Query over gas meters / emergency control valves in flats

littlesnuggy

Are there any gas engineers who can give me some advice on the following situation please?

I own & live in a basement & ground floor flat. Above me there are two flats that are owned & rented out by the same landlord. The gas meters for all three properties are in the pavement vaults outside my property and are accessible only via my flat.

Until now this has been fine as I've been happy to provide meter readings. The tenant in Flat 2 had had problems with her boiler and it was eventually decided that it needed replacing. The gas engineer then said that under current regulations he could not install a new boiler unless the occupier had unrestricted access to the meter so they could shut off the gas supply in an emergency. As I refused to provide the tenants with keys to my flat "to use in an emergency" (yeh, right!) it was established that the meter would need to be moved into their flat, and whilst at it they may as well move the Flat 3 meter too.

So this week they have been working to do this, the majority of which doesn't involve me (except they have today managed to put a hole in my ceiling, knock the outside corner off our stone Listed building and drilled a hole from the pavement into our vault about a foot away from the wall).

I have just been to look at the work in the building, and they have removed the boxing-in from some of the existing pipes. Just outside the door to Flat 2, and just underneath Flat 3 there are some plastic tags on the old gas and water pipes which read "Emergency Gas Control Isolation Valve: Flat 2" and the same for Flat 3.

My question is, if the original gas engineer had looked in the boxing and seen these tags, would any of this work have been necessary?! Are those 'isolation valves' sufficient for him to have installed a new boiler, or is the valve right next to the meter different?

Ultimately it will be better not having their meters in my property, but the landlord is paying a huge amount for this work and the noise and lack of care in their work is causing me stress & disruption, so I'd love to know if none of it would have been necessary had the engineer investigated the whole pipe run of the original gas supply first!

All thoughts much appreciated, thank you.

southcoastrgi

yes the RGI is right, you need access to the emergency control valve (ECV) which is located next to the meter, there is sometimes an additional one where it enters the flat (AECV), however if the tenant doesn't have access to the ECV ie because it is in your flat then this is at risk.

littlesnuggy

Thanks so much for replying so quickly. Just to clarify, the tenant having access to the AECV isn't sufficient and they do need access to the main ECV which is next to the meter?

southcoastrgi

yes they do because there could be a leak between the ECV/meter & the AECV & if you were out they couldn't gain access to turn it off