Moving gas meter outside - £650!!??

fazza1970

Hi all, newbie here. Just wondering if anyone had experience of moving a gas meter from inside to outside (we are refurbing a bungalow). It's just a case of moving it the other side of a wall.
We've had the gas supplier - Gas Networks - out, and they've quoted us £650.
Does that seem over the odds? If so, is it obligatory that the actual supplier of gas to your property does the moving of the meter?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Limana68

Hi
Yes thats about right, we had a quote for moving ours- just literally around 2 meters away, and it was £580- we decided to just leave it where it is!
They are the only ones that can move it too, ridiculous.

Joyful

It's not your Gas supplier that quoted. It's the local distributor so there is no way round it. Considering many people get quoted thousands I think its a good price.

angelsmomma

fazza1970 wrote: »

Hi all, newbie here. Just wondering if anyone had experience of moving a gas meter from inside to outside (we are refurbing a bungalow). It's just a case of moving it the other side of a wall.
We've had the gas supplier - Gas Networks - out, and they've quoted us £650.
Does that seem over the odds? If so, is it obligatory that the actual supplier of gas to your property does the moving of the meter?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Yes I too had a quote for moving it to the outside wall instead of in the corner on the inside. It was only 12 inches but the quote was £600. Decided to leave it where it was and built a cupboard around it.

DirectDebacle

Joyful wrote: »

Considering many people get quoted thousands I think its a good price.

Where did you find the information that many people are quoted thousands for moving a gas meter from one side of a wall to another. Is that what B.G. charge?

£600.00 is not a good price. It is a prime example of customers being overcharged by what is effectively a monopoly on this type of work.

Gman0365

Does the quote include the meter being moved to the new position and the copper pipework being reconnected to the internal pipework?

If so, consider that it takes team of two engineers to complete the task of altering your service pipe, and another engineer to move the meter and reconnect the outlet pipework.

Say it takes and 8 hour shift to complete the work with 3 guys being paid a very minimum of £10 and hour, plus the pension and NI contributions the company has to pay. Add in the cost of running 2 vans and the materials - PE pipework and fittings, new external meterbox, the copper pipework and fittings.

Its not long in all adding up. The companies that do this work have a standard charging method which can typically be found on their website. The price you have been quoted looks like a minimum price for this type of work.

Your quote should also explain that you are free to contact any Utility Infrastructure Provider to have a competitive quote. A list of these can be found here: http://www.lloydsregister.co.uk/girs.html

Hope this helps.

Joyful

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Where did you find the information that many people are quoted thousands for moving a gas meter from one side of a wall to another. Is that what B.G. charge?

£600.00 is not a good price. It is a prime example of customers being overcharged by what is effectively a monopoly on this type of work.

I have seen this information many times on MSE. Perhaps not always exactly as per the Ops job but moving a meter can be expensive. For this reason I have never asked for mine to be moved even though its a pain where it is.

As has been said previously the Gas supplier has nothing to do with the charge.

Jon_Tiffany

Unfortunately that is a typical price. As others have suggested, save the £650 and build a cupboard around it.

fazza1970

Just had the actual quote - £1025. Thanks for all the advice - think a new cupboard is in order.

fazza1970

Just more info (as per the actual quote): "Existing PE service has been disconnected at main by emergency cut off team. Lower service and relay 14m to new position on front wall of property within built in meter box. Customer to supply and fit built in meter box. Customer to arrange for own outlet reconnection."
Despite all that, the box would be literally moving nine inches to the other side of a wall. Is it normal to have to pay extra on top to supply and fit the new meter box???

fazza1970

More info: "Distance gas service to be moved: 1m. Reconnect meter to inlet pipe work? Yes. Reconnect meter to outlet pipe work: No. Length of gas supply PH: 5. Length Of gas supply PP: 9.