Old gas supply pipe update

tinker212

Ok, here's the problem. About 10 months ago my wife and I bought our first house, got it for a good price but it needed work doing to it and didn't have an active gas supply. All the other houses on the street have gas but ours does not as the previous owner (now deceased) never used gas and as such the old lead pipe that supplied gas had been cut off.


So I contacted Transco with the understand that it is the national grids responsibility to update existing domestic gas supply pipes however old they may be. Transco told me that as there is no active gas supply to the house and the old one is “dead” it will be close to £900 to put a new one in! Fare enough if there there had never been gas supplied to the house it's a price we would have to pay- but there was once an active supply that for what ever reason was not updated – surely is it not their responsibility to update it now? There is even a 10cm diameter hole that the old lead pipe comes in through – surly it would be way easier to slot a new pipe in through that than pay £900 and dig a new trench!?


Has any one had a similar experience or know of any legislation that gives direction on this kind of situation?

diywhynot

tinker212 wrote: »

Ok, here's the problem. About 10 months ago my wife and I bought our first house, got it for a good price but it needed work doing to it and didn't have an active gas supply. All the other houses on the street have gas but ours does not as the previous owner (now deceased) never used gas and as such the old lead pipe that supplied gas had been cut off.


So I contacted Transco with the understand that it is the national grids responsibility to update existing domestic gas supply pipes however old they may be. Transco told me that as there is no active gas supply to the house and the old one is “dead” it will be close to £900 to put a new one in! Fare enough if there there had never been gas supplied to the house it's a price we would have to pay- but there was once an active supply that for what ever reason was not updated – surely is it not their responsibility to update it now? There is even a 10cm diameter hole that the old lead pipe comes in through – surly it would be way easier to slot a new pipe in through that than pay £900 and dig a new trench!?


Has any one had a similar experience or know of any legislation that gives direction on this kind of situation?

It is it possible you are looking at a lead water main.

tinker212

I'm pretty sure it's an old gas pipe as when we moved in I had an engineer from Transco come out to do a “live, dead” test on it and he seemed to think it was an old gas pipe – also our existing mains water pipe is an old lead one.

Wywth

Transco will provide you a supply.

It will cost you £900
(whichever way they decide is best to provide the supply)

cr1mson

As the pipe is dead then yes it is classified as new supply afraid.

chanz4

Also new regs are plastic supply pipes

C_Mababejive

Gas Network Operators are required by law to inspect and disconnect gas supplies which have not been used for X number of years,, typically 1 or 2 years and where there is no record of usage. This usually means,there is no meter installed. That is what probably happened at this house some years back. They are not obliged to fit a new service free of charge. Nothing is free anymore. That was in the good old days of the nationalised industry.

chanz4

one year its classed as an abandoned supply. They do it to prevent theft via direct mains.