BT can't find the phoneline - again!

Question

Hi
I'm trying to move house.  As usual I have a massive list of address changes to make and utility accounts to close/transfer.  As usual, I got to the item "BT" and my heart sank.  But I pressed on.  Maybe for once it would go smoothly?
This time - I told myself - it'll work.  Because this time, the current tenant of the new property kindly took the time to meet me there (he doesn't live there any more, though he has the keys) and let me in so that I could do a 17070 on the line.  I got the number read out to me by the automated service, thanked the guy for letting me in and left happily.
No.  Surprise, surprise.  BT can't find any trace of the number their own automated service has read out to me.  As usual, the actual service guy on 0800 800 150 was trying his best to help me, but his system had no trace of this line.  There is no line listed at that address (apart from two other lines which are in current use); and the number I was given on 17070 is listed at another address in the area.
The only option I'm being offered is to "book a line installation"; when there is, perfectly clearly, a BT line, with a BT Openreach labelled socket, and a dial tone, already there in the property.  I am not prepared to do this.  I just have no faith that the engineer will turn up and confirm that there is a line, and that I shouldn't be charged.  If the line happens to be currently/last operated by TalkTalk, or DeutscheTelekom, TwoBeanTinsTelecom, or whoever, that's not my problem.  Should I call every telecoms provider operating in the UK just to find out who can provide me service without charging a ridiculous "installation fee"?
£130 for installation, or signing up to BT Broadband (which I don't want), or signing up to an 18-moth contract, are simply not options.  I'm already having a to break an 18-month BT contract and pay the cancellation fees to move away from this property, because there was no BT line here (I got fooled by the similar-looking Virgin socket).
I've had to move house quite frequently in the last few years: simply because sometimes a landlord or property turns out to be no good to live in.  I take this into account when I move house.  I look for a BT socket precisely so that I won't have to pay this kind of amount, or sign up to 18-month contracts that I'm never going to reach the end of.
What are my options?
Apart from concluding that BT simply don't want my business unless I
- Pay a massive upfront charge; or
- Buy into services I don't want or need; or
- Buy into a longer contract than I'll honour, and end up paying cancellation charges

Answer 1

Thank you for your further explanation, plainview.
Unfortunately it doesn't change my situation, which is that I'm stuck in a bureaucratic hole.  No-one is taking responsibility for telling me who this - evidently operational, if not activated - phone-line belongs to, so that I can make a choice about how to start up service on it.  If it's a LLU line, it must "belong" to some company, and I should be able to make a choice whether to take up service with them (with minimal startup costs), or take up service with some other company (and pay some conversion/connection/installation charges).  But who does it belong to?
If I don't get some answers, from somewhere, soon, I'm going to take this up with Ofcom.
Here are the further checks I've done:
1. Got access to the property again, and did a 17070.  Result: a phone number is read out to me, which shares the same 3-digit code as my current BT line down the road (the code is 0141-XXX).  The voice then says "BT line test facilities", and gives me 4 options, probably used by engineers.
2. The phone socket clearly has BT Openreach written on it.
3. This phone line does not exist on BT's database.  Or it does exist but is not at that address.  Or it used to exist but has "been re-assigned".  I get a different answer every time I call.  One woman at BT tried to help me by looking it up on an older system, but before she got far the system crashed/shut her out.
4. It doesn't exist on Zen Internet's (probably same) database.  (These are the providers I would like to go with, but they require a non-LLU line).
5. In case it might be a Sky line, I ran it through the Sky Line Check at Sky line check.  Entering the number and postcode, I get some results, but "Phone number lookup failed".  This is similar to what I get on other line-check websites I've found.
6. Calling the number, I get "This line does not accept incoming calls".
7. Tried calling BT Openreach on 0800 023 2023.  I had to fight a little to explain that I can't go through my provider, because I can't get a provider, because I can't get any provider to acknowledge that this line exists!  They couldn't help me, and referred me to BT Faults on 0800 800 151 option 1.  I called that, and tried to get some sense.  They couldn't help me either, and referred me to... guess... Openreach on 0800 023 2023!
8. Other numbers tried from the line in question:
        150  "Number not recognised"
        100 "Number not recognised"
        1571 "Number not recognised"
        1471 "No received calls"
        0800 800 150 "Number not recognised".
Here's my position:
- I agree that this problem is not BT Retail's responsibility
- There is no malice or bad service involved: the people I talk to try to help me, but run up against what seems to be the immovable object which is BT Openreach's refusal to admit the possibility that their database of lines is incomplete or inaccurate, especially when flats are involved.  Service people cannot deal with this by escalating it to Openreach; the only procedure in place seems to be to suggest that I fling £130 at the problem and see what happens - which means I'm committing to a provider already!
My experience is that BT being wrong about the presence of a line is not a possibility, but a constant reality.  Every single time I've moved house in the last 10 years, there's been a BT socket there, with a dial tone (except for this last place I'm now in); every time BT have claimed that there's no record of a line.  Every time they've wanted to charge me for line installation.  Every time I've had to fight like hell to convince them that there is a line and not pay for installation.  Every time they've found out that, surprise surprise, there was a line there all along  I'm sick of it.  It's simply an attempt to gouge £130 out of me, when the problem is that the database is inaccurate.
Now I want to choose my provider; it may be that the line currently in the property allows some choices and makes others more expensive.  For example, if it's a LLU line, Zen Internet or BT would have to charge me an installation fee.  But I can't get this information!!  BT's attitude is "the database is right; if it's not on the database, it doesn't exist; it belongs to some other company, but we're not going to tell you/can't tell you who".  So who does have responsibility for telling me who this line belongs to?
I've spent hours on this.