Landlords no longer able to block broadband upgrades

Amended legislation means that landlords will not be able to prevent broadband firms from upgrading their service in blocks of flats.

Previously, tenants living in the UK’s estimated 480,000 blocks of flats and apartments (also known as multi-dwelling units or MDUs) would usually have had to wait for a landlord’s permission to have a broadband operator enter their building to install a faster connection. 

These access rights are essential for the delivery of broadband upgrades as operators are unable to deploy their services without first obtaining permission, either from the landowner or a court, to install their equipment.

Broadband companies claim around 40 per cent of their requests for access to install connections receive no response, which means tenants may lose out on the revolutionary benefits of faster speeds.

Now, under the amended Building Regulations 2010 Act and the new Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act, providers in England and Wales will be able to seek rights to access a property or shared land if the person required to grant access is unresponsive. The law does this by creating a new route through the courts that operators can use to access blocks of flats and apartments.

It will prevent situations where a tenant is unable to receive a service simply due to the silence of a landlord. From the point where a company makes the first request to the landlord, it will take 35 days for this new rule to kick in.

In addition, new homes in England will be built with gigabit broadband connections.

Gigabit broadband is now available in over 72 per cent of the UK and is already boosting boost productivity for millions working at home through lightning fast download speeds, as well as enabling entire families to stream movies, TV and video games in high quality 4K and 8K definition onto multiple devices at the same time with no slowdowns in speed.

The updated regulations mean that more people moving into new homes will have a gigabit-capable broadband connection ready when construction is completed, avoiding the need for costly and disruptive installation work after the home is built and enabling residents to arrange the best possible internet service at the point they move in.

Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez says: “Nothing should stop people from seizing the benefits of better broadband, whether it is an unresponsive landlord or a property developer’s failure to act. Thanks to our new laws, millions of renters will no longer be prevented from getting a broadband upgrade due to the silence of their landlord, and those moving into newly built homes can be confident they’ll have access to

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