Help - In April of this year a new gas meter was fitted, not at my instigation, just because they wanted to change it, I did not think the other one has that old. Anyway, someone from United Utilities came to change the meter and in doing so had to knock off the gas. Upstairs in my bedroom I have housed the Gas Boiler for my central heating and water, albeit quite an old Boiler, it has never given my any problems, apart from having to light the pilot manually. The Boiler was on at the time the man came to knock the gas off - After he had fitted the gas meter, he went upstairs and he told me he could not light the pilot manually. This left me with a problem as I am not technical enough to light it, bearing in mind it is not easy to light. As I had such a lot of things going on in the household, healthwise etc. I live alone, with an exchange student who is from Japan. In order to have plenty of water for showers etc. I was able to use my electric water tank.

Today, having seen my student back on the plane to Japan, I thought I had better get some household matters sorted.

I contacted a Gas Fitter, he came out to try and light the pilot and no joy. He believed that the dust etc from putting the new meter in had caused damage to a valve. I am now left with no Gas Boiler working!!!

I rang British Gas and also spoke today to someone from Un Utilities and was told that often having a new meter fitted highlights boiler problems through wear and tear.In May I received a letter from British Gas headed Important News about your Boiler - We have been informed by your manufacturer that they`ve stopped making some of the spare parts for your boiler. etc etc.etc. Next to last paragraph "so if you think it might be worth replacing your boiler .....please call ....."

I may be paranoid, but I do wonder, if houses are targeted to have new gas meters fitted where they have old gas boilers so people have to have new ones!!!! I wonder.......

The question is how can I get this sorted out and also "If it had not been fitted my boiler would now still be working". This is going to incur a high cost of which I am not financially covered for at the present time for the coming winter!! What are the legalities here????

Paris J

The gas/electric meter operator has a responsibility to make sure your meters are operating correctly and not posing a risk to health and safety. Each meter is given a life expectancy and when this date nears the meters will be inspected and can be replaced expecially if there are newer models available that do a better job or make things easier for the meter oeprater