[Dale Young]

Inspected a house, where the gas meter was in the work/storage/room under the house. The gas company came over after the house closing and said they would not turn the gas on unless it was moved out from under the house. The buyer (my client) paid the expenses to have the meter changed. Now they (client) are saying that the inspector should have made them aware of the problem so they could have had the seller dealt with the problem. I am at fault for not recognizing the meter needed to be moved or the gas company? The gas meter was in good shape. It seems the gas company wanted the meter moved so they could read the meter w/o going into the work/storage room under the house anymore. This house was builted in the 50's and the meter is actually under what seems to have been an attactment. Also, i believe this house had been sold not to long ago, say 5 to 10 years, and why was this problem not address at that time.

Newbie,
Dale Young
Young & Son Home Inspection Service

[Dale Young]

Can somebody read my post under gas meter; and give me some professional help
Dale Young
Young & Son Home Inspection Service

[iniquette]

Dale, post this in the General Inspection Area of the forum. You will get more responses there, as a lot of guys don't look in this thread.

[Dale Young]

thanks

[John E. Mullarkey]

Just a thought here. My Mom's house in NYC has the gas meter located inside the basement. A few years ago Con Edison installed a remote reader. The gas meter is still inside but the meter can be read from the outside. Hope this helps

[Dale Young]

thanks, i am going to investigate between gas company and city, what and how long this has been going on. Seems to me they are looking for a scapegoat-home inspector-newbie at that. Thanks,
Dale

[Jonathan M. Cartwright]

Just guessing here but the gas service was on in this house previously. The meter was located in the work room/under the house previously. The meter had to have been read by the gas company many times before. If the gas company had the service on before why not now?

Perhaps it is a dumb place for the meter but it seems to me, by your post, that the addition was not recent and therefore it was not unknown to the utility where the meter was located. Also, if this house had the service shut off, as is the case in many foreclosures, the meter valve would be locked by the gas company to prevent unauthorized operation. At least that is how it is here most of the time. Why was the meter not "red tagged" by the gas company at the termination of service?

At the very least the gas company should explain to you why this was never an issue before.

[Dale Young]

When the buyer(client) was having the gas put in their name or transferred from seller to buyer; the gas company decided to red flag the meter until the buyer had the meter moved. The gas was never actually turned off until the transfer. I think the gas company new all along. I found out today that the addition was actually built in 1993-94; that being said the gas company has been reading that meter for 16 to 17 years in the work/storage/basement/crawspace. The house has also had at least 4 previous owners. My position is why not gas company? Is the home inspector trying to made a scapegoat? Why did the city inspector spot did in 93-94? Why did the gas company not do anything with the previous 4 owners during their transfer of utilities?