Gas pipes and new meter.

slamminelf2

Hi. After a bit of advice please....
Our street is having new gas pipes put in. We recieved a letter a few weeks ago saying that workmen may need access to our property with the possibilty of replacing the meter. Anyway, today i get a knock on the door telling me that i need a new meter and new gas pipe into my property. My meter is in an understairs cupboard and in order to run new pipes from the street to it i need my floor digging up...it has original victorian tiles that can't be replaced. I wasn't happy with this option so we dicussed other options, most of which involved plastic trunking! I could cry...we have just spent the last few years renovating our house, it's just about finished and that is how i'd like it to stay!!
Do i really have to have this work done? They have given me less than 48 hours notice to start. I was hoping for a nice quiet week! Not a chance now!
Thanks in advance for any advice.

bengasman

Stick the meter outside in a neat box, and run the pipe from the meter to the boiler somewhere else than in the floor. They'll probably go for that because they want meters outside anyway.

slamminelf2

I'm not too sure if the meter will be allowed outside, we are a street house...no front garden. The new pipe is coming in from the front of the house and the boiler is at the back of the house- upstairs in the bathroom. I'm going to ask them to come out again and discuss it again before they start any work. I wouldn't care but we've just had new gas pipes fitted inside and now they'll all need moving if they move the meter!!

spiro

slamminelf2 wrote: »

Do i really have to have this work done? They have given me less than 48 hours notice to start. I was hoping for a nice quiet week! Not a chance now!
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Yes you have to have the work done or you will no longer have gas, your old service pipe obviosuly needs replacing and that is what they are going to do.

You have not had 48hrs notice you have had several weeks (Quote: We recieved a letter a few weeks ago ) during which time I personally would have thought "what happens if they need to replace the gas pipe to the meter"? That would have given you and the contractor plenty of time to discuss it.

Regarding an outside box, do any of the others houses in the street have one?

Tangible

I have a thread about my experiences with National Grid doing the same work slamminelf2 which I need to update.

The whole experience was a nightmare. I had no notice and had only that day returned from hospital and am in poor health. I have put a complaint in to Ofgem and even the local council. The whole experience nearly put me back in hospital.

Whether the work has to be done is irrelevant. I was cut off from my gas supply for over a week and they ignored any date that was arranged and did their own thing as they pleased. Without forewarning they began using a jackhammer on a concrete path beside my house on a date we had not agreed.

I found their behaviour outrageous and appalling. For as long as I can remain out of hospital I'll pursue my complaint vigorously.

In spite of them originally claiming that I had received written notice they recently admitted that none was ever given and that notice consisted of knocking on my door whilst I was at hospital, which they appear to consider was unnacceptable behaviour on my part.

Whether or not they have to do the work is not the point. It's how they do it that is the concern. If they operate the same way elsewhere where I live there'll be uproar.

gas4you

I was under the impression that any new gas supply must not run under any property

slamminelf2

You have not had 48hrs notice you have had several weeks (Quote: We recieved a letter a few weeks ago ) during which time I personally would have thought "what happens if they need to replace the gas pipe to the meter"? That would have given you and the contractor plenty of time to discuss it.

The letter we recieved said nothing about replacing the internal pipes, just the exsisting meter. It said nothing about moving the meter or ripping my floors up or running a 22mm pipe along my walls in plastic trunking!
None of the other street houses have an outside box, i am waiting for a call back to discuss this.

slamminelf2

Tangible...I am so sorry to hear of your experience, i agree with you completely. It is how the work is carried out, i am aware that without it i will no longer have a gas supply so it will have to be done, but it's how they go about it!

Tangible

In my case there was no notice, verbal or written, and I was misled at every stage or just, not informed what work they planned.

The comments they have on the internet suggest it's a 24 hour job that requires only a flick of a switch and temporary disconnection. Whether I am unique on planet Earth may be the case, but that suggestion bears utterly no relationship to what happened to me and the unarranged and shocking sound of jackhammers on my property could have had dire consequences.

As a property owner they have to agree with me when they perform work on it and follow agreed timetables, not overrun it like a barbarian horde.

Maybe I'm in a worse position than most, but someone just trying to hold down a job is going to have difficulty complying with their demands with regard to taking time off, and requiring me to undertake any physical exertion to aid them was ludicrous.

I should have been given the oprion of being disconnected permanently at the outset as, on reflection, it would have been a realistic option, bearing in mind what followed.

Call me bitter if you like, but I have every right to be.

C_Mababejive

If you are not happy with what is being proposed then i suggest you tell them you wish to delay the work and in the mean time, phone and speak to the Gas Distribution network operator for your area. Note that this MAY NOT be National Grid. If it is,see here..

http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Gas/About/complaints/

It may just need a second opinion and a better solution might be possible?

chanz4

You will have to pay for the outside option as the supply point will have to be moved, as they only have so much time to dig up the highway if you dont act they will just isolate you. Approx 6 weeks for a recon if they do.