Help Please Gas Meter has not worked for the last 8 months

xvanillaskyx

Hi I need advice on what action to take.
Every month I have paid my gas bill based on an estimated amount of usage. Today I was shocked to receive an extremely high bill and called them to provide them with a meter reading. The meter displays 7608 which they told me could not be accurate as the company I rent the property with provided them with a meter reading 8 months ago of 7606. I have dug out my copies of the photographs the rental company took of the initial meter readings and this is the case.
Basically the gas supplier is telling me that the meter must not be working as it is impossible that over the past 8 months I have only consumed 2 units of gas (which I fully understand). However how do I know that the estimated bills I have paid over this time have been in line with my consumption?
I want them to fix the meter but also I don't want to pay for gas that I haven't used, plus I cannot prove now that I feel that their estimate is unreasonable.
My gas supplier also provides my electricity, they have taken electricty readings during the last 8 month but have not appeared to have taken a gas reading (which can be accessed by them anytime as my meter is located outside of my property). Is this normal and should they have taken some responsibility for this sooner?

Premier_2

xvanillaskyx wrote: »

...
Basically the gas supplier is telling me that the meter must not be working as it is impossible that over the past 8 months I have only consumed 2 units of gas (which I fully understand). However how do I know that the estimated bills I have paid over this time have been in line with my consumption?

With a defective meter, you don't ... and nor does the supplier which means the best they can do is estimate the usage.
They may offer to re-estimate the usage based on future consumption if there is reason to believe the prior estimations were wrong.

xvanillaskyx wrote: »

...My gas supplier also provides my electricity, they have taken electricty readings during the last 8 month but have not appeared to have taken a gas reading (which can be accessed by them anytime as my meter is located outside of my property). Is this normal and should they have taken some responsibility for this sooner?

They only have to read the gas meter once every 2 years as part of their supply licence conditions.
When they send you a bill based on an estimated reading, they usually offer you the chance to supply your own customer reading so that you can obtain a more accurate bill. If you had done that, the defective meter would have been discovered earlier.

PNPSUKNET

as above they will back estimate, but if you got estimated bills why didnt you take a read anyway?