Damage by British Gas

swinstan

I know this is perhaps more of a legal question but it's going to be costly if I can't sort it out. The problem is that my 80 yr old mother has just allowed British Gas in to change her meter - their request. To do so they had to shut down her gas appliances and in doing so have broken the boiler. As far as I am aware, they should repair or replace and if they do not I think we can call someone else in and ask them to cover the bill. However, the boiler is very old - over 20 years and the engineer said it wasn't his fault, it broke because of age. He then just left her without heat or hot water. This was during the week and I have only just found out about it. Obviously, at tgher age she needs the facilities, even some heat in the evenings at times. Does anyone know 1. The best way to get BG to take responsibility for this. 2. How to get them out immediately. and 3. Whether the age of the boiler is a legitimate issue here - it was in full working order beforehand.
All advice welcome.

Bullshine_2

Judging by what you have said, I doubt BG are liable for the boiler;

it is an old boiler. and,
by changing the meter, the engineer will not have touched the boiler.

Its all a matter of proving it. I think it was awful that he left her without assistance.

Please update if you manage to sort this out. I do hope u can get them to accept fault but I doubt they will (

silvercar

I guess your first port of call is BG and keep going up the chain of supervisors.

You could also try CAB for advice.

I would think about contacting the local press and your MP: "BG leaves 80 year old with broken boiler" doesn't make good headlines.

joanne0620

I agree with the previous post, changing the meter doesn't normally involve touching the boiler (I only know because I used to work for a gas maintenance company)

Does your Mum have a gas fire or gas cooker? Are these working correctly?
(Trying to rule out fault with meter rather than just fault with boiler)

It's disgraceful that they left her with no heating or hot water but in my experience of BG they will generally deny all knowledge of such incidents or responsibility. :mad:

If you get no joy from BG I would definetely go to the local press!

plumb1_2

joanne0620 wrote:

I agree with the previous post, changing the meter doesn't normally involve touching the boiler (I only know because I used to work for a gas maintenance company)

he will have been purging the gas and relighting the pilot.

shammyjack

Telephone 0238 0824100 ( Southampton Switchboard ) do not press any options , wait untill an operator answers , ask to be put through to Customer Relations Manager.

She has the power to and will get things moving .

shammy

Skiduck

Look in their T&C for a condition referring to Latent Defects, if they have that, I'm afraid they may win. However BG doesn't need bad press, so it may be still worth pursuing