Previous tenant left without cancelling their broadband contract

Moby

I have a new tenant who cannot install broadband because the previous tenant left without cancelling their contract with One Stream. One Stream say their contract is still live even though the modem has gone and the previous tenant owes a cancellation fee as well as a couple of months charges. The managing agent is trying to contact the previous tenants but with no success as yet. My new tenant is understandably upset by this? Anything I can do as the Landlord?

user1977

You can confirm to them that the tenancy has ended? Don't think you're obliged to do anything. Probably more a question for the telecoms board though if the tenant wants further advice.

RHemmings

Is the new tenant attempting to start a new contract with OneStream? Or would they be happy with a different provider? It seems to me that using a different provider may be a solution, but it would likely have to be a provider that uses their own infrastructure such as Virgin. As it it's based on OpenReach, then the existing provider likely may be able to block any new connection. 

There are plenty of examples of this problem happening online. The bottom line is that eventually the problem may get solved but it may involve things such the provider writing to the tenant (presumably at their last known address) and waiting for a reply. Which can take time. Laws intended to prevent customers having their broadband hijacked stop easy changing of the connection. 

theartfullodger

Advise new tenant to use mobile broadband.  It'll be the a much more common way in future - many countries have hardly any wired broadband... (Faster for me now than wired bb...)

Does your contract require there to be wired broadband?

Mark_d

The normal process is that the new broadband provider would manage takeover of the line.  This would trigger One Stream to cancel their contract and pursue the previous tenant for the cancellation fee.  Sometimes this process does not work as smoothly as it does but from my experience, EE does a better job of this than other broadband providers I've tried.
You may not have a legal obligation to do anything but the tenant rented your property on the understanding that they'd have access to broadband and other essential utilities.  For this reason I would be trying to advise the tenant and offering to support where practical and reasonable.