Will Phone and Energy Companies always cancel the deceased's contracts?

vonsworld

Hello

Will Phone and Energy Companies always cancel the deceased's contracts at no charge even if they still have several months to run?

As you know phone contracts typically run for 18 months and some fixed energy tariffs have an exit fee if you leave them early.

If not will they make a claim against the dead persons estate for cancelling a contract early?

There was a report in the papers about EE telling a girl she needed to pay £500 to cancel her dead Mum's phone! I just wondered if this was the norm or a mistake by the phone company?

Thanks for your advice :-)

Yorkshireman99

vonsworld wrote: »

Hello

Will Phone and Energy Companies always cancel the deceased's contracts at no charge even if they still have several months to run?

As you know phone contracts typically run for 18 months and some fixed energy tariffs have an exit fee if you leave them early.

If not will they make a claim against the dead persons estate for cancelling a contract early?

There was a report in the papers about EE telling a girl she needed to pay £500 to cancel her dead Mum's phone! I just wondered if this was the norm or a mistake by the phone company?

Thanks for your advice :-)

I don't think there is any standard. An executor should always ask if they will cancel and go further up the chain of command as call centre employees are not always correct. Legally speaking the companies probably have the right expect the contract to be paid.

securityguy

"There was a report in the papers about EE telling a girl she needed to pay £500 to cancel her dead Mum's phone!"

That's flatly illegal. The debt is with the estate. The estate, provided it is solvent after the payment of reasonable funeral expenses and some other things which have a more immediate call, may be liable for certain contracts that the deceased has signed. Utilities and phones may be amongst those. But other than in extreme and pathological circumstances following gross misbehaviour the executors are not liable, and the relatives who are not executors are even less liable (ie "never").

Phone companies don't have to write off contracts after death. If they don't, then estates have to pay them, if they can. If they can't, the phone company can go whistle. They might, if they were mad, pursue the estate for the value of the subsidised handset, but I would hope they have better things to do with their time.

Hermia

I had to do this when my mum died, but cannot remember which company it was. They said they would cancel the contract from the date they received a letter and the death certificate from me, but they did charge me for the days between my mum dying and them receiving the certificate. I was fine with that.

getmore4less

I found BT were not that good in this area(land line/internet) they would not even transfer without a fee.

mobiles were OK, utilities were not on any terms with exit fees.

brewerdave

When my mother passed away, only electricity was on a fixed term contract with ~ 4 months to run but the utility company (SSE) concerned just charged the estate with actual consumption up to the date we vacated her rented flat. We actually received a credit back as the monthly payments exceeded the usage.

Yorkshireman99

BT have a dedicated bereavement line on 0800 169 1663

This should sort things out.

Yorkshireman99

getmore4less wrote: »

I found BT were not that good in this area(land line/internet) they would not even transfer without a fee.

mobiles were OK, utilities were not on any terms with exit fees.

Did you call their dedicated bereavement line?

0800 169 1663