Provision of Television Services

[Annoyed_Tennant]

Hi,
This may sound like a minor annoyance, but it's really causing me problems. I live in a development of flats, which are wired for Virgin Media. Those who have dealt with VM will know where this is going, Virgin do not provide a viable service in my opinion. I've been a customer (for customer read "sap") for 12 months and I've NEVER had a correct bill (it took me 6 months to get a bill at all!), and I'm usually overcharged by a factor of 2. Anyway, that's just by way of background so you can understand where I'm coming from. At the moment, although I would dearly love to dump VM, there's no provision for terrestrial television services in my development and I'm not allowed to put up a sky dish. My question is, is the landlord obliged to provide alternatives for television services (or at least basic terrestrial)? At the moment, everyone in the court is bound to Virgin Media by virtue of an absence of alternative, and I can't believe that kind of forced monopoly is legal.

Annoyed_Tennant

[attilathelandlord]

The answer to that is no. The landlord is only obliged to maintain that which was there at the beginning of the tenancy. It's not his/her fault if VM is imcompetent. I take it you are there under an AST or are you a leaseholder.

[Annoyed_Tennant]

Yes, I'm on an AST, it just seems unfair that I'm not even allowed freeview, we all have to pay VM and only VM.

[billmccallum]

Not an ideal solution, but...

buy a decent indoor aerial and a freeview box and cancel VM.

[Colincbayley]

There are also more options becoming available with digital TV being availabnle on line via a broadband connection.

[pcwilkins]

My question is, is the landlord obliged to provide alternatives for television services (or at least basic terrestrial)? At the moment, everyone in the court is bound to Virgin Media by virtue of an absence of alternative, and I can't believe that kind of forced monopoly is legal.

You do realise that watching television isn't compulsory? Perhaps your landlord is really doing you a favour by trying to wean you off your dependence on it :-)

Perhaps you should try the European Court of Human Rights; you might be able to argue that LL is breaching your fundamental right to so-called "entertainment".

Peter