Phone companies like to stick all sorts of small charges at the end of your bill. Some are legitimate, but some are not. One charge that is unlawful is land-line insurance for people who rent their homes.
Nearly 8 years ago, a federal court held that it was unlawful for a telephone company to charge people fees to insure the telephone land-lines to the houses or apartments of renters. This is because the phone lines are not the property of the renters and, more importantly, the renters do not have the ability or right to repair the lines (for example, if you rent an apartment on the fifth floor of a building, and the wiring in an apartment on the first floor of the building fails, your phone line may fail, but you don’t have the right to go into the first floor apartment and repair the line). Since renters don’t own and can’t access the land-lines, they cannot be made to insure those lines.
Moreover, because one telephone line may provide services to thousands of subscribers, insurance companies may charge thousands of renters insurance fees to repair the same line – thereby gaining an unlawful profit. Although a federal court ruled that charging land-line insurance to renters is unlawful, we believe that some companies may continue to engage in this practice.
If you rent your home and a phone company is charging you a fee to insure the land-line into that home, please contact us to discuss your legal options.