Can BT tell if a BT line has been at a property over 12 years ago?

I just called to ask if there was ever a BT line at a particular address and was told NO and that it would cost £124.99 to put one in, which seems a bit steep to me...

Anyway I can find out on the internet?

(1). I doubt it. Even the tax man doesn't keep records that far back.

(2). No.

Yip I work at BT

They dont keep customer records but if a line has been there 1 month or 30 years it will show on the systems we use.

It will show as what we call a ceased line meaning its been closed for over 12 months but it will show the names of all the people who have had a line before, there just wont be an account for them any more.

If you can happen to find out what the number is that may help. Or it maybe the advisor could not find the address, sometimes its hard to find one so speak to someone else and have it checked again.

If they cant find anything but your positive its a BT line, the address can be forced through and a charge of £124.99 would be raised but if that is a BT line and no work has to be done then the charge would not be applied when the engineer comes out..

If they find the address on the system and its not showing any previous activity its likely that the bt line is there but no one has ever had bt at the address, its rare but not unheard of but im afraid the charge would still apply as the first person to connect a BT line always has to pay the £124.99 connection charge, so if your gonna do it, dont plan on moving out because when someone else moves in. You have paid the connection and it will be free for the next person

Thank you very much. Very informative answer, and very much appreciated.

BT were able to locate the address, but have said that there has never been a BT conection there. I called twice and got the same answer

I think he's suggesting that the address might have changed.

Bearing in mind BT rarely if ever remove any of their kit* I would expect there to be some evidence if there had been a line installed. For example if all the other houses in the vicinity have overhead wires back to a pole then so should yours. Also there are likely to be phone sockets and wiring still in place inside.

If there is no sign of a cable outside and no sockets inside then BT may well be correct in saying there never has been any line there.

* 7 years ago a BT man turned up at work to install a Kilostream line (a dedicated digital line). As it was a new building with new circuits going in all over the place we didn't think much of it at first. Then realised we hadn't ordered it! Called BT to discover it was really for the Porsche UK building well over a mile away! I still have the Kilostream box waiting for when BT can be a*sed to come and take it away.

So if they don't care about expensive bits of kit like that I doubt they would be bothered to remove a cheap LJU socket and a few feet of wire everytime someone ceased a line.

The only time kit is removed internally is if the customer phones and asks for it to be removed.