kelvin

Just after a general consensus on the following issue...

Apologies for the long winded introduction but I just wanted to provide some background

Myself and wife are in the process of relocating to an alternate flat and have arranged a move in date for this coming Friday. We've looked around the property on 2 occasions, once with the agent, and once on our own to measure up etc.

On the first visit, we had a fairly good chat with the Agent regarding utilities - particularly with regards to the phone line as we were keen to place a second phone socket in the spare room for use as an office (an existing one exists in the lounge). We were advised that this would be fine. We accepted there and then.

Paperwork has been coming and going and one thing we picked up on in the lease was the following clause:-

No problem we thought, a bit inconvenient as my wife is self employed and will need to notify her clients, but not the end of the world, so this week I called BT to have our existing account transferred to the line at the property. "Sorry sir, there's no existing line there, you will need to pay a connection fee of £125 before we can get you up and running".

I've spoken with the agent this morning who has advised me that we will be liable for this (i've not yet gone ahead with the new connection). I've objected to this and asked if she can approach the landlord with a view to him paying the connection fee because:-

1. The agent was well aware that we would need a phone line and neglected to notify us earlier, despite us being obviously pleased that a telephone point was already in place in the lounge area (the assumption on our part being that a line was installed).

2. The lease itself implies that a phone line is supplied (albeit with the limitations on transferring the number) - when I raised this over the phone I was told to simply "ignore" the clause as it didn't apply.

3. I obect to being the "unlucky" tenant who happens to be the first person who has needed a phone line at the property, and who has to lump the connection fee that will benefit future tenants (we only have a 6 month lease).

Would you do the same thing? I'm wary of being too "difficult" as I don't want to get off on bad terms with the property agent, but I was confident the connection cost would be born by the landlord - every other agent we've ever rented from has offered to cover the cost.

Just wanted to see what others thought

Kelvin.

kelvin

Bump

Anyone?

richardg

write to the agent stating your intentions and keep a copy of it. you won;t get a straight answer, so make an executive decision! oh and many tenants avoid the landline installation because of the fee - so many people just use mobiles these days that it looks like you have just been unlucky enough to be the first person to need a landline

marky1

Insist landlord pays it. It's quite clear as you say in point 2 that the lease implies there is a phone line present in the property.

mamoon2

I've just had to pay BT this £125 and were tenents in a new property.

Fecking robbing BT, just a shame theres no cable and NTL say they have not laid cables in 10 years and don't intend to either.

Bugger!!

Smiler

It's a standard wording lease.

I would say it's down to the tenant to sort this one out. The Landlord isn't going to keep an active BT account when the property is empty.

Abzdon

I would check that there isnt a line installed.

Brother had same problem of BT saying they would have to install a line even though he got a dialtone on the socket.

No amount of arguing with them would convince them until the BT egineer phoned up on install day to ask why he wanted another line when he already had one!

Sorted out over the phone with engineer and line activated in ten minutes

BMWhere?

I have just rented my apartment out which had a BT line installed. The agency handled the transfer of all the utilities and council tax to the new tennants name, the only one they couldn't do was BT.

Basically BT refuse to transfer accounts, you have to cancel the account and the new tennant has to get a new connection. Therefore as the landlord, I have had to disconnect the phone. If the tennent wants it re-connected he will then have to call BT and will be charged a fortune for the connection which is nothing more than a 2 minute job of typing some numbers into a computer to enable the line agian!

Daylight robbery! Not a major problem for me as I actually got a refund on line rental, but not good for the tenant side!

marky1

No such thing as a standard wording lease, everything is open to negotiation. If it's written in the lease it should be there, the fact someone was lazy and cut and pasted a lease from another property (or something similar) is irrelevant. It clearly states there is a phone supplied (whether that was the intention or not, that's what it says!)