Gas Main Renewal - rights

50Twuncle

We have been told that our gas main is being renewed in the next 7 weeks - in a letter from the suppier
I understand that we are going to be amongst the first to be done - at the coldest time of the year - starting on Tuesday - we will lose our gas supply for approx. 24 hours (we only have gas heating in the house - so they will have to supply us with alternative heating (and water heating) !!
They will have to dig a trench through our garden and through a garden path - which we had made, 6 years ago with patterned concrete.
Are we entitled to "like for like" replacement or just "near enough" match ?

bod1467

My understanding is that you should not be "disadvantaged" by any such works. If they damage anything they should restore it to its previous condition.

Best thing would be to take plenty of photos now of anything that might be disturbed, so you have evidence of such previous condition.

50Twuncle

bod1467 wrote: »

My understanding is that you should not be "disadvantaged" by any such works. If they damage anything they should restore it to its previous condition.

Best thing would be to take plenty of photos now of anything that might be disturbed, so you have evidence of such previous condition.

Good idea - I will take some photos !

AJXX

Just to play Devils advocate; I always thought if you blocked access to a gas main/underground utilities (as OP appears to have done with concrete no less) then it can be ripped up by the utilitiy companies at anytime with a nice invoice sent to the home owner?

50Twuncle

AJXX wrote: »

Just to play Devils advocate; I always thought if you blocked access to a gas main/underground utilities (as OP appears to have done with concrete no less) then it can be ripped up by the utilitiy companies at anytime with a nice invoice sent to the home owner?

This would cost the local authority dearly - because they purposely put roads on top of gas mains !!

foxtrotoscar_2

50Twuncle wrote: »

This would cost the local authority dearly - because they purposely put roads on top of gas mains !!

Yes it does...invariably roads have to be resurfaced relatively shortly after utility companies have dug them up and applied their patches.

hc25036

To offer some reassurance, we had this done last year and it turned into a real hassle because it was impossible to follow the same route as the original gas main (at least without knocking part of the house down!).

They were absolutely brilliant, took time to find the least obtrusive site for the new meter, removed the old meter and made good and replaced flagstones exactly as they were before. When a supervisor came a couple of days later, he didn't like the fact that one flagstone was slightly high and he had them come back and sort that out - even though it had been high before they arrived.

They did about 10 properties that had problems due to a faulty main and not one of us had anything but praise.

Maybe we were lucky and got good contractors, and the fact we provided tea and biscuits for the 2 weeks they were struggling with the issues in the road may have helped!

owl_fan

National Grid are working on our gas main this week. Last week, they switched off our gas for half a day and moved our gas meters, this week they will switch it off for 2 days in order to replace the main pipe in the street.
They have damaged a down pipe which carries the condensate from my boiler on the first floor to the drain outside. The pipe is leaking and I have reported it. I didn't have an opportunity to take photos beforehand, because I wasn't aware that they were going to run copper pipes behind the down pipe.
I am waiting for the repair to this down pipe - it needs to be done soon, because condensate is acidic and will corrode the copper pipes. I also have big problems with having no gas for 2 days, but that is another issue!

My message is they are very difficult and will not tell you in advance what they are doing, and they need to be monitored if they damage your property. I work full time, but they expected me to stay at home with no notice last week when they decided to turn up.