All a bit overwhelmed by a situation I'm in, so hope it's OK to post this here.
I'm looking for a bit of advice on a situation at my mother's property - she's 86 and was diagnosed with dementia 2 years ago, and I have power of attorney which she asked me to apply for 5 years ago. She's had very high water bills for over a year, far exceeding what one would expect from one person's usage in a small house - I've questioned this with Thames Water who deem there to be a water leak. They sent an engineer out last year who states that the leak isn't external so not Thames Water's responsibility to fix. They also said that the stopcock in the property needs to be isolated - the problem is that a plumber (who I've used a few times who seems reliable) says that what the engineer is referring to under my mum's sink is only to isolate the cold tap, and that despite a thorough search of the property, he couldn't locate a stopcock.
This leaves gas detection as the best means of moving forward. The problem is that my mum is very wary of letting people in the property - it took 5 visits for her (over 8 months) to allow a smart meter for electricity to be fitted, usually sending the engineer away. I don't have any direct personal contact with my mum anymore, owing to quite a long history of her being abusive to me, leading me to feeling very suicidal 3 years ago. Her social care team have said that they'll facilitate the situation re a visit. I haven't looked into whether the gas detection will be covered by her Saga home insurance - I'm foreseeing my mum not allowing entrance to the gas detection team, so don't know if I'm just best off paying for the detection bypassing insurance. Thames have set up a payment plan for 3 months and will apply a leak allowance, but once that 3 months is up, they'll be looking for a considerable amount, so time is of the essence.
Has anyone else here had experience of arranging something like this for a parent or relative who is loathe to letting people in? I don't mind saying that I find it triggering dealing with things like this on her behalf owing to trauma resulting from her going back to my childhood so just want it to go along as smoothly as possible. How invasive is the detection usually?
I'm looking for a bit of advice on a situation at my mother's property - she's 86 and was diagnosed with dementia 2 years ago, and I have power of attorney which she asked me to apply for 5 years ago. She's had very high water bills for over a year, far exceeding what one would expect from one person's usage in a small house - I've questioned this with Thames Water who deem there to be a water leak. They sent an engineer out last year who states that the leak isn't external so not Thames Water's responsibility to fix. They also said that the stopcock in the property needs to be isolated - the problem is that a plumber (who I've used a few times who seems reliable) says that what the engineer is referring to under my mum's sink is only to isolate the cold tap, and that despite a thorough search of the property, he couldn't locate a stopcock.
This leaves gas detection as the best means of moving forward. The problem is that my mum is very wary of letting people in the property - it took 5 visits for her (over 8 months) to allow a smart meter for electricity to be fitted, usually sending the engineer away. I don't have any direct personal contact with my mum anymore, owing to quite a long history of her being abusive to me, leading me to feeling very suicidal 3 years ago. Her social care team have said that they'll facilitate the situation re a visit. I haven't looked into whether the gas detection will be covered by her Saga home insurance - I'm foreseeing my mum not allowing entrance to the gas detection team, so don't know if I'm just best off paying for the detection bypassing insurance. Thames have set up a payment plan for 3 months and will apply a leak allowance, but once that 3 months is up, they'll be looking for a considerable amount, so time is of the essence.
Has anyone else here had experience of arranging something like this for a parent or relative who is loathe to letting people in? I don't mind saying that I find it triggering dealing with things like this on her behalf owing to trauma resulting from her going back to my childhood so just want it to go along as smoothly as possible. How invasive is the detection usually?
