What is the legal position on having gas meter disconnected?

[mart]

I'm thinking of having the gas meter disconnected and asking the energy supplier to take it away.

In their recent terms/conditions the energy supplier state that the cost is £120. I wondered if it has to be done by them or if I could get a gas safe engineer to do the job? Maybe no difference in cost. I imagine after removal that the energy supplier will want silly money to come and collect it. Am I over a barrel with this? I wonder what the legal position is. Anyone know.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

£120 isn't an unreasonable charge.

 

[mart]

Ok

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Would probably cost you more to get a third party in tbh though I don't think they can

 

[gaz1]

just so you know it wont be just a meter removed

Unused Gas Meter.. standing charge - a Freedom of Information request to Office of Gas and Electricity Markets

I notice in your open letter 20th June 2014 (88276) that you state "In terms of good practices, three of the larger suppliers offer to remove a meter free of charge for all zero use consumers. An additional two suppliers provide this service for free when a customer is considered to be...

www.whatdotheyknow.com

its a cut off from the street

 

[Seadog]

It's a bloody rip off considering the amount that they earn from the standing charge alone.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

It's a bloody rip off considering the amount that they earn from the standing charge alone.

Not really. That's a cheap price. They have to send a fitter down to undertake the works bet it's done at a loss.
Gas prices in general. Yes. They're a rip.

 

[James1979]

View attachment 357365

£120 is a bargain then

 

[Parm]

They did mine for free as I have no gas using appliances in the house

This was about 6 years ago

 

[carbon]

They did mine for free as I have no gas using appliances in the house

This was about 6 years ago

Exactly the same here, when British Gas started charging a standing charge even if you weren’t using any gas I had them remove the meter. It didn’t cost anything then.

 

[waddycall]

It’s not something a regular gas engineer can do. It needs to be the gas transporter i think but your supplier will tell you.

 

[mart]

Exactly the same here, when British Gas started charging a standing charge even if you weren’t using any gas I had them remove the meter. It didn’t cost anything then.

@carbon
That is all well and good, but....

Re- In the interesting link provided by Gaz 1. The main financial burden seems to be the cost of disconnecting the gas supply on the street if there has not been gas used at the property after 12 months. Further expense would be incurred for reconnecting in the street after a survey, total cost being in the thousands, apparently. All to deter I would guess. I also assume implications when selling the property until all made good.

"The standing charge is part of this energy tariff. A standing charge is a fixed monthly/daily amount that you pay your electricity/gas supplier for maintenance and other costs, such as maintaining connection to the power network".


I say it is time for the energy companies (and water companies) to pay for their own overheads from their massive profits.

How much profit have the energy companies made? - Google Search

how much profit have the energy companies made? - Google Search