Getting out of phone line contract

Gingernut54

Since my husband died we have discovered the farming business signed into a contract for multiple line numbers at different locations, some of which we don't know what they are for or whether they still exist, with a company called Digiquip now taken over by Lily. We have queried these numbers and not had a satisfactory response. One of the properties is now rented out and we enquired about dropping this number. They told as we would have to pay more than £1000 as we are in a contract for 72 months!!

Any advice how we can sort this out please

MSE_ForumTeam5

We're sorry to hear about your loss.

This sounds like a small business issue, rather than a consumer rights one, so we've moved it to the relevant part of the forum. Many of the protections available to individual consumers don't apply to business-to-business transactions.

Khaderbhai

Sorry to hear this. Is the contract in the companies name? I am sure someone will be able to assist here with advice.

thanks

Bookworm105

You say the contract is in the name of the farming business (not the personal name of the deceased) and we assume that business continues, therefore so does the contract.
Terminating it will depend on what the contract allows for in terms of early "release",
you need to read the contract.

penners324

Get a copy of the contract for each telephone line

Grumpy_chap

Gingernut54 said:

Since my husband died we have discovered the farming business signed into a contract for multiple line numbers at different locations, some of which we don't know what they are for or whether they still exist, with a company called Digiquip now taken over by Lily. We have queried these numbers and not had a satisfactory response. One of the properties is now rented out and we enquired about dropping this number. They told as we would have to pay more than £1000 as we are in a contract for 72 months!!

Any advice how we can sort this out please

Sorry to hear about your loss.

You need to ascertain the termination fee for each service - either by reference to the original contract paperwork if you know where that is, or trust the information from the provider.

If there are several lines and you don't know where they serve, then paying £1k per line to terminate now might be the best route forward. 
The other route would be to leave the lines in service, the business will still incur the line rental for the remaining number of months which will be at least as much as the £1k per line, plus *someone* might have the lines and use them and accrue call costs which will also need to be paid by the business.

DullGreyGuy

Gingernut54 said:

Since my husband died we have discovered the farming business signed into a contract for multiple line numbers at different locations, some of which we don't know what they are for or whether they still exist, with a company called Digiquip now taken over by Lily. We have queried these numbers and not had a satisfactory response. One of the properties is now rented out and we enquired about dropping this number. They told as we would have to pay more than £1000 as we are in a contract for 72 months!!

Any advice how we can sort this out please

What is the business formation? Sole Trader? Partnership? Limited Company?

Have you checked the rental agreement for the property thats rented out to see if it include the line?