Hi, my mother's house occasionally smells slightly of gas, and has done for about 20 years, so it's obvious there's a leak somewhere. Yesterday my sister called the "Smell Gas? Call us for Free" number that's advertised all over the place by practically every company in the industry - presumably centrally-funded. A gas guy came, found a leak in one room and disconnected the fire there (which hasn't been used for years). Then he sucked on his teeth and said that that hadn't fixed the problem, and disconnected the entire supply at the mains, and gave my mother a piece of paper to say she'd be committing a offence if she turned it back on again.
He also said that if it were his house, he'd change everything, which is of course the oldest way in the book of recommending that a lot of work be done without saying in writing that he's carried out an inspection, found the following faults, and recommends that these specific things be done. Yes mate, sure.
It's early March. She lives in County Durham. It's freezing cold. I was planning to get the gas fixed in the spring.
I'm going to turn it on again, regardless of whether I am breaking the law, and then we will get the gas fixed at a time of my choosing. I'd rather that than leave my mother, who is in her 80s, without any heating.
Any advice?
(Just did a websearch - found sites such as
Seems that there's a hell of a lot of scamming going on in this sector, especially against the elderly, involving unnecessary disconnections.
Yes. Don't put your mother's and other people's lives at risk by being so arrogant. Get a second opinion from an independent expert who does not have a financial interest in getting the work done.
I've just read his scrawled note, which reads "Smell of gas at fire, Disconect [sic], Retest (so that) still leaking Cap at meter".
Not sure about the "so that" - it might say something else.
Does this mean he has capped a pipe close to the meter? (If so, does this mean actual plumbing work, or just turning it off?) Or does it mean he found a leak at the meter? (In the latter case, presumably the supplier will pay, since they - or some other company - own the meter?)
Was he Gas Safe registered? If he has literally disconnected at the mains rather than just turn it off and applied a cap then yes yo would be committing an offence if you turned it back on as you would if you do any connection work on gas. Only a Gas Safe Registered person can do that.
If he is not a qualified person then he himself was committing an offence. This link might be useful
It means he has undone a connection, inserted a capping disk and done the connection up again. That is to prevent people who think they know better simply turning the gas tap back on again. As Peter says, if you think it has been wrongly disconnected, get a second opinion; don't just turn the gas back on again. The fact that it has smelt of gas for 20 years does not mean it is safe, merely that your mother has been lucky so far.
Thanks for this info. That actually sounds like something I wouldn't want to fiddle with, but I'll have to research the matter. Don't worry - I won't let my anger cause me to put my mother at risk.
The bastard. I'm going to fix my mother's banister next week. It's been a bit wobbly for years. Maybe the guy should have built a wall across her stairway and set a booby-trap to prevent me from removing it?
He told her if he lived in the house, the first thing he'd do would be to get "all the pipework" changed. "There's loads of it under the floorboards," he said. "Who knows where the leak is?" he asked.
That's scammers' talk.
"If I were you" is the oldest persuasion technique in the business.
Most of the pipes go to fires that haven't been used for decades. She only needs gas at the boiler and cooker. Whatever problem there might be, she doesn't need "all the pipework" changed.
Please let's not get into logical arguments. The fact that I have crossed the road outside my house thousands of times does not mean it is safe either; it just means I have been lucky so far.
If I could believe in the existence of independent experts with no financial interest in reaching any particular conclusion, I would be happy to pay one say =A320 to do a test. If anyone knows where I can find one, please let me know. (Cloud cuckoo land, maybe?)
The whole set-up reminds me of how the association of electricity supply companies, many decades ago, obliged its members to pay something like
25% of their turnover (!!) to a public relations fund. People just had to be got to use electrical appliances. They could have given them away free and still made a profit from their usage - it's like with inkjet printers and mobile phones. "Smell gas? Call us free!" indeed!!
I went to the GasSafe site and it's full of scare stuff aimed at elderly people. In fact, starting at the front page of their entire site.
A few years back a customer 'smelled gas' in one of my landerettes and called out British Gas, who came, said yes there was a funny smell but couldn't source it, so turned off the supply. My commercial registered gas man was away so I called British Gas who gave me the details of another local one who was registered. He came, found that the smell was acutally not gas but fluorescent tubes in their cardboard sleeves resting against the boiler flue! Reconnected and left a suitable certificate. When the certificate was lodged with the local authority (as is required) it turned out he WASN'T registered despite BG recommending him. At least he possibly prevented a small fire.
