Capped off gas

MsBlonde

So my father has had issues with his British Gas prepay meter which has been in the house since 1996. They came to change the meter yesterday to fix the problem, great! Or not... Upon fixing meter they said there was an 8 bar drop? Therefore something was leaking so they've capped his gas off (be it appliance or piping) despite my father never ever smelling gas (nor myself) at his property, apparently you don't always have to smell it.

My poor father has now been left at the age of 65 with no heating and no way to cook food.

I phoned British Gas up for him, who seemed to not have a clue what I was talking about, and kept saying we'll send someone to uncap the supply, it wasn't until I went... but it's not fixed so they wont. So they're sending one of their "expensive" engineers to "track and trace" the problem today at the grand price of £99.07 for 45 mins and every additional 15 mins is £17.65 + Parts costs. I feel this is going to hit my account badly since they needed a card number to preauth the £99.07 before they would book an appointment yesterday.

Unfortunatley I didn't have chance to shop around for a cheaper company, I just wanted to get it sorted and working for him, i'm guessing theres probably cheaper out there. If the costs are extortinate in regards to fixing, is my father able to stop the guy and tell him no? Since from what I've been told they take the money upon completion from the card, no mention of if you say its ok or not if they choose to replace piping.

Keep_pedalling

Bit late to cancel now, but I would be more worried about your father paying pre meter rates for 20 years which will have cost him thousands. If he has decent house insurance things like this are often covered, although if that is the case that should have been you first port of call and they would have sent one of their approved gas fitters out.

Is there a reason he does not have his own debit card? Even my elderly mother living on nothing more than the state pension has one of those.

PS. 65 is not old.

MsBlonde

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Bit late to cancel now, but I would be more worried about your father paying pre meter rates for 20 years which will have cost him thousands. If he has decent house insurance things like this are often covered, although if that is the case that should have been you first port of call and they would have sent one of their approved gas fitters out.

Is there a reason he does not have his own debit card? Even my elderly mother living on nothing more than the state pension has one of those.

PS. 65 is not old.

The prepay meter was due to my mother getting into so much debt he HAD no choice, she has since left (and in 1996 I was 11, so what would I have been able to do?) ... he does have a debit card however I wasn't with him when calling, needless to say i do not know the finances of my father but he gets a state pension and thats it, I suspect he isn't "well off" on that.

As for house insurance the house he lives in is very old (over 300 years old), it was diffcult to get insurance as it is, since it had flooded several times before, as far as i'm aware he only has basic household insurance not the type that covers maintenance.

I didn't say I wanted to cancel, I said if the guy comes and says oooh this is going to be hours / days of work and parts, can he say thanks for the advice on your way and find someone else whos not British Gas to do it.

65 is old when you have medical conditions, he's also seen as a priority!

[Deleted User]

Your father is paying 25% more on a prepay with BG rather than , say a one year fix dual fuel fix with BG s white label supplier Sainsburys Energy, same go s for his electric prepay, get rid. BG will do the exchange to credit meters for free.
Firstly though the little leak needs to be addressed. I would cancel the expensive BG gasman and get a local man in. We had a small leak somewhere in the kitchen and never could smell any leaking gas. There are a few spots on the meter and anaconda where little leaks can occur. I smell gas in lots of outside meter boxes where a small leak, say from the unions, can build up. Its enough for a gas safe engineer to condemn it till its rectified. So , step one get the leak fixed, step two get your dad to rid himself of the inconvenient expensive prepays and set up new credit meters on a quarterly or monthly direct debit on credit meters to drastically lower his bills. If he just uses the cheapenergyclub on here to switch he will be getting approx £40 cashback as well

MsBlonde

sacsquacco wrote: »

