Hello I was wondering if anybody here has a similar experience. We have recently bought a 1960's bungalow in need of lots of work. The biggest job is to put a new central heating in. National Grid came to do a live/dead check on the gas pipe in the kitchen and the engineer stated within 3 minutes it was dead and left. As I don't really understand much about gas connections, I was under the impression that he can tell just by looking at it. I have applied for a new connection, had the survey done and the work started today. My neighbor told the guys that he is sure there is a live pipe in the house (he told me in the first place hence the check requested). As the engineer was very nice, he came inside to check it - and guess what - it's live! He called his supervisor and was told to carry on with what they are doing and disconnect the old one. This seemed a little bit odd so I was on the phone to NG and asked how is it possible that it is not safe to use the current live connection for us when the neighbor and possibly the whole street are using it. Was told that only the engineers know what needs to be done and someone will call me back...nobody called. In the mean time I had a gas safe engineer to come and give me a quote on the heating and as he knows the area and was working on other houses in the street, he informed them that if they disconnect us, they will cut off the neighbor as well. I have called NG again and am waiting for somebody to come back to me as obviously the guys packed up their staff and left as there cannot be two connections to one property. I have got no idea what is going on now. There are about five holes in the garden with nothing laid in them and National Grid's "will call you back in 10 minutes" is again taking about two hours. Anybody else has been in this kind of situation, please?
Good old grid, personally the guy who told you it was dead has actually breached the gsiur. He told you it was dead when it wasn't what would have happened if you had turned it on or even worse cut it. I'd be contacting gas safe
Hi dubsie Exactly what I realised once all of them left. And cutting it would be exactly what we would be doing when replacing the kitchen. Thanks to our neighbour nothing happened. Unfortunately I don't have anything in writing. All was arranged on a phone. I am still waiting for NG to come back to me.
Nothing they can do, as has been said no paper trail no evidence. Plus the gas networks do not fall under their remit, the HSE could and would have got involved had an issue occurred but there is little to shout about apart from the poor customer service and advice the OP has been given. The biggest problem with the gas networks is that there is no competion they turn up when it suits them rather than being consumer led.
They should never of privatised the network. I'm not saying all but too many first responders simply turn up and cap meters without any real reason other than the customer reporting a smell of gas. Only recently I got called to a capped meter with paperwork stating a 6mb drop from grid. After sticking a test on I found just 0.5mb. I then had to go around the property turning off appliances and retesting to locate the leak on a gas fire. It took me an 2 hour to sort it out but with the equipment grid carry it would have been found in minutes. Basically the operative could not be bothered probably because they have loaded 12 jobs on his day. These privatised companies basically want their engineers hitting targets for as little cost as possible.
Quick update: NG have called this morning and said that someone needs to come and do another live/dead check...don't get it. In the mean time though, a different NG team came and they are filling all the holes dug up on Friday...
Hi all Final update: The latest live/dead check revealed that there was a leak at the old suplly caused by one of the NG guys who opened the cap to check if there was gas (it was leaking for a week). Therefore, the emergency team cut off the old suplly and installed a new one and we got a refund. It still doesn't explain how on earth no one knew that even though capped off there was gas coming into the house. Apparently, they are looking into it. The new meter was only installed after a third live/dead check carried out on the brand new supply. Have a good weekend all.
With professionals like that I would be quite happy to do gas work as a DIY project if it wasn't illegal -I know I would do a good job and would have no time restraints. diymostthings
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