Estate admin · Broadband equipment

Only Sky says in writing that it will waive the charge after a death; the other seven providers checked say nothing about bereavement on their equipment pages or their bereavement pages.

The charge exists because the hub is loaned, not sold, and each provider started loaning on a different date. BT's terms changed on 13 December 2019, EE's kit has been chargeable from April 2023, and Plusnet's £50 fee applies only to customers who signed up after 1 February 2024. An account older than the provider's own cut-off may carry no charge at all, which is why two households with the same brand of router can be told different things.

The bereavement team and the equipment-charge process are run as separate systems. BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, EE and Plusnet each publish a bereavement page, and all six are silent on equipment, routers, hubs and charges. Sky is the only provider whose equipment-charges page mentions bereavement at all, and even there the waiver is conditional on having told Sky about the death before the return was requested.

Published fees are per-model ceilings, not one figure. Sky lists up to £53 for a Broadband Hub but up to £135 for a Sky Q 2TB box; BT lists £65 for a Smart Hub but £140 for a Box Pro. The amount an estate is actually charged depends on which piece of kit is in the house and when the contract began, so a figure seen quoted for a neighbour's account is not evidence of yours.

Silence is not a policy. Virgin Media and TalkTalk say a charge applies without publishing the amount, Vodafone's £99 and £199 lines carry a 'for cancelled orders' qualifier, and NOW's pages carry no charge, deadline or bereavement line whatsoever. Where a provider publishes nothing, the honest position is that you cannot cite a written policy either way, and you have to ask.

• Report the death to the provider before you post, bin or clear anything. Sky's waiver applies only if you have contacted it about the bereavement before it asks for the equipment back, and the other seven give you no written policy to fall back on if you act first and explain later.
• Ask about the equipment charge in the same call and get the answer in writing. All six bereavement pages located (BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, EE, Plusnet) are silent on equipment, so closing the account does not, on the evidence of those pages, deal with the router.
• Check when the contract began before assuming a fee applies. BT's charge covers contracts started or renewed on or after 13 December 2019, EE's covers kit supplied from April 2023, and Plusnet's covers sign-ups after 1 February 2024. An older account may sit outside the charge entirely.
• Note the clock where one is published. BT gives 60 days from the date the equipment stopped being used, Sky 60 days from the service ending (30 if Sky cancelled it for debt), and TalkTalk 28 days from receiving its returns bag. TalkTalk's own page also says that if no bag arrives you do not need to return the equipment.
• Keep proof of every return. BT and EE both credit the charge back if the kit is returned within 2 years, and Virgin Media refunds a bill credit if kit comes back within 80 days of the service ending, so a posting receipt has a cash value.
• Treat an unpublished figure as unknown, not as zero. Virgin Media, TalkTalk and NOW publish no amount, and Vodafone's figures are qualified. Ask for the model-specific figure that applies to the account rather than paying a number seen on a comparison site.

Eight providers checked on 6 September 2026 against their own equipment-return pages. Look at the 'Waived on bereavement?' column first: only one row says yes, and every 'Not stated' is a finding in its own right.

8 checked · 1 publish nothing at all on this question — that row is kept deliberately, because the silence is the finding. Each row is what that provider’s own page says, on the date beside it.

The router is usually one line on a longer list. The blank executor checklist at /resources/blank-executor-checklist is free and gives you a place to record each provider you have contacted, what they said about the equipment, and the date, so a charge that arrives months later can be answered from your own notes.

Where a provider gives you an answer over the phone, the executor evidence log at /library/executor-evidence-log is the place to record who said it and when. Six of the eight providers here have no written equipment policy for a bereavement, which makes your own record the only one that exists.

If the death is recent and the router is one of many things to sort, the bereavement first steps tool at /tools/bereavement-first-steps orders the first fortnight so the household bills, including broadband, are dealt with in sequence rather than as they surface.

What usually comes next.

Where to go from here

Informational, not advice. Every figure here is the wording live on the provider's own equipment-return page on 6 September 2026, and these pages are revised on a rolling basis: Sky's page log shows a hub non-return amount change on 8 July 2025 and a last edit on 13 March 2026; Vodafone's current price plan took effect 25 February 2026 and its November 2025 broadband terms, which may settle whether the £99 applies to a live account, were not opened; Virgin Media's price guide, which may carry a figure its returns page does not, was not located; BT's, EE's and Plusnet's charges are gated on contract start dates that will keep moving. Before relying on any amount, deadline or waiver, re-check that provider's own equipment-charges page and its own bereavement page directly, not a comparison site or forum summary. UK residential broadband and pay-TV accounts only, across BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, EE, Plusnet and NOW. Business contracts, including Vodafone Business Broadband, are out of scope, as are Republic of Ireland versions of the same policies; Sky's Irish equivalent prices the same equipment in euros and is maintained as a separate document. Figures are each provider's published 'up to' ceiling for a single item; the amount actually charged depends on the device model and the date the contract began. No Sky bereavement page was located and none is claimed; Sky's waiver sits on its equipment-charges page.