Taking over the line at a new house

I'm buying a house Feb(ish) in the new year and I have some questions:

First off the existing owners are EE customers - so I assume once they leave the service will cease?

I'm looking to get Zen in, but as it takes about 10 days could I start the process before the move in date? - i wouldn't do this without speaking to the seller though - I don't know if this approach is normal.

If I chose to stay with EE as a provider as they already provide the connection would it still take 10 days to establish me as a new customer?


My existing house/zen connection are staying as before so I'm not transferring a service.

In reply to a post by kebabselector:

My existing house/zen connection are staying as before so I'm not transferring a service.

So are you still going to be paying this?

Ask them to fit / start line the day you move in.

In reply to a post by JohnR:

So are you still going to be paying this?

Yes, it's my main residence.

In reply to a post by MC31:

Ask them to fit / start line the day you move in.

Didn't realise I could do that, I'll give that a try once we get a completion date. Thanks

Unfortunately, unless the process has changed since I moved three years ago, it probably won't be as straightforward as you might hope. The issue I had was that the previous owners had to serve their notice period before their service could be disconnected, even though it included several days after I had moved in. Only then could my order be placed, which took several more days to process. It was almost three weeks after the date of the move that my service started. This was despite myself and the previous owners using the same ISP.

BT seem to allow me to do an order when someone else has the line (I did it last year). Not sure if all operators can deal with this but some certainly can.

I found the same with BT too in 2018 but things might have changed since.

I found their system was incredibly flexible. My completion date moved a few times and I was able to log in and change the install date a couple of times. It was a remote activation, no engineer needed. But still, worked well.

Do you know the line number of the live EE line? If so pop it in the BT Wholesale checker and it should tell you whether there is an open cease order on the line (or any other type of order on the line that may block a new order being placed). If there is a cease order then the line can normally simply be restarted within 24 hours of it being stopped, quite often the same day. If the line is restarted but a new number assigned then you may have to wait 24 hours before being able to place a broadband order, which would add approximately 5 working days to the leadtime.

Thanks for the update guys. Looks as if it might be 'fun' then. Hopefully when I get a completion date I can start talking to EE/zen to see what they can do (or not!)