Moving home but BT unable to connect for months... what can I do?

ManchesterMan54321

As per the subject, I'm due to move home next week and previously when I rang BT (as our sale was supposed to complete in November) they said I would have FTTC at the new property.  Today when I rang, they said they've decommissioned all their copper services at my local exchange (East Manchester) and only provided FTTP (which is what I have now), but firstly they said they cannot get there til March and now the order confirmation says 12th April.

I am still working from home with our offices shut, so I require internet to be able to do my job.  Our contract is still in the minimum term, until Nov this year my wife says, and at £36 a month I guess would cost like £360 to buy out.  Is there anything I can do with regards to my contract with BT not being able to provide internet for 2 1/2 months, albeit due to my own home moving and not something they've done to my current properties supply?

I feel very stuck in not only not having internet for 2-3 months, but also most probably still having to pay for not having internet...

Cisco001

Get a SIM with unlimited data like smarty or voxi. Buy a 4G router or mifi or tethering off old phone
Ask BT refund for the months you do not receive services. 

JJ_Egan

As above .

BT can supply your contract at the address you contracted for . Moving home is up to you and choice is to terminate the contract .Or take up any offer to re contract you at the new address .

Due to Covid Open Reach not able to work at full capacity as they are the same at risk as you .

Choice  pay of current contract .Then you are free to use another ISP  .BUT you would need to check who will supply new property over FTTP  not many apart from BT .

ManchesterMan54321

Cisco001 said:

Get a SIM with unlimited data like smarty or voxi. Buy a 4G router or mifi or tethering off old phone
Ask BT refund for the months you do not receive services. 

Yep I got a data sim sent from work.  Has 30GB for 90 days on it, which according to my wifi usage on my laptop will barely last a month, but my work said they can send me another if needed.  And my wife has confirmed with BT (she's the account holder) that they will auto refund the bill payment whilst we don't have an active service.

JJ_Egan said:

.BUT you would need to check who will supply new property over FTTP  not many apart from BT .

Yeh problem with alternatives, like Sky, TalkTalk, whoever, will all wait on Openreach.  So could get Virgin sooner (ain't checked) but then guess would have to be paying £360 ish to cancel BT contract.... so will have to sit and wait it out.

jon81uk

We had to wait a month for Openreach to connect the FTTP when moving into a new build house.
We got a 4G WiFi hub from Three, £49 one-off then £30 a month for unlimited data and it worked incredibly well for us, fantastic speeds on 4G.
4G & 5G Home Broadband | Three

Rodders53

ManchesterMan54321 said: So could get Virgin sooner (ain't checked) but then guess would have to be paying £360 ish to cancel BT contract.... so will have to sit and wait it out.

I'd not bet on that one... My son has just moved from Leeds to Wakefield area and has a similar wait as yours for a VM install to his home (no FTTC at his new address and ADSL+ is too slow for his wants).

ManchesterMan54321

Thanks for all the input, given I have only two fibre options basically (Openreach or Virgin Media), and trying to move to another supplier would be mega costly, I'll just stick with a 4G data sim tethering from my old iphone6

ukrunner

My son has a BT contract that runs until June 2022. He rents an apartment but has had to move to a new apartment, due to Covid. The new place already has a broadband service, as he is now renting a room in someone's house, as opposed to renting an apartment. BT have stated that they will charge him £150 to cancel his contract. They offered to put a new line into the house that he is moving into, at no charge, but he said that the owners will not allow this. So, do BT have the legal right to charge him this cancellation fee? Are they expecting him to not move house until his contract runs out? How come this does not happen with the other utilities with whom he had contracts, gas and electric etc? If he does not cancel the contract, he will be paying BT a monthly fee and receiving no service. How is this legal? Any help would be much appreciated.

jon81uk

ukrunner said:

My son has a BT contract that runs until June 2022. He rents an apartment but has had to move to a new apartment, due to Covid. The new place already has a broadband service, as he is now renting a room in someone's house, as opposed to renting an apartment. BT have stated that they will charge him £150 to cancel his contract. They offered to put a new line into the house that he is moving into, at no charge, but he said that the owners will not allow this. So, do BT have the legal right to charge him this cancellation fee? Are they expecting him to not move house until his contract runs out? How come this does not happen with the other utilities with whom he had contracts, gas and electric etc? If he does not cancel the contract, he will be paying BT a monthly fee and receiving no service. How is this legal? Any help would be much appreciated.

Minimum terms of contracts are quite normal.
It can happen with gas & electric too as you can sign up to minimum terms to get cheaper prices.

ukrunner

I checked with both gas and electric and I was told that that contract is automatically cancelled when you move home. I understand the use of contracts but moving house means that the providers can no longer give you a service. I am surprised that this is legal.

ukrunner

PS I apologise for adding my question to someone else's thread. I thought I was starting a new thread but apparently not. I'll see if I can fix this.