Posted on 09/03/2017 7:38:37 PM PDT by Swordmaker
My parent built a second house on their property in Sacramento in 1954 for my grandmother to live in. Pacific Gas & Electric ran a gas line and installed a meter for that second house. They tapped the gas from the main gas line that was at the front house which had my parent's gas meter attached to it. That extra gas line to the second house ran about 80 to 100 feet farther to my grandmother's house.
Sometime in the 1970s the PG&E meter reader got tired of walking that extra 160 to 200 feet to read my Grandmother's meter every month and PG&E elected to MOVE the meter on her house to right next to the meter on my parent's house. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District's electric Meter reader didn't complain. . . the electric meter was about 10 feet farther back from the gas meter on my grand mother's house, and he actually had to go around my parent's house into the back yard by another route to get to the meter on their house to read theirs. Go figure.
In any case, PG&E moved that gas meter so it sat right next to the other gas meter so their meter reader wouldn't have to walk so far, hooked it to their pipe they had originally installed and then ran a connector pipe to jump between the inflow to the outflow gapping where the meter had originally been installed on my grandmother's house. . . all without telling my parents or my grandmother. It was a couple of weeks before anyone noticed. My father noticed when he was mowing and discovered he no longer had to mow around the meter by my grandmother's house and went looking for the meter!
Jump forward 40 years or so. Today the two houses are rental properties I own. One of my tenants calls and says there is a strong odor of gas by the gas meters. I call PG&E to come and check it out. PG&E's technician John shows up on a Sunday and announces that there is a gas leak on the "unauthorized owner installed gas pipe going toward back house" and RED TAGS the meter and shuts off the gas!
I call PG&E asking "WHAT THE HELL?" To which they answer "They have no records of any gas lines authorized to be installed from that address to another address!" and besides, they only will repair gas lines THEY installed up to their meter, and that all leaks "after the meter are the customer's responsibility."
I point out that THEY DID INDEED INSTALL THAT METER and that gas line, and that they, for their own convenience, MOVED IT from it's original location.
"We have no record of that on that property. You are responsible for any repairs to pipes on the customer side of the meter, sir."
"Do you really think I would voluntarily elect to MOVE a meter so that I would be responsible for repairs for 100 feet or so of underground GAS LINE?" I ask.
"Well, you or your parents did, or they must have installed it."
"No, I just told you that PG&E moved it for their convenience, not ours."
"Do you have any paperwork to show that from when it was done?"
"Of course not. PG&E did it on their own. They didn't even tell us they were going to do it."
"Well, you are responsible for fixing it, not us. It's on the customer side of the meter."
"PG&E installed this gas pipe and PG&E moved the meter for THEIR convenience not ours. Why would I accept responsibility for thousands of dollars of potential expenses for PG&E's convenience?"
"Well, you must have."
"Let me talk to a supervisor."
"I am a supervisor. You can't talk to anyone over me who will tell you anything different. You have to fix it. You can make a claim against PG&E if you like. Oh, and you'll have to get the city to inspect it before we can turn it on, because that pipe was never authorized to be there."
"It WAS put there by PG&E and inspected when the house was built in 1954. Not according to our records. That meter is for an apartment in the front house."
"There is NO apartment in the front house!" It's a three bedroom, two bath 960 square foot house, no apartment. It has a separate ADDRESS from the house in the back. We've been receiving TWO PG&E bills from these two houses for 35 years. I did until they were rented to TWO DIFFERENT TENANTS. They've been paying two different bills!
"Oh. Uh, what are the addresses?"
I give him the addresses.
"Well, it's been red tagged. You've got to fix it, get it inspected. Only then can we turn the gas back on. I'll give you the phone number of our office you need to talk to about getting an OK to be reimbursed, but I doubt they'll do it. They're not open until Tuesday."
"So my tenants are going to be without gas until someone can pull a permit. Why do we need a permit to do a repair?"
"Because it's not an authorized gas line."
"The house was fully permitted and inspected with an AUTHORIZED GAS LINE installed by PG&E in 1954 and YOUR COMPANY MOVED THE METER! Repairs should not require a GOD DAMN PERMIT!"
"Replacing an unauthorized gas line does!"
"It was NOT an unauthorized gas line. How many times do I have to tell you, PG&E installed that gas line and PG&E moved the blanking meter????"
"We have no records of that."
"How far do your records go back?"
"I have no idea."
AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Well I certainly hope you get some satisfaction here. We recently remodeled a house in Lafayette California and the electric service and gas service were delivered to the right front corner of the house. PG&E wants the gas meter physically separated from the electric meter by a reasonable number of feet because occasionally the gas meter will burp out a little bit of gas if there’s a little excess pressure in the line; it is meant to do that but of course they don’t want to see that next to an electrical panel. So we were faced with having to move the gas meter because we wanted to upgrade the electrical service to 200 amp in order to do that we were going to have to dig up and relocate the gas line which would have been very costly because I believe in California gas lines need to be 3ft deep and permitted of course and bedded in gravel. It’s not like running a PVC irrigation pipe 10 inches under the surface. I hope on this thread you will ultimately report as to what the resolution was.
If you go that route, make sure you call 811 for a miss-all (line locate). It’s a free service and you just have to call a minimum of 48 hours before you dig, and the locate is good for 10 business days once the paint is on the ground. I know around here, AT&T will charge $250 - $500 for damage to a service drop. Once again free call, free service.
I actually don’t care if you believe me or not. Never lied as you accuse me of. It is your blind devotion to the Apple cult and your lousy reading comprehension that makes you think that. Go get stuffed and it is my sincere wish that your ongoing experience with PG&E is as painful as it can be.
The plumber does, but they want $550 to test the pressure which tells us there's a leak, not where there's a leak. Also, PG&E put a tamper proof seal on the meter so we can't put gas through the line to locate the actual leak with a "sniffer" anymore. PG&E say THEY know where the leak is, but they won't reveal that information. My choices are now
I've decided on #2. But the sniffer guy was off today.
Who are you? Your posts are spot on.
I worked for a natural gas company as well.
I was thinking of that song too!
Whatever the outcome, I highly suggest getting a propane tank for that house out back. I live out in the woods and have a 420 gallon propane tank. We painted it green so it’s not an eyesore (blends in with the vegetation around it) and get it filled once a year. The gas company comes by and fills it. It’s next to the house so not a lot of piping to worry about. I even have a line going to my Weber grill so I don’t have to worry about getting those little 20 pound tanks refilled.
I worked for the union contractors here on Long Island, who refurbished old Gas services or added new installations. Working Underground Foreman.
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