Extortionate quotes for moving energy meters

catlady27 · 31 March 2014 at 10:32AM

I have just bought my first house and the gas and electricity meters are in an extremely unattractive position right in the middle of the living room. I have contacted National Grid who quoted £1500 for moving the supply and meter, and Northern Power have quoted £800 for moving electricity supply. I still have to get a quote for the electricity supplier to move the actual meter but I am in shock from the two quotes received so far.
Has anyone got any advice to go about this for cheaper? Or I am stuck with using these companies and paying their extortionate prices? It seems so unfair that only one company can do the work so has a total monopoly on prices.

Thanks in advance.

Nada666 · 31 March 2014 at 11:57AM

Buying a new house normally entails expensive wants. You can just walk into it the way it was but most of us budget for changes - and things as you noticed would have been reflected in asking and offer prices.

Why would you think they have a monopoly? You are not tied to only using National Grid - you can hunt down a few of these providers:
http://www.lloydsregister.co.uk/schemes/girs/providers-list.aspx
for a quote.

zax47 · 31 March 2014 at 11:59AM

You don't own the meters, your infrastructure support / supply companies do. They are the only ones who can change the position of the service supply, they may subcontract it to any of the approved companies in the list quoted above (those companies DO NOT deal with homeowners), so you are stuck with that I'm afraid.

catlady27 · 31 March 2014 at 1:05PM

Nada666 wrote: »

Buying a new house normally entails expensive wants. You can just walk into it the way it was but most of us budget for changes - and things as you noticed would have been reflected in asking and offer prices.

Why would you think they have a monopoly? You are not tied to only using National Grid - you can hunt down a few of these providers:
for a quote.

Yes you are tied to using National Grid as they are the only company allowed to do the work or arrange a subcontractor to do the work. This is why I think they have a monopoly and therefore are able to charge whatever price they want.

You also assume that I have not budgeted for changes. I asked if there was a way of getting a more competitive price, as I think that it is expensive for what work moving the meter entails. This does not mean that I have failed to budget for changes to the property, including the cost of meter relocation, if that is the only quote I can get. Your answer comes across as very judgmental.

zax47 thanks for your reply. That is what I had thought.

macman · 31 March 2014 at 3:45PM

Moving a meter is not quite as straightforward as you seem to think.

chanz4 · 31 March 2014 at 5:51PM

Its not so straight forward, as macman is saying it is true and only the network can perform supply moves

[Deleted User] · 31 March 2014 at 6:52PM

Best you can do if you dont want to pay the ransome for moving them is to get "smart meters " in as soon as possible. British Gas are fitting them the quickest. The smart gas meter is pretty small, electric a little larger.Then you can more or less box them in out of view( leaving a quick access of course ) and get any readings from the excellent "smart monitor