovely flat. I'm very happy with it, apart from one thing...

We moved in a week ago. Within the first few days I decided to scope out a good broadband deal. EE was actually the cheapest and best for our area, and with being customers we took advantage of the discounts.

The order went through fine.

The following morning I had a call from a nice chap at EE. But he had bad news. He told me that although they had a line that they could convert in our flat to their service, they were unable to do so until 12th of July because there was a 'cease' on the line.

He suggested this may be down to a previous owner still holding the line. He couldn't get much more information from his end. He suggested I called our estate agent/landlord

I called the estate agent on my lunch break at work. He really didn't know what to say. As far as he was concerned, it had nothing to do with him. Tenants buy their phoneline without giving any information to him or anyone, he said. That's understandable. He did, however, offer to call the previous tenant to ask if they had any information on the subject.

May I add at this point that the previous tenant moved out in March. It's not really a recent move.

He got back to me and said as far as the tenant was aware, all lines were cancelled and nothing should still be held on the line. But they did tell me that the provider they were with was BT.

I then phoned BT. Which was a nightmare. You could barely get through to anyone via their maze of customer service. And when I did they were no help. They couldn't tell me why there was a cease and if I could get it removed, unless I had the telephone number that the line was with (or a reference number). I gave them as much information as I could, address, names of previous tenants. But it was no good, I couldn't get anywhere!

So, now I'm patiently trying to wait until the 12th to get this sorted. I work in Digital Marketing and do a portion of that out-of-hours, but since I have no internet access, I have not been able to do that. As well as my mobile phone bill shooting through the roof due to necessary calls I've had to make from that instead of my landline!

Argh! I don't know what to do! Does anyone have any suggestions, or have suffered anything similar?

If the line is still live and has a pending cease on it EE should be able to place a working line takeover (WLTO) order on it now, and it will automatically transfer to their ownership on the 12th.

It's also possible that the operator is looking at the wrong line and has given you the wrong information. If you PM me your postcode and flat number I can check the current status of the line for you.

Matt

macman

simonpgabriel wrote: »

Hi,

Yes, EE did mention they could put in a new line, although at a charge. They mentioned after the 12th, they wouldn't charge us, so I guess that is good news.

Why does it take BT so long to cancel the line? Surely if the tenant had moved in March it would have been cancelled by now? Do they hold it in the hope that we would purchase a new line with them?

If the previous tenant has left without cancelling the line, then there is a tag remaining on it. The existing provider then has to try to contact the old tenant to confirm that the line can be transferred to a new account. 2 to three weeks is pretty much standard for that, as they have to give them time to respond. Blame the outgoing tenant, not OR.
If you are requiring a business standard of service and response time, don't try and do it on a residential contract, because the latter has no SLA.

money_saving_matt

I have checked and the line in your flat is currently a working MPF line (which basically means it is with Sky, TalkTalk or Cable & Wireless). Why the estate agent told you it is with BT Retail I don't know, but in my experience it's unusual for estate agents to actually understand who Openreach are, what they do or how the marketplace is actually structured. If you phone BT Retail to ask about the line they won't have any access to the details at all as it's not a WLR line, which is what you found out when you called them.

The line itself has a pending cease order against it with a date of the 12th of July. This has nothing to do with tags, all it means is that the current owner of the line (e.g. Sky) has placed a cease order against the line requesting this date. It could also mean that the outgoing tenant is trying to port their old number away to a new provider, as this would generate a cease order against the line.

I don't know why EE have told you that they can't do anything until the 12th as they can place a WLTO order on the line to convert it to WLR, as long as the date they request is on (or after) the 12th of July. The outgoing tenant will get notified of your intention to take over the line, but there's no good reason for them to object to this. I suspect that EE either don't know what a WLTO order is (or they do but have never heard of Stop Control), or their system isn't geared up to support it.

My advice would be either to persuade EE to place a WLTO order or wait until the line ceases on the 12th and then contact them again to request they restart the stopped MPF line (which has a one-day lead time and no engineer is required to visit your premises). Alternatively you could approach a different provider to see whether they'd be willing to place a WLTO order.

Hope this helps
Matt

brewerdave

Could be something like this https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4673725

chanz4

money_saving_matt wrote: »

I have checked and the line in your flat is currently a working MPF line (which basically means it is with Sky, TalkTalk or Cable & Wireless). Why the estate agent told you it is with BT Retail I don't know, but in my experience it's unusual for estate agents to actually understand who Openreach are, what they do or how the marketplace is actually structured. If you phone BT Retail to ask about the line they won't have any access to the details at all as it's not a WLR line, which is what you found out when you called them.

The line itself has a pending cease order against it with a date of the 12th of July. This has nothing to do with tags, all it means is that the current owner of the line (e.g. Sky) has placed a cease order against the line requesting this date. It could also mean that the outgoing tenant is trying to port their old number away to a new provider, as this would generate a cease order against the line.

I don't know why EE have told you that they can't do anything until the 12th as they can place a WLTO order on the line to convert it to WLR, as long as the date they request is on (or after) the 12th of July. The outgoing tenant will get notified of your intention to take over the line, but there's no good reason for them to object to this. I suspect that EE either don't know what a WLTO order is (or they do but have never heard of Stop Control), or their system isn't geared up to support it.

My advice would be either to persuade EE to place a WLTO order or wait until the line ceases on the 12th and then contact them again to request they restart the stopped MPF line (which has a one-day lead time and no engineer is required to visit your premises). Alternatively you could approach a different provider to see whether they'd be willing to place a WLTO order.

Hope this helps
Matt

Hope they dont do an audit on accessing records