Would you pull out of this house purchase?

[ZazuMoon]

We have made an offer on a house built in 2016. Enquired during viewings about broadband and were told by the sellers it was connected. It turns out this is false and there is no connection and not even a phone line. There is no infrastructure at all. When BT installed the fibre to the door on the development the sellers refused it, the only ones on the estate to do so. As there is no infrastructure or ONT box at the property there is no serial number with which BT can help us. BT tells us to contact open reach for an ONT and open reach tells us without an ONT and general infrastructure they can’t do anything. Sellers and estate agent seem to think it is just a case of putting standard broadband in which is worse than what we have now in our much older property. They are unwilling to take any action to solve the issue. I don’t want to risk waiting until exchange of contracts before discovering we can’t get fibre to the premises. DH and I both need this broadband as we work from home one day per week. WWYD?

Yes I’d pull out. It’s obviously causing you a lot of stress.
Put your energy into finding a suitable house

I’d pull out! It could cost thousands to rectify.

Pull out.

Make it a condition of sale that they install broadband or you'll pull out.

Unless this is your absolute dream of a house and you can't imagine yourself being happy anywhere else, walk away. This has all the potential to become a giant stressy nightmare and buying a house is stressful enough as it is.

Take advice from your solicitor, but if the vendor is confident that the problem is easily solved then they won't mind promising to do so themselves in the contract. If it's more complicated than they're saying that's then their problem: they're contractually bound to sort it out. If they won't make the binding promise then you have your answer - their claim that it's a non-issue is a lie.

The problem is we are in the middle of the chain and have accepted an offer from a buyer. It’s not our dream of a house but it’s the best we’ve seen for a while. We’ve lost a couple of houses and do just want to move but the sellers and estate agent are being so stubborn and obtuse about this internet issue.

Tell your solicitors it's a non negotiable issue and you're not exchanging until this issue is resolved in the property and you will pull out if it isn't. But also be prepared to do so. It may focus the sellers minds on remedying it.

Definitely pull out unless and until the seller resolves this and confirms the same to you.

Another option - we no longer have a landline as the BT service was so awful. We use mobiles and a data sim in a Wi-fi router for the house. Three mobiles at 100gb and one unlimited data sim is costing us under £70pm. We have no problems running a business, smart tv, etc. Unless I have misunderstood the problem.

Pull out. Apart from the headache of this one thing, you have to wonder what else they have lied about.

Start looking for another house asap. If this isn't a house of your dreams, then why put yourself through the added stress of buying this particular house? It could cost you hundreds to rectify once you're in, and if you're relying on a speedy solution due to work, you could end up even more stressed when it doesn't go to plan. When we last moved, my partner was working from home, so we managed to contact our preferred provider and get our router and WiFi equipment delivered to our new property ready for when we moved in, and gave them our moving date so as soon as we were in it was up and running. Previous owners even plugged it all in for us and set it up before they left! Made things so much simpler and in your situation with wfh, I'd suggest looking for a property where internet issues aren't going to be an immediate problem. It's one less stress you could do without when moving house, especially if you're going to be heavily relying on it. Maybe give them an ultimatum to sort it out before you pull our, but don't be too optimistic about them agreeing to do it, as they'll be reluctant to pay out for it now.

I don't see how it can be such an issue OP if neighbours all have it. Have you spoken to a BT engineer as opposed to call centre agents?
Personally I wouldn't pull out - it costs so much money to move, you'll lose your surveyors search fee too. I would definitely find out more before doing anything drastic as to pull out.

Btw, have you advised Openreach that the estate already has capabilities?

The problem was that the area was all connected several years ago so I don’t believe BT would come back to do this one house, especially when they have refused any of the infrastructure as well as there’s nothing to connect it to in the house.

I live in an old house with a landline, no fibre optic cable to door, etc. As long as you have a phone line, and there is a hub nearby, you can get WiFi.
I would contact another supplier, however. BT are s**t. Open Reach not a lot better, but they have a lock on the infrastructure side of broadband. I actually think it would be simple to get. I think your sellers turned down possibly a fast fibre optic option, probably due to cost, but that isn’t the only way to get broadband. I wouldn’t abandon the purchase for this.

limited ‘under £70’ per month presumably means viler £65... outrageously expensive!

To put it in is likely to be a nightmare and they will more than likely need to dig up the garden/footpath or something to run the infrastructure in from the footpath (if it is even there). I don't think it would be as simple as just getting a supplier as they say! Also if they aren't going to rectify it and it isn't your dream home, pull out.

However, if it is your dream home there are other options. My parents live in a really rural area and their broadband is worse than dial up! The now use an EE thing that uses 4g. For around 100gb per month they are paying around £50.

Over not viler!

Pull out. The vendors have lied to you.

Would another supplier go there? Virgin for example?

I'd pull out.

they've lied to you.

And it will cost a fair amount to sort it ... and not in a timely manner, either.

When we got fibre broadband to our house they had to come up to lay cable in our garden, it was shallowly buried alongside the fence out to the pavement where it was connected to the main line im guessing. Didnt cost anything extra than my previous property where they just had to flip a switch somewhere remotely to activate it.

Are you sure its going to be such a big issue?

I came on here to say how selfish, particularly if in a chain, it is to pull out. However the sellers lied to you, this is on them. I would make it a condition of sale in the first instance. If they think its not such a big deal, they can sort it. It would also make me worry about what else they have lied about. I don't think it would be unreasonable to pull out.

Pull out. We moved into a new build in 2016, BT Openreach didn't even know it existed and it took nearly 4 months to get broadband. This only happened because we contacted our MP and wrote repeated snotty emails to the CEO of BT. I WFH and those months without broadband really affected my income. There's no way I'd go through all that again.