Gas Company Ordering Me to Move Things with No Notice

lefthand84

Cadent have been relaying the pipes in our road all summer. The work's overrun massively because of a leak somewhere on our stretch (it's a long road). They've come and gone and all sorts. 

On Monday, they came back and told me that they'll need to replace the pipe into our house. Unfortunately, where the pipe comes in is where I've been storing a palletload of old paving bricks and storing old fixtures and fittings we've taken out whilst decorating - waiting 'til we can afford a skip. I told the guy and he explained that they could move it out the way - he definitely said "what we can do is shift it across".

This morning, just as I sat down to work (I'm self-employed and work from home), a different guy knocked on the door and told me that I needed to move the bricks there and then. I argued that I'd just sat down to work, I've got deadlines to meet, etc. But he was adamant. His supervisor stood in the porch smirking.

It came down to either I moved the bricks or they'd drill around them and move the meter. So I had to get changed and go humping bricks and old bath panels around. They sent a couple of guys over to help a bit, but I'm very angry that I was told one thing by a very friendly workman and then had these far less cordial guys come in and tell me to do a load of heavy (and dirty) lifting there and then.

In short, do I have any right to complain to Cadent? I feel I wasn't given the proper information or notice.

TiA.

mr_stripey

Of course you can complain to Cadent. Why do you think you don't have that right?

It sounds like it could perhaps have been handled a bit better but the outcome is no doubt the same.

Netexporter

Or you could have made do without a gas supply.

lefthand84

mr_stripey said:

Of course you can complain to Cadent. Why do you think you don't have that right?

It sounds like it could perhaps have been handled a bit better but the outcome is no doubt the same.

Thanks for your reply. What do you reckon the outcome could be? I've never had any issues like this before. The young guy this morning just shrugged and essentially said, "Complain all you like, but it's emergency work". Is that their get-out clause? They've been working on this leak off-and-on for two months.

mr_stripey

lefthand84 said:

mr_stripey said:

Of course you can complain to Cadent. Why do you think you don't have that right?

It sounds like it could perhaps have been handled a bit better but the outcome is no doubt the same.

Thanks for your reply. What do you reckon the outcome could be? I've never had any issues like this before. The young guy this morning just shrugged and essentially said, "Complain all you like, but it's emergency work". Is that their get-out clause? They've been working on this leak off-and-on for two months.

I've no idea. What outcome would you like to happen? 

EssexHebridean

I guess the question is hat do you want as an outcome? A simple "apologies, we got it wrong and should have been more flexible, we'll learn from this for the future" is probably a likely achievable outcome. If you are thinking that you may get compensation though, you would I suspect need to be able to show a quantifiable loss - or example a meeting that had to be deferred meaning a customer cancelled an order with you or something along those lines.  

If while they were doing the works, they discovered a further leak, that would indeed have qualified as an emergency I'd think. And let's be honest, we'd all of us prefer that they DID treat such things seriously as opposed to be laid back about it and saying "sure, we can leave things while we can organise moving this guy's stuff" and then maybe the only option being to turn off everyone's gas while they wait! 

lefthand84

EssexHebridean said:

I guess the question is hat do you want as an outcome? A simple "apologies, we got it wrong and should have been more flexible, we'll learn from this for the future" is probably a likely achievable outcome. If you are thinking that you may get compensation though, you would I suspect need to be able to show a quantifiable loss - or example a meeting that had to be deferred meaning a customer cancelled an order with you or something along those lines.  

If while they were doing the works, they discovered a further leak, that would indeed have qualified as an emergency I'd think. And let's be honest, we'd all of us prefer that they DID treat such things seriously as opposed to be laid back about it and saying "sure, we can leave things while we can organise moving this guy's stuff" and then maybe the only option being to turn off everyone's gas while they wait! 

Cheers, that's helpful. I think more than anything I was ****ed off by their demanding attitude and bemusement at why I might be annoyed - especially after being specifically told by their colleague, "we'll shift it". If they'd explained earlier - like I say, they've been at the foot of our drive for two months now - I'd have sighed but moved it beforehand, not when I'm dressed for work and have deadlines to meet.

wrf12345

In the end, just put it down to a free bit of exercise. Personally, I would have done it so slowly that they would have stepped in a bit more. They were due to do my bit of road but chickened out when they realised the work involved getting to our meters, as the houses are elevated almost two stories above the road. I would gladly have accepted a couple of grand to be permanently disconnected...

mr_stripey

putting myself in your shoes, I have a fair bit of "junk" where my gas pipe enters the house. If Cadent needed to get in it would be a good excuse to get it moved. To be fair they did tell you on Monday so you had a few days to sort (even though they kind of implied they would take care of it).