Why not get a gas plumber in an price up replacing the whole lot, without question, against tracing and fixing the leak, which could be "who knows where".
Whilst your at it, put your tinfoil hat back on. It seesm to have slipped.
No point whatsoever. Pipes run to where there used to be other fires too. Pipes under all rooms except the kitchen should be capped off near the boiler, and could indeed be removed. But no way do they all need to be replaced, wherever any leak or leaks may be. She told him the position with the fires, and that she only needs and uses gas in the kitchen. To tell her, using a persuasion technique, that all pipes should be
*replaced* is very dodgy, in my opinion.
The answer is that capping off the fire may have solved the problem.
Personally I would take no notice of the so called experts on this newsgroup. If I was you I would reconnect the gas and test all the joints with a cig lighter. You can get 3 for a quid off a bloke on the street corner.
The OP's point though, that everyone seems determined to miss, is not that there wasn't a leak that needed fixing - the fire - but whether or not the extensive follow-up work suggested was really necessary.
He's hardly mistaken in being sceptical, because the danger aspect *is* over-egged in order to frighten people into paying for unnecesary work. The reason older pople are fairly easy to scam, is because in their younger days, generally both the nationalised industries and tradespeople could be relied on to treat you fairly.
Now it is the consumer who is looked upon as stupid, if they're exploited, as if they're the expert in the field and should have known better ! I would suggest the OP contact the local Council, Age UK of a local Trades Bulletin, to find the name of a reliable local man, who has a reputation to maintain. Or of course the recommendation of friends or neighbours.
The house next door smelled of gas for some months. Turned out to be a nail through a pipe, which had happened some years earlier - presumably something shifted to make it start leaking.
Hey dont take this as a `good to go` listen to the other posters and get this done properly.
I always had a faint smell of gas in my cupboard that had the old style gas boiler (not combi). I had a mate who is corgi reg and he checked and said its ok but yes faint smell of gas. About 5 years ago getting a new toilet and a different corgi reg plumber who also said faint smell of gas and by law he must check it and if necessary turn off at mains, He used a couple of gadgets and found nothing, I think one was a pressure thing on the mains. Anyhow 2 years ago we got a combi and I had it installed in the garage as I was never comfortable with that faint gas smell despite all checking out ok.
Yes there are scammers out there but you need to trust someone, given the choice of my mother moving in with me or paying to get it fixed I know what I would do :-)
I think you need to take a step back and think about this a bit more rationally. It sounds like your mother contacted Transco on their emergency "Smell Gas" number... If this is the case they will send someone to the property quickly to ascertain if there is indeed a leak, and if so where it is. If they find a leak at the meter or in the pipework before the meter (i.e. the bits of the system for which they are responsible), then they will fix free of charge.
If however they find a leak in the consumers property, then the correct and *only* safe thing to do is to isolate the property and recommend that they get a gas engineer in to remedy the problem, since they are not responsible for the consumers side of the installation, and not supposed to fiddle with it.
If having detected a leak, he were to leave the property without having made it safe, and the following day your mother was killed in a gas explosion, then the engineer would be guilty of, at best, gross negligence, and more likely manslaughter.
Now it sounds like in this case the bloke in question has in fact gone far beyond what he was actually required to do in this case, and has made an attempt to find and rectify the fault in the customers installation. For this you ought to be grateful since he is going beyond his remit and presumably not even being paid for it. As a transco engineer, he is not in a position to quote for the work, or undertake to fix it - so suggesting that there is some financial gain to be had seems daft. > He told her if he lived in the house, the first thing he'd do would be
Or its the talk of someone who has looked at a house and noted that much of the pipework is very old, consists of lots of disused and capped runs in steel pipe with screw thread connections - possibly even in a property that used to have gas lighting.
It may be he observed that there is in fact only one or two appliances actually being used, in spite of the large network of pipes that run all over the house.
Its sounds like that is *exactly* what is needed - but I suspect you are not understanding what is being suggested.
He was probably suggesting that new pipework be installed to the two appliances that are actually in use, and the entire existing system disconnected and abandoned. This would be (by far) the cheapest an quickest way of rectifying the problem.
Indeed. However you have not been expecting anyone else to be legally responsible for getting you safely across the road before. This is what you seem to be asking of the Transco engineer.
Call any gas safe engineer, and ask for them to come and test, and quote for rectification.
Alternatively if you have the skills, and equipment, do your own test.
However, this is not rocket science - you already said you could smell gas, so that alone is a pretty good clue that there is a leak. Now if testing has confirmed that leak, then I would not act too surprised.
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