A Complicated Home Move Within A Minimum Term Contract - Can Anyone Advise?

[moozlebee]

I have been trying to find answers to my situation on the usual help pages but have been unsuccessful so far. I hope that maybe someone here can help, as the WebChat facility on the BT website appears to not be working at the moment?

I currently have BT Broadband and BT Voice Chat, with a minimum contract term that ends in November 2024. 

Very soon, I will be leaving my current address. My new home is unfortunately not yet built (developer delays.) Due to this, I will be moving in with a family member for a few months. Once my new home is complete, and an address registered for it, I shall be moving in there as my new permanent home.

How do I handle this with BT? It is a Home Move, but not a seamless and simple one, so I don't know what kind of option to pursue? I expect that I will need to speak to a Customer Services representative, but if I have an idea of what to ask for/expect, that would be very helpful.

Thanks very much, everyone.

[iniltous]

I suspect , without a certain amount of cooperation from whoever is moving into your ( soon to be  ) old home , you may struggle,

AFAIK there isn’t a way to suspend your existing account while waiting for your new home to be completed, and then transfer your service to that new address , if you just continued to pay for service at your old address ( possibly without even letting the new occupants know ) until such time your new home is ready that would need the new occupant not to order their own service from an Openreach based provider, if they did order their own service ( not necessarily BT but anyone on Openreach) , it would set in motion your BT ‘line’ to be ceased and obviously any early termination charges would be part of your  final bill .

If the new occupant ( either because you asked them not to , or they never intended to use an Openreach based ISP anyway  ) you  could just continue to simply pay for the old address until your new one were ready , but the new occupant could potentially use your  service even if you took the router with you , they could obtain one and plug it in , (so a bit risky if you told them about your plan ) by not telling them , it’s much more likely that they would  just order their own service over OR and trigger your account closure.

Obviously that’s just my take on this , you would need to speak to BT incase there is a mechanism for doing what you want .

[Colin_London]

Whilst understanding your predicament you also have to understand it from BTs point of view - they are expecting income from a contract and whilst it is reasonable for them to support a move of house mid-contract, stopping or suspending payment for an unknown period is another thing. After all they are not to blame for the delay to the availability of your new house.

A suspension of contract would be down to you negotiating a special arrangement with the house move team on the basis that you are a trusted customer that they want to have a continuing relationship with. Unfortunately that often doesn’t count for much nowadays and they might just want the money.

[VeteranISPUser]

Hi @moozlebee 

If it was me I would take the early termination fees hit. It would be vastly cheaper than continuing to pay up to your contract end date. You can get an exact figure by asking BT but you may be surprised that it is lower than you expected. You can get an estimate https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/storefront/pdfs/BT_PhoneTariff_Residential.pdf#page244

[moozlebee]

Ah, I think you misunderstand. I’m not trying to get out of my contractual obligations, including paying for months even if the service isn’t available to me. I am looking for advice on how to deal with a situation where technically I will be homeless for three months, my previous home will be owned and occupied by a stranger who will want to initiate their own services, and my future home will lack a registered address until the second half of summer.

It’s not a case of minimising the cost, more one of how do I keep the contract going if it can’t be registered to a house I live in…?

If cancellation and fees are the only way to go, then I respect that and wouldn’t challenge it, however it would probably have quite an impact upon whether I came back to BT from August…

[imjolly]

@moozlebee 

I agree with @VeteranISPUser  as you only have a few months on existing contract then I think your best option is cancel and take the hit.  you are then free to use whichever ISP you choose when you move to new home

[licquorice]

You're overthinking it. Just cancel at your present address and then start a new contract when you move to your new address.

As a new customer you will probably get a better deal anyway.

[gg30340]

Do a Home move requesting a new line at your temp address then another home move when you go to your new home if you are still in contract when the time comes to move in.

However it would be easier just to cancel and start a new contract with which ever ISP you want when your new house is completed.