Who else can move my exterior gas metre?

chucky1972

I have just received the most offensive quote to move 2 gas boxes, Which currently sit side by side on a single brick boundary wall 3 feet off the ground, 2 metres to the left. I read a lot of postings which warned that it could be expensive. But during the site visit their surveyor said that on a scale of 1 to 10 the job is a 1 (simple) and can be done in a few hours. Based on this I felt optimisitic. However, SGN quoted £2,195 for no more than 3 hours work and on top of that I would have to get a gas safe engineer to finish off the job because that quote is only for the gas side work.

How can they be allowed to charge this. I spoke with them, and he couldn't justify it or break it down. Just said it was their standard charges, and said their engineers have to be trained, training courses are expensive. Utter rubbish.

Current day rates of skilled labour is £150 to £200 per day in London. So even if they had 2 workers there for a full day plus a 100% mark up that's at best £800 plus £100 for new piece of pipe and soldering/welding materials. Where oh where did they get to £2195. They're not bankers. They should be ashamed. ripoff Britain.

Anyway they said that I could get a quote elsewhere and gave me ofgems website to check out the alternatives. But get this, no qualified person from a gas transporter company I spoke to from ofgem's list of so called qualified gas transporters, would either touch it because they weren't allowed to work on the SGN network (Scottish Gas Network) I live in London too, go figure that one, or would not work on a domestic residential property. So SGN have me over a barrel and can charge anything they want because they know we have no alternative. Why not charge £15,000 for 3 hours work?
It's as crazy as £2195 Just because they can charge whatever they like for this work, should they be allowed? Do ofgem agree with this?

So my question is can anyone help with a contact of a qualified gas transporter that can move my 2 gas boxes 2 metres to the left. Cap off the existing pipes and run a new spur from the main gas line which is 1 metre from the new positions.

Help please.

Captain Consumer ready to take on SGN.

lemontart

ask sgn if they can give you details of licensed operators, these are people that they permit to work on their pipes to start with the op mentions 2 gas boxes there fore it would suggest there are 2 gas supplies to be moved which would increase price to start with.

WhiteHorse

I recently had cause to make similar enquiries.

The problem breaks down into several parts. (1) The meter is the property of the gas supplier. (2) The box on the wall is yours. (3) The pipework from the main to the meter belongs to Transco.

All of these have to be co-ordinated by you.

It's a nightmare.

lemontart

WhiteHorse wrote: »

I recently had cause to make similar enquiries.

The problem breaks down into several parts. (1) The meter is the property of the gas supplier. (2) The box on the wall is yours. (3) The pipework from the main to the meter belongs to Transco.

All of these have to be co-ordinated by you.

It's a nightmare.

The pipes have not belonged to transco for at least 7 years, in op case they belong to Southern Gas Networks, there are four main gas transporters in the uk and a number of independent gas transporters all of which have to be licensed by hse and ofgem to operate. All very complicated since deregulation.


http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Networks/GasDistr/Pages/Gasdistr.aspx

Also anything after the meter is the responsibility of the owner of the property.

tinkle

Do you think it's fair to name employees on here? Its not the employees price, its the company who decide the cost.

lemontart

tinkle wrote: »

Do you think it's fair to name employees on here? Its not the employees price, its the company who decide the cost.

I think you will find that Maggie is Margaret Thatcher in this instance, not an employee of any the the gas transporters,

TIMMY85

tinkle wrote: »

Do you think it's fair to name employees on here? Its not the employees price, its the company who decide the cost.

No I do not and would complain bitterly if I was ever mentioned by name in a good or bad way!
The chap is doing his job in that he was asked "how much will this work cost?", he gave an answer! That the OP does not like the answer is not his fault.

billycasper_2

The work unfortunately is all contracted out and 9 times out of ten there is not much competition hence they can charge you a small fortune. what you could do is find someone who works for one of these companies doing exactly the job you want (moving meters)and enquire if they do any "weekend work".
This is of course illegal and i dont condone it and it has "never" worked for me. but i can assure you.
it goes on...
Its amazing how the same guy who does that work during the week has a lower rate at weekends..

spiro

Look here (http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Consumers/ncamm/Pages/ncamm.aspx#moving) and select 'Moving Gas Meter'.

Part of it says:

The repositioning of your gas meter can be carried out by the licenced gas transporter or by an alternative qualified service provider. There are, however, a limited number of such alternative service providers who are willing to undertake such work and the costs of these inclusive works can be high.

Also look at this (section 4.1) for Scotia Gas - Southern

http://www.sgn.co.uk/ScotiaGas/uploadedFiles/Gas_Connections/Charges/MethodologyStatementSouthernGasNetworks.pdf

It indicates a new connection with 15m of service pipe is approx £693.

lemontart

Ask sgn for a break down 2 supply moves. licenses required if they have to excavate on public path/road etc .

WhiteHorse

lemontart wrote: »

The pipes have not belonged to transco for at least 7 years ...

Interesting ... my supplier still refers to Transco in their correspondence.

In any event, Transco seems to have been replaced by National Grid. On their website, they state that they own the UK high pressure gas network.

http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/About+Us/Our+History/