Broadband when moving house: what happens to your contract

Broadband sits near the bottom of the moving list, somewhere under the council tax and the sofa that won't fit through the door. It should be higher up. What happens to your broadband when moving house is decided almost entirely by a clause you agreed to months ago and have never read, and if you're on one of the smaller networks the stakes are higher than they'd be on BT or Sky. The reason is geography rather than anything sinister.

What happens to your broadband when moving house?

One of two things. Either the contract moves with you and you carry on paying it at the new address, or it ends early and you settle whatever is left of it. Which one you get depends on whether your provider can serve the new place, and then on what your terms say about the case where it can't.

What people get wrong is assuming the move itself is a get-out. It isn't. Moving house is not one of the situations that hands you a regulated exit, so when a provider does let you go without charge, that's its own policy rather than your right.

Why a move hits altnet customers differently

BT, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Vodafone mostly resell the same Openreach network, and that network reaches the large majority of UK homes. Moving between two Openreach addresses is usually an internal transfer for them: same wires, new house, contract intact. Our guide on what actually differs between altnets and Openreach covers why that is.

An altnet built its own fibre, street by street, so its footprint is a shape rather than a blanket. You can move three miles and land outside it completely. That isn't a flaw in the company, it's what a network still being built looks like, but it does make a house move a live risk on an altnet contract in a way it rarely is on an Openreach one.

There's an upside hiding in the same fact. The new address might be covered by a network that never reached your old one, occasionally at a price the incumbent won't match. The only way to know is to check the new postcode rather than assume.

Can you cancel a broadband contract early if you move?

You can always cancel. The question is what it costs, and the honest answer is that leaving inside your minimum term normally means paying an early termination charge, even when the reason you're leaving is that your provider can't follow you. Citizens Advice sets out the general position on ending a communications contract early.

Plenty of providers waive it anyway when they can't serve the new address, and some write that into their terms. Others treat it as a favour they don't have to do, and a few will hold you to the contract. You can't tell which you're dealing with from the marketing. The moving section of your own terms is the thing that answers it, so read that, then ask in writing and keep the reply.

What an exit charge should add up to

If you do owe something, it isn't meant to be a punishment. Ofcom's position is that someone leaving early should never pay more than the payments remaining on the contract, and usually less than that, because a provider that stops serving you also stops carrying some of the cost of doing so. It has run enforcement work on early termination charges on that principle.

So a figure larger than the months you have left is worth challenging before you pay it. What it won't be is nothing, and budgeting for it beats hoping.

The clause worth reading before you sign

Here's the trade-off no advert mentions. A 24-month deal on a network with a small footprint is partly a bet that you won't move. Most years that bet is fine. In the year a job or a landlord decides otherwise, it's the expensive kind of small print.

• Find the moving clause. It's usually a short paragraph of its own, headed something like moving home. If it says nothing about the provider being unable to serve you, assume the charge applies.
• Weigh the term against your plans. Some of the networks we track sell 12-month or rolling contracts alongside the 24-month ones. If a move is even possible, the shorter term is cheap insurance, and our comparison table shows the lengths each provider actually sells.
• Ask before you sign, not after. Support answers a hypothetical more generously than it answers a live cancellation. Get it in writing while you're still a prospect.

What to do once you have a moving date

Order matters more than speed here. Money gets lost by cancelling first and then discovering the new address is a six-week wait, or by leaving notice until the week of the move.

• Check the new address first. Before you tell anyone anything, find out what serves it. That answer decides everything after it.
• Tell your provider in writing. Give the notice your contract asks for as soon as you have a confirmed date, and ask two flat questions: can you serve this address, and what do I owe if you can't.
• Don't cancel until the new install is booked. A confirmed installation date at the new place is what makes the old line safe to end. The gap between the two is the one genuinely avoidable mistake here.
• Keep the reply. If a waiver gets promised on a phone call and a bill turns up anyway, the written version is what settles it, and it's the first thing an ombudsman will ask for.

None of it is difficult. It's just easy to leave too late. Start with what's available at the new address, and if the answer is a network you've never heard of, our guide to how switching to an altnet actually works covers the install day you're about to book.

Frequently asked questions

Does my provider have to cancel my contract free if it can't reach my new address?

No. There is no regulatory right to a free exit because you moved, so it comes down to your provider's own terms. Some write an out-of-area exception into the contract and some do not, which is why the answer differs from one company to the next.

Can I take my altnet connection with me?

Not physically. The fibre runs to the building, so what you take with you is the contract, not the line. If the same network already reaches your new address it becomes a fresh install there; if it doesn't, the connection stays behind with the house.

How much notice does my provider need?

That is set in your contract rather than by any rule, and it varies, so read your own terms rather than assuming. Give it the day you have a confirmed date. Notice costs nothing and late notice can cost you a month.

What if the new place is served by a different altnet?

Then you are signing a new contract with a new company, and the old one still has to be settled on whatever terms it carries. Check the new address before you commit to anything, because the network that covers your current street tells you nothing about the next one.