What happens to a virgin media contract when the person dies?

[goldenharvest]

A relative died (we weren't close) and DH is dealing with her estate.

On her bank statements are amounts taken monthly to VM. We dont know if its a phone, broadband of what. We will find out this information tomorrow.

Relative lived in a care home and didnt have a mobile phone that we know of, and this contract was set up 9 years ago by social services for (we think) for emergency calls. We don't know really. There was no phone with her belongings, and she was blind, so I doubt she had a phone let alone a new handset with a new contract.

Basically what we think happened is she had this set up for her as an emergency but she never cancelled it and it just kept paying out. She had MH problems so this is likely.

1. is there any possibility of reclaiming this money that VM have pocketed without providing a service?

1. Is her estate liable for further payments as she did not cancel the contract?

We feel quite annoyed if they demand (her estate) pays for 3 months termination of contract (or whatever time period it is) when they have apparently provided no service for years. What are the legal sides of this?

Someone will come along with much more knowledge in this area than me but the question I'm prompted to ask is... did anyone have power of attorney over her affairs?

Explain to Virgin Op, if they're not heartless they should give you/your aunts estate a refund. Most big companies I've recently dealt with about a similar situation were very understanding.

Meant to add that I don't think they're under any legal obligation to refund.

The contract ceases at the date of death.

Sorry for your loss.

I don't expect them to refund, just not to demand we continue paying for a further 90 days, which was what DH was told may happen. Its the principle of the thing (!!!)

If the contract ceases thats fine, by me

I had a similar situation with BT. My step father who had dementia, had been paying monthly by DD for a premium email service that hadn't been used in years if at all.

We eventually got a partial refund but that was after threatening them with the Ombudsman.

Try speaking to them, I rang Sky and EE whilst my Mum was in hospital on life support, as she was self employed we had no money coming in and I couldn’t afford to pay for them. I cannot fault either companies, they cancelled both agreements with no fuss. I wish other companies had been as considerate as these two, maybe it was the blubbering mess crying down the phone that helped though.