Your father is paying 25% more on a prepay with BG rather than , say a one year fix dual fuel fix with BG s white label supplier Sainsburys Energy, same go s for his electric prepay, get rid. BG will do the exchange to credit meters for free.
Firstly though the little leak needs to be addressed. I would cancel the expensive BG gasman and get a local man in. We had a small leak somewhere in the kitchen and never could smell any leaking gas. There are a few spots on the meter and anaconda where little leaks can occur. I smell gas in lots of outside meter boxes where a small leak, say from the unions, can build up. Its enough for a gas safe engineer to condemn it till its rectified. So , step one get the leak fixed, step two get your dad to rid himself of the inconvenient expensive prepays and set up new credit meters on a quarterly or monthly direct debit on credit meters to drastically lower his bills. If he just uses the cheapenergyclub on here to switch he will be getting approx £40 cashback as well

Thanks for your advice, I'm not sure if he will be able to get a credit meter, since my mum had left him in loads of debt, he has been paying it off slowly bless him... but i've read horror stories of people with perfect credit getting rejected for a credit meter, but I have discussed it with him before they came to fix his prepay, and we thought we'd let them fix that before and so he could top up the meter with whats on the card from when he last topped up, then we'd look into it. Didn't expect to get a call from a distressed father saying they capped him off after the appointment.

[Deleted User]

MsBlonde wrote: »

Thanks for your advice, I'm not sure if he will be able to get a credit meter, since my mum had left him in loads of debt, he has been paying it off slowly bless him... but i've read horror stories of people with perfect credit getting rejected for a credit meter, but I have discussed it with him before they came to fix his prepay, and we thought we'd let them fix that before and so he could top up the meter with whats on the card from when he last topped up, then we'd look into it. Didn't expect to get a call from a distressed father saying they capped him off after the appointment.

I would think a BG gasman coming out will be charging from the minute he knocks on the door. As soon as he connects his equipment to the meter he s providing a service. They are well known on here for being doubly expensive. The leak could be at the cooker, meter, pipes. I expect a gas detecting device would be used to find it.
Once your dad has cleared all the debt on the meters try and talk him into a switch back to credit meters. He s throwing money away and he can t afford to.

MsBlonde

sacsquacco wrote: »

I would think a BG gasman coming out will be charging from the minute he knocks on the door. As soon as he connects his equipment to the meter he s providing a service. They are well known on here for being doubly expensive. The leak could be at the cooker, meter, pipes. I expect a gas detecting device would be used to find it.
Once your dad has cleared all the debt on the meters try and talk him into a switch back to credit meters. He s throwing money away and he can t afford to.

Theres no longer debt on the meter, just credit, he paid the debt many moons ago and has been afraid to ask to change it since.

Keep_pedalling

If your father is agreeable, I would recommend you get a grip on his finances. A lasting power of attorney (LPA) would enable to act on his behalf so is well worth setting up even if you don't need it now you may well need it later when it may no longer be possible to do so.

If he is still paying off depts that were wholly owned by your mother, you need to put a stop to that, he is not responsible for them.

MsBlonde

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

If your father is agreeable, I would recommend you get a grip on his finances. A lasting power of attorney (LPA) would enable to act on his behalf so is well worth setting up even if you don't need it now you may well need it later when it may no longer be possible to do so.

If he is still paying off depts that were wholly owned by your mother, you need to put a stop to that, he is not responsible for them.

My father is very secretive about his finances, although I don't go blabbing mine out either, so I totally understand. Especially since he's ashamed of the debt caused by my mother on in particular a joint credit card which had a credit limit of 30k I think (he worked and she supposedly looked after finances),after years of her hiding the state they were in, he found out she had withdrawn the money and given it away to her family, who had no intention on paying it back... my father then lost his job and my mother left with another man, leaving him in **** creek without a paddle.

As for the gas, it's now back on... seems the guy who installed the new meter had a faulty machine. Whether i'll get my 99.07 back for his mistake, is another matter... but i'm pleased it's sorted now anyway.

Thank you for your help.

Keep_pedalling

Under those circumstances I can understand why he feels the way he does, but do try to get him to be more open with you, otherwise you could have real problems if he is ever incapacitated by something like a stroke, or dies unexpectedly, and I'm sure if that did happen he would not really want to leave you having to cope with a financial mess as well as all the other stress you would be under.

Is he actually divorced? If not his top priority should be making sure he has a valid will in place.

PS. Make sure you push for that refund.