Problems with new apartment

JaMarcus Hustle

Hi all,

Having some very frustrating problems with our new apartment that I was hoping you could give advice on.

We started renting a new apartment from 24th June (last month). The landlord is a bank who have been appointed as receiver to the apartment complex. The apartment was specifically advertised with “Broadband” and “Satellite Television” as two of its features. When viewing the apartment, I made sure to specifically ask the estate agent if there would be any problems getting Broadband and Satellite in, and he said there wouldn’t be.

Fast forward almost a month living there and we still have neither. Here’s why – originally, we decided we wanted to go with Sky for both Broadband and TV, so we called them to arrange. They informed us that there was still an active phone line in our apartment, and they needed a UAN number to do the Broadband switch over. I didn’t know what they meant by active account, so after a bit of research (and a lot of phone calls), it turns out that the previous tenant was a Vodafone customer but never cancelled their account. So Sky then told us to get the UAN number from the previous tenant and they would take care of the rest. But we were unable to get that number because the previous tenant has left the country and cannot be contacted (the bank cannot get through to them either).

So, the landlord is currently attempting to get this number for us, but is showing no urgency whatsoever despite repeated chasers. Vodafone have informed us that it’s not likely they’ll be able to give this number due to data protection reasons, so they said they will probably have to cancel the line and get Eircom to re-active it (it’s an Eircom line, after all). But Sky have told us that it can take them up to 2 months to see a re-activated line after it’s been cancelled. So, we could be without broadband (as was promised) for up to 3 months after moving.

Re: television, we had Sky out the other day to do the install, but we cannot get our own dish as our apartment is not south-eastern facing. So they tried to install using the communal dish on the roof, but this was down for the whole apartment so there was no signal. Nothing the Sky engineer could do. Of course, the landlord/management never bothered to tell anyone about the outage, which has really annoyed me because I took the day off work to be home for the Sky engineer which was now a waste. So they are coming back next week (the dish was fixed yesterday apparently) to attempt to install again. But our neighbours have told us that they are using the communal dish and are missing around 10 channels. I don’t want to be paying for a Sky service where I’m going to be missing some of what I’m paying for.

Basically, we feel we’ve been lied to. We cannot be without broadband especially for so long, as we need it for work but also we’re both keen internet users. The bank keep saying they’re trying to resolve, but it’s been nearly a month and we’re no closer to having it resolved. I want to just tell them that they have X amount of days to sort it before I cancel the standing order for next month’s rent and consult my solicitor re: terminating the lease and having our full deposit returned. Would we have any right to do that, or what options do we have? It's incredibly frustrating - everything we've been asked to do (viewing, references, deposit, rent etc.) we've done within a few hours of being asked, and we're not getting the same in return.

Thanks for reading.

Mrs OBumble

One short term, pragmatic option, which doesn't address the unerlying issues: mobile broadband.

Cheaper than a solicitor, and gets you connected fast.

the_syco

Check can you get UPC; it doesn't come through the phone line.

JaMarcus Hustle

the_syco wrote: »

Check can you get UPC; it doesn't come through the phone line.

Unfortuantely none of the apartments in the complex can get UPC.

We have tried our best to resolve this while showing a lot of patience with the landlord/management company.

Now, we are the stage where we would like advice on whether we have any right to break the lease while not forfeiting our deposit.

djimi

What does it say in the lease about internet/television?

Im not aware of any obligation for a property to have access to either internet or cable/satellite television service, but you could check with Threshold and see what they reckon?

the_syco

JaMarcus Hustle wrote: »

Now, we are the stage where we would like advice on whether we have any right to break the lease while not forfeiting our deposit.

Not really, no.

JaMarcus Hustle wrote: »

They informed us that there was still an active phone line in our apartment, and they needed a UAN number to do the Broadband switch over. I didn’t know what they meant by active account, so after a bit of research (and a lot of phone calls), it turns out that the previous tenant was a Vodafone customer but never cancelled their account.

Hrm... I HAS IDEA that will only cost about a tenner or so

Carriexx

I use Digiweb broadband and you dont need a phoneline.

JaMarcus Hustle

djimi wrote: »

What does it say in the lease about internet/television?

Im not aware of any obligation for a property to have access to either internet or cable/satellite television service, but you could check with Threshold and see what they reckon?

I don't have the lease on me, I can check when I go home but I doubt it says anything.

I guess what I'm arguing is that the apartment was not as advertised, and that it wasn't something we could have checked before moving in (i.e. if it's advertised with a swimming pool and you move in and suddenly there's no pool - then that's your fault for not picking up on that on viewing. But the only way we could have verified that we would have no issues with the broadband was to ask the estate agent, which we made a point of doing, but he told us we wouldn't have any issues so we were happy to move in with that knowledge).

username123

djimi wrote: »

What does it say in the lease about internet/television?

Im not aware of any obligation for a property to have access to either internet or cable/satellite television service, but you could check with Threshold and see what they reckon?

Pat Rabbitte seems to think that every home has access:

Mr Rabbitte said that he simply did not believe there were any households who could claim to have no access to public service broadcasting whether via television, radio or the RTE website on phones and computers.

and is enforcing a Broadcasting Charge based on this belief.

These days having the internet is essential for many people - Im not sure Id survive a day without it!

OP, contact Threshold - as far as I can see, you were sold a lease under false pretences and have a case to cancel and be away.

Yawns

username123 wrote: »

OP, contact Threshold - as far as I can see, you were sold a lease under false pretences and have a case to cancel and be away.

But he wasn't. Broadband is available through the phone line. Last tenant has caused the complication. Op just doesn't want to have the line cancelled as Sky advised it could be up to 2 months before they can do anything. That is unusual advice from Sky as I have never heard of that long a turnaround on cancelling and re-activating a line. A few days would be normal.

There is satellite available via a communal dish. It was out of order, then repaired but OP doesn't want to chance on having a few stations missing. The neighbour's say they are missing about 10. But satellite is available.

So with Satellite and the access point there for broadband, he wasn't sold a lease under those false pretenses. If I was in his shoes, I'd have the line cancelled and re-activated. I assume the old tenant was getting e-bills rather than paperbills so no chance of finding the UAN via a bill.

StillWaters

^This. Just cancel and reactivate the line. Lots of drama over something you can fix so easily.

Richard Dower

OP....get a NEW landline install, feck the existing one....120 quid, sorted.

Yawns

Or have the old one cancelled, have your new ISP put in for a re-activation & wait a few days. Free activation, sorted.

Faith

I don't know if this is any help, OP, but when we moved into our new house, there was a phone line but the previous tenants had been UPC customers so I don't think they used it. We got Sky, and it only took 3 days for our line to be active - not even three working days either. I rang then on Friday to arrange it and the line was active on Monday. They'd told us that it could take up to 2 weeks or 14 working days or somethign like that, but it was super fast. The broadband also became activated way before they initially advised. So they might say "up to 2 months" and have it done in a couple of weeks.