Removing Old Gas Supply to House

[Shamus]

Hi

3 Years ago I bought a bungalow (a corner plot) and at one end there is a gas supply with a meter that when isolated shuts off the gas to the house. My gas engineer has investigated as best he can and it seems this pipe is supplied from the road at that end of the house. At the other end of the house there is another gas pipe that appears to be supplied from another road at that side of the house. The pipe has an isolator and is capped off with no meter. My gas engineer says it is still live. After further investigation it seems that in the distant past the mother inlaw of the owner lived at one end of the house while they lived in the other so i'm assuming this might have been the reason for the two supplies!?!? Anyway i intend to do some work at the end of the house with the redundant supply line and I could really do with getting it isolated incase it is disturbed. I contacted Northern Gas Networks and explained the situation and the safety concerns and they came out and said no bother we'll disconnect it and 4 days later I get a quote for £500.

Can someone tell me if it is normal to be charged to get the gas turned off? From what i can tell they did not have any record of the pipe. They said they would only need to gain access to the house for 10 minutes so i'm assuming they are not removing the pipe only disconnecting it. So what is costing £500 and can I not challenge this amount? In the small print it does suggest i can get another quote off someone else but after following the link (girs.co.uk) i just get lost in the links. I don't think its an option to carry out the work around the pipe as it is.

Thanks in advance for any advise

Shaun

 

[bernardgreen]

Can someone tell me if it is normal to be charged to get the gas turned off?

If they are going to disconnect the service pipe from the gas main under the public highway then some of the £500 will be the costs of opening up the public highway.

 

[FiremanT]

When I id a stint with National Grid, I was surprised to find that they are required to disconnect a gas supply (at no cost to the householder) from a premises after a certain period of non use. They also do not allow 2 supplies to one premises. The supply will be disconnected at the "Entry Tee", but if there is not one fitted, they will cut off in the street. This led to some upsets with householders as they sometimes intended to possibly reuse the gas in the future, and would not want to pay for re connection. We were able to delay the process slightly by having them say they will arrange a meter in the next 3 (?) months. I don't know if this could go on ad verbatim.

So I am confused as to why they are demanding payment. But these things are often a result of miscommunication, and incorrect terminology.

I will try to find the relevant document, but Gas112 may now straight off.

EDIT: How does your RGI know it is still live?