Is it a legal requirement when letting a property...

[WilkieBarEasterEgg]

to have a phone line installed??

We are about to move into a newbuild property to rent for 6 months and have rung BT to sort out the phone only to be told the landlady has never paid for phone line installation (£125).

Is it a legal requirement or not? Do you think I should ask the landlady to install - we're not prepared to pay it as it is a service to the property and we are planning on moving in 6 months so can't take it with us!!!!

hmmm not sure if it wasn't advertised as having one they are prob under no obligation to install one

we don't have any normal tv reception in our rented house, landlord wouldn't do anything so we had to pay to have cable installed.

No

Either get a Sky package, if you get a phone line with them, they will refund the cost of installing a brand new BT line.

The landlord does not have to pay for a phone line for you, but ask she might pay something towards it (or all of it if you are lucky) as it makes her property more rentable in the future. I would ask nicely and see what she says.

I would ask the landlady before installing anything like that as it is not something easily removed. She may not want a landline in as, these days, most people have mobiles, so it isn't exactly an essential service.

If you install it and there is any evidence when it is removed, you could be liable for making good.

I agree with Freckle. She may also not want one because of the hassle of chasing up people who run up huge bills then bugger off into the sunset! Not that you'd do that, I mean, but you do have to be careful if you're renting stuff (on the landlord/lady side I mean).

Asking nicely though may get all sorts of results!

If the landlady installs it, she will have to have the line in her name for (usually) 12 months so that is probably why she hasn't done it. I would ask her if she would pay for you to have it installed and then she will have no liability for it. People may have mobiles but most still want phone line for broadband access etc.

There's no need for her to install a phone line. However - as you're all lined up to move in I would imagine that she'd be very reluctant to lose you for the sake of the cost of one.

Best strategy is to speak to her and say that you'd assumed that a phone line would be provided. It's possible that it hadn't occurred to her that there wouldn't be one.

People may want a landline for broadband, but that doesn't mean to say that a landlord/lady has to provide it, unless it's specifically mentioned in the tenancy agreement.

I would speak to the landlady and see what she says. She may have very valid reasons for not having a landline and she may not want one at all.

no not a requirement

I absolutely agree that it is not a legal requirement but it is a bit stingy not to provide it if you can get round the liability issue. Agree with 40+ that it would be strange of her to lose a tenant over a minor amount of money such as this and, if she is prepared to let you walk away for such a trivial matter, then God knows how she would react to something going really seriously wrong with the property...

Bum. Thanks everyone - think I will broach it with her.

Coming to this late, but we had a similar issue with our new tenants last December. Previous tenant had never had a phone line installed, and new tenants wanted us to pay for one. It might not seem like much (£125), but that month, we'd lost half a months rent as they wanted to move in 2 weeks after the last tenant vacated, and we lost the equivalent of another half a months rent due to the fees for the new contract arrangement with the letting agent. None of this was the fault of the tenants, but don't think that the landlady is being awful if she says no, she might just feel a bit tight on money herself that month.

In the end we said no. When we were tenants, we paid this cost ourselves twice, so felt that it was really the tenants responsibility.