Moving gas meters!

k25

I need to have my current gas meter removed which is currently located on the back of my property as i'm building an extension, and i want it replaced on the front of my house. I have done a bit of research and to my surprise this is actually quite a costly task! (around 500-1000!) is this correct and does anyone know if it can be done cheaper?

Alan_M_2

It's very restrictive as to who is allowed to move an item like this.

Although it's your house, you don't actually own the meter, only the pipework that runs from it, the meter will be owned by your gas board therefore they are required to move it.

Off the record I had a Corgi registered chum of mine move a meter for me once. - Not completely sure of the legalities regarding that, but I knew it was safe.

k25

hmmm You've just reminded me I know a young man who works for British gas, i wonder if he might be worth a phone call....

hopingforahouse

Your meter is owned by your meter operator, which is different is each area of the country. Your pipes leading to your meter are owned by Transco. The only company which is allowed to move these things is Fulcrum Connections. You own the pipes that come from the meter. It is very expensive to move your meter (and therefore the pipework). The best option would be to try and keep it near to where it is if possible, and maybe box it in. I would be cautious about doing it on the sly, as although I don't know if there would be any repercussions as such, if anything goes wrong, or you have any kind of a gas leak in the future, then Transco could basically refuse to repair unless you pay for it. Which could end up costing you a fortune - more than the cost of getting it moved properly. At the end of the day, any gas engineer who goes ahead and does this work for you knows they shouldn't be doing it - is this really the kind of person you want doing work with gas in your property? Even a small gas leak can be dangerous.

Don't mean to sound like I'm on the high horse here, but theres moneysaving, and then there's just plain dangerous. Good luck!

lindabea

I did this a couple of months ago. Not exactly moving the meter as I did not have one in the property I purchased ( previous owners had it removed) In my case, I phoned Southern Gas Networks (SGN), they have standard prices for siting a gas meter - I say siting because that is what they actually do. They installed a box choices are recessed, semi concealed in the ground or full box wall mounted, charged me £250.00 (round figures). then I had to call a gas supplier to physically install the meter. No charge for this. But the guys from SGN were absolutely useless - it took them the best part of 5 hours to locate the pipes and even then they had to call out someone else who on his arrival, found it within 10 mins. But they did the job and I suppose that's what matters in the end.

k25

Thanks for advice, it hadn't occured to me that it could potentially be a tedious task! i'll look into it.

sooz

you could try asking if there are any plans to replace the gas pipes in your area. they are doing this bit by bit in my area, we were one of the first streets to be redone, and when they did ours, they moved all the meters that were not out the front of the houses already.

we had planned to move ours anyway, but as it turned out they did it for us for free (said it would have cost us £900 had we asked to do it before the planned works)

Alan_M_2

hopingforahouse wrote:

At the end of the day, any gas engineer who goes ahead and does this work for you knows they shouldn't be doing it - is this really the kind of person you want doing work with gas in your property? Even a small gas leak can be dangerous.

Whilst I can't fault you on the legalities of your point, In my case I was far more comfortable using someone I know to be Corgi registered competent than a Transco employee.

But my meter was sited in a kitchen cupboard and was only being moved by about a foot to enable appliances to be installed.

If a meter is on an external wall and being moved any sort of reasonable distance then really you ought to bite the bullet and get it done correctly. You are then exonerated from any future problems with the meter.