Moving Home being forced to take out new 18 month contract

[Mickymcintee]

Hi there,

Wondering if I could have some advice? I’m moving and I’m being forced to take out a new 18 months contract when I would rather just move my 14 months left over to the new property, I don’t remember seeing anything when I signed up that I’d be required to go in to a new 18 month contract if I moved.

Is this legit? Is there no other option? And do BT highlight this? If not is it something I could take to the ombudsman?

Much appreciated,

Michael

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

As far as I am aware when you do a house move you need to take out a new telephone contract for the phone line. This is usually because  you need a new phone line installed, or a disconnected line re-connected.

You can take your other packages such as broadband with you without re contracting as long as you have more than three months to run on them.

As regards  "I don’t remember seeing anything when I signed up that I’d be required to go in to a new 18 month contract if I moved." 

Your present contract is to supply the services to the address you are presently at. If you move from that address, which is a material change to the contract, the contract is effectively being terminated by you. BT would have told you about the cancellation fees that you would be hit with if you do not see out the term of your contract in their T&Cs.

BT's answer to that is to allow a change provided you use the  home move process, where apart from the phone contract, which was explained above, the rest can be taken with you without incurring cancellation fees.

[-Richie-]

You can take a broadband promotion with you if it's like-for-like, however if the package is different then a new 18 month agreement will be required or you can give 30 days notice and cease your existing contract, as you've stated it's got 14 months remaining then it could be costly, more expensive than extending by 4 months surely.

If you do take the existing promotion the line will still be renewed for 12 months, no way round that.

[Mickymcintee]

Thanks for the above. It just seems like they kinda have you over a barrel really. The girl on the phone explained that I would have to take a new broadband contract too. Basically I’ve went from 14 months of an 18 month promo contract to what I believe is a new 18 month contract with the broadband refreshed too. Are you saying I could call back and confirm that it’s only the telephone line charges that are for 18 months and the broadband is only for 14 months because if this were the case I think I’d be fine with it, it just sort of seems like a way for them to tie you in to more time tbh which seems like shady business ethics 😂

[Mickymcintee]

I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same promo, same price and all. I’m sure the girl said I had to start a whole new contract for the 18 months though.

An extra 4 months means in the long run I end up paying around 140 more than what I would if I just paid to cancel, but in true poor customer service fashion I’m not even able to uphold my contract by making the payment without having the line connected anywhere which is beyond me, cause to be honest given the options I’ve got I’d be happier to pay my contract for the next 14 months without having the line connected (which requires me to take a new 18 month contract) but they don’t allow that either.

Like I said to the other responder it just seems like they’ve got you over a contract barrel and they’re ‘really sorry’ but your options are limited to all options which cost you more in the long run.

Really appreciate the response though, kudos for the help!

[gg30340]

You can not have a broadband package without a phone line so if you got the 12 month phone package you would be out of sync with the broadband so it would be "reasonable" to have them both running for the same length of time.

If you didn't do that you would need to renew the phone one before your broadband one had ended and this would keep happening or you would end up loosing part of one of the contracts if decided not to renew it.

[Mickymcintee]

I’d be super okay with losing the full service and just paying it for 14 months, it would save me £140. 😂 anyway, I’ve put in a complaint so I’ll see where that goes, I’m not expecting anything. But at least I can make it known I find it silly you can’t just choose to pay up the last of your contract without the service, likewise they don’t offer any kind of payment plans to cancellation fees. It’s nuts, you only really have the option to take out something you don’t actually want because it’s affordable. I’m gonna call it the BT barrel haha! Thanks anyway both