Landlords providing broadband to tenants

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 (as amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025) controls what landlords and agents can take from tenants. GOV.UK's landlord guide (last updated 7 July 2026) gives two options: put broadband in the rent (it names broadband and a landline phone as communication services you can include), or charge for it separately on top of the rent.

Either way, the bills must appear as terms in the tenancy agreement. GOV.UK says "any utilities included in the rent must be an accurate reflection of costs", and the statutory guidance for councils adds that a tenant can't be made to pay again for a bill the rent already covers.

For a separate charge, the Act sets the ceiling. Schedule 1, paragraph 11 permits a payment for a "communication service" (the internet, a non-mobile landline, cable TV or satellite TV) when the tenancy agreement requires it, but where the money goes to the landlord, anything above your reasonable costs of providing the service is a prohibited payment. You can pass on what the broadband costs you, not mark it up. GOV.UK says councils can investigate a reported prohibited payment, with a penalty of up to £5,000 for a first breach.

GOV.UK's line that "You cannot make a profit from reselling utilities" rests on Ofgem's gas and electricity resale prices and the Water Resale Order 2006, not on broadband; for broadband, the Tenant Fees Act limit is the one that counts.

The Act covers assured periodic tenancies, student accommodation and licences to occupy housing, which GOV.UK illustrates with a lodger in your home. It doesn't cover social housing assured tenancies (see broadband for social housing tenants), shared ownership leases, short-term holiday lets, excluded licences or homes let for more than £100,000 a year. An "excluded licence" is narrow: section 28 uses it for a homeshare arranged with help from a charity or community interest company, where the only thing the sharer gives is companionship (perhaps with care or non-financial help), possibly alongside contributions to council tax or bills, rather than rent. A lodger who pays rent is covered, so the reasonable-costs limit applies to a lodger's broadband charge too.

The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019 permits a payment "for or in connection with" a communication service, including the internet, when a standard occupation contract (the Welsh equivalent of a tenancy agreement) requires it and it relates to the home. It has no reasonable-costs wording like England's and doesn't deal with broadband bundled into rent, so get local advice before setting a figure.

Business broadband is the obvious alternative, but we haven't read business providers' terms on supplying tenants, so ask them the same question in writing. Virgin Media's acceptable use policy (AUP, the rules for using the service) makes one exception worth knowing: its ban on trade or business use doesn't apply to a product specifically stated to be a business one, though its separate ban on "the sale or resale of our services and products" has no such exception.

Your protections change too. Ofcom's summary of its business General Conditions (last updated 17 January 2025; read via an archived copy from May 2026, as Ofcom's site blocks automated access) says every business customer gets a 12-month contract option, a month's notice of changes not to their benefit with a penalty-free exit, and end-of-contract notices. A one-page contract summary, consent before renewal, a 24-month cap on commitments and free dispute resolution (ADR) apply only to businesses with ten or fewer employees. See home or business broadband for the wider trade-offs.

BT's and Virgin Media's AUPs both forbid infringing copyright or other intellectual property rights. Where BT thinks its policy has been broken, it can respond with anything from a formal warning to limiting or suspending access or ending the agreement, and in serious cases it can report the matter to the police along with your details. If the account is yours, those consequences fall on you rather than on whichever tenant was responsible.

So include a no-illegal-use rule, covering pirated downloads and streams, in the tenancy or house rules, and point tenants to it at check-in. If a warning letter does arrive, our guide to copyright warning letters explains what they are and how to reply.

BT's AUP places duties on anyone who lets others use their connection: lock the network down so nobody joins without permission, password-protect the network and devices, and keep firewall and anti-virus software current. If BT tells you a connected device holds or produces material its policy doesn't allow, it will suspend that device immediately.

For a shared house: change the router's admin password from the default and keep it to yourself; set a strong Wi-Fi password and change it when a tenant leaves; and agree in writing how tenants report faults to you, since the provider deals only with the account holder. Securing your home router and Wi-Fi walks through the settings.

Check the minimum term and exit rules. Two examples from provider help pages (checked 9 October 2026):

• BT asks for 30 days' notice and charges an early termination fee inside the minimum period, which it says is usually 12, 18 or 24 months.
• Virgin Media also asks for 30 days' notice; its minimum term is normally 24 months, after which the contract rolls monthly with no early disconnection fee.

Some networks offer shorter commitments. Hyperoptic has monthly rolling plans in some locations; its price guide says they carry no termination fee, though its help pages say 30 days' notice still applies. WightFibre says all its contracts are 30-day rolling (customers connected under the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme have a 12-month initial period, with no early termination charges). But its terms (clause 37.1, checked October 2026) treat anyone who signs up at the same property within 12 months of the service ending as a reconnection, which carries a £100 Reconnection Fee. That includes a new tenant, so check before cancelling between tenancies.

Rolling monthly broadband contracts weighs flexibility against price, and the broadband-only deals page shows the contract lengths on offer. Read the broadband contract summary before you sign, especially the minimum term and exit charges.

On a residential contract, One Touch Switch applies to you as to any household: you only need to contact the provider you're moving to, and it's your current provider's job to send you the switching information, including any early termination charges. The old service stops automatically once the new one is live, and Ofcom's General Conditions cap any break in service during a switch at one working day (condition C7.4(d)).

On a business contract, ask the new provider how the switch will work: Ofcom's business summary lists switching protections, including that one-working-day cap, but we didn't find it saying One Touch Switch covers business accounts. Either way, give tenants the switch date in case an engineer needs access.

Where each tenant had their own broadband, the next occupier's installation can hinge on the last one. CityFibre, for instance, says that when one of its existing customers moves into a home already on its network, a "working line takeover" needs whoever lived there before to have given notice through their provider to end their service; otherwise the provider may arrange an engineer visit after the move. Add it to your check-out list. If a tenant wants to hand their account to a housemate instead, see changing the broadband account holder.