Possible BT line on derelict property

[LukeSilvan]

Hey folks,

My partner and I are interested in a derelict property and I have been told by the owners that a line was installed there in the early 90's and has not been used since and the 'old croft' is now a complete ruin. I'm wondering if there's an (ideally free) way to get the line tested or find out if we'd need to upgrade it etc were we to purchace the ruined property. The potential costs involved etc as part of our budgetting?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@LukeSilvan 

The line would be the property of Openreach, not BT Retail.

Until you place an order for a phone line, nothing will happen. Openreach will only act if they receive an order from a provider.

Do you intend to place an order with BT Retail?

[LukeSilvan]

Ah hi Keith,

I kind of assumed they were the same company but I guess not, I guess I should enquire with OpenReach then?

Yes I would be going with BT Rental as I always have done in the passed.

[LukeSilvan]

Hmm I've checked with Openreach and got this message when I put in the postcode for said property:

"

We're sorry, our fibre products aren't available for you yet. We don’t have plans to upgrade your area yet to our fibre services, but you may still be able to get our Standard copper products - check with your provider of choice.

"

[Starwire]

If the line has been unused for 20+ years chances are it’ll be disconnected at the Distribution Point, aka Black Box on top of the Telephone Pole.

Openreach don’t provide any kind of service where they go and and test old and unused lines.

As the property has had no working service for so long when you place an order it will require an Engineer Installation Appointment, they will then change out any old/faulty wiring as needed on the installation.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@LukeSilvan wrote:

Ah hi Keith,

I kind of assumed they were the same company but I guess not, I guess I should enquire with OpenReach then?

Yes I would be going with BT Rental as I always have done in the passed.

---

@LukeSilvan 

When you are in a position to place an order with BT Retail, then please do the following :-

Place an order for a line only using this link - https://www.bt.com/landline/deals

If the address doesn't appear properly when you enter the postcode, there is a section underneath where you can manually enter the address.  This will raise the order with the address showing as bronze and it will prompt Openreach to carry out a survey to confirm the routing.   Once the routing is updated the order will then progress as normal.  You can then add broadband once you have the line up and running.

[LukeSilvan]

Thank you so much for your swift help Keith,

Would you care to take the roughest guess at any kind of vague figure I could put into my costing spreadsheet? 🙂

[LukeSilvan]

Thank you Starwire, that's great to know so I'm not wasting my time chasing people 🙂

Would you care to take any roughest vague guess as to costs involved?

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@LukeSilvan wrote:

Thank you so much for your swift help Keith,

Would you care to take the roughest guess at any kind of vague figure I could put into my costing spreadsheet? 🙂

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If there was a route, then it probably still exists, so there would be no extra charge apart from the standard installation fee.

You would be told if there was likely to be an additional charge, before you proceed with the order, however there are plenty of people like yourself in the same position, and no extra charges have been raised.

I would not be concerned at the moment, as @Starwire  has said, it would just need an Openreach appointment, which is standard procedure in these cases.

[iniltous]

If the address had service in the past, and is a properly registered  residential ‘dwelling’  ( so the address is registered with the Post Office and is liable for council tax etc ) ,  then any order would be progressed in the same as any other , and for the same price , so depending on the provider and the services taken , possibly ‘free’.

Its possible that the usual lead times won’t apply if work by Openreach is required , but provided the ‘construction’ costs don’t exceed the USO ( universal service obligation ) which was around £3400, (that in itself was based on 100 man hours) , and AFAIK this figure has never changed, so basically the chances are the cost to provide service would be around £130 , a regular install price, and probably less, the potential issue is much more likely to be that you order service, an OR engineer cannot install because of the lack of lineplant, and OR retrospectively install the lineplant .