Tenant did gas fraud and british gax took my meter

zayf

Hi,

I need advice. I had a tenant in the property who apparently tempered with meter and was stealing gas. British gas found out and took the meter off my property.

I tried to report tenant to police, police said it was domestic issue, we can't help. Now British gas want £1000 to re-install the meter.

tenant moved out as soon as he found out that he was in trouble. i do have tenants current details but theres nothing i can do at this stage.

What are my rights and how can i get this fixed asap.

need help..

lstar337

Somebody more helpful will come along, but if I had to guess I would say you'll have to pay for it and take the tenant to court to recoup your cost.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

If you want a meter re-installed, you'll have to pay.

The tenant should leave the property in the same state as when they took it over (minus wear and tear). If they haven't, you can go through the normal avenue to recover monies from their deposit. If they owe you more than this, you'll have to take them to small claims court.

zayf

umm, but those claims, do they ever get anywhere ? how much effort am I looking to put in to get £1000 back from tenant.

mije1983

zayf wrote: »

umm, but those claims, do they ever get anywhere ? how much effort am I looking to put in to get £1000 back from tenant.

Depends if the tenant has any money. If they don't then you won't get anything even if you win the case.

zayf

mije1983 wrote: »

Depends if the tenant has any money. If they don't then you won't get anything even if you win the case.

Well anyone can claim, they don't have money when it comes to paying up. anything i can do to make this easier and painless

What's the best way forward. Also what if tenant doesn't even show up(hang on, do we have to appear in court for small claims court) ?

Sorry, never done this before.

[Deleted User]

Its very common for tenants to bypass, or substitute meters. Prepay meters are the most popular for bypass.Was the account in your name ? if it was you are liable for the estimated stolen gas, if not, BG s claim is to the ex tenant only , not the landlord

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

zayf wrote: »

Well anyone can claim, they don't have money when it comes to paying up. anything i can do to make this easier and painless

What's the best way forward. Also what if tenant doesn't even show up(hang on, do we have to appear in court for small claims court) ?

Sorry, never done this before.

Is the tenants deposit protected? If so, make a claim for the full amount (assuming what they owe you is more than the deposit).

chanz4

The liability is against the occupier unless you cant prove it was legally rented, tenancy agreements not accepted as easy to forge. The cost maybe a risk deposit.

[Deleted User]

OP, was the reconnection costs involving relaying formerly dug up pipes or cables.? A standard reconnection of screwing in another gas meter is cheap.Legally you can buy your own and hire a gas safe fitter. If however it involves a couple of blokes coming out relaying pipes then this very high price is justified. The important thing to remember though is to get to the stage of actually digging up pipes and cables , bypassing and tampering of meters would ve been happening more than once, probably at least 3 times. If that is the case, the landlord of this property has some responsibilty to how his tennants behave to allow this to happen. All landlords should have this attitude in my opinion, a quick glance at the meters once a year is no hardship

Biscuit_Tin

mije1983 wrote: »

Depends if the tenant has any money. If they don't then you won't get anything even if you win the case.

That's where careful referencing and credit checking before you ever hand over the keys came in