Moved house - previous owners line active - transferring out

busy_dad

Hi all,
I don't know if anyone is able to offer any advice as I am struggling.

I have just moved house and the previous owners (whom we know very well) have left their phone/broadband active for us. They are moving into a new build at the end of the month and will be transferring it then as they want to keep their number (they are currently lodging).

My dilemma is that I want to get the ball rolling for my own broadband service as don't want to wait until the end of the month and face the prospect of weeks without any service.

However if I apply for a product now is there not a risk that it will take over the previous owners' line before they transfer it and they will lose their number and have their account closed?

They are with Sky and we will be going with a different ISP (probably BT or plusnet) if that makes any difference.
I understand a second line is a possibility but seems like a quite a bit of expense on my part, surely there is an easier way to resolve?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

JJ_Egan

<<However if I apply for a product now is there not a risk that it will take over the previous owners' line before they transfer it and they will lose their number and have their account closed? >>

Yes but depending upon timescale for your new service .That could be a few days to a few weeks .
Suggest you buy a mobile PAYG dongle for a month .

Mister_G

I think that the biggest issue may be that the new build may not have the Openreach infrastructure operational yet.

If you are friendly with the people that you are buying the house from, then perhaps you can get them to check with the developer/builder that there will be no problems with transferring their service to the new house.

If the infrastructure is not in place yet, then there could be a long wait.

Magerit

The best time to order your own broadband is when the other one is not active anymore. For example, the first of the next month. This is quite possible and should not lead to complications.

busy_dad

Thanks for the replies which confirmed what I thought. Basically I shouldn't really do anything then until they transfer their number and service out and just have to manage potentially 2-3 weeks without broadband? I suppose I could order it a week before they transfer it which at least gets the ball rolling with no chance of anything really happening before hand?

The PAYG dongle is an option although we stream a lot (have NOW TV) so I imagine this would eat through the data quite quickly.

Yes the openreach infrastructure is in place for them as know someone living on the estate who have their fibre broadband up and running.

unforeseen

They may be friends but if they want you to Rincon eminences by being unable to get your own broadband and phone number then ask them to foot the data bill for the difference between what your broadband costs would be with your chosen supplier and the cost of the data using a PAYG dongle.

If there is no timeline for their line to be ready then they need to accept that they have no option but to lose their number. If they are getting FTTP then delays could be even longer to get that provisioned for phone as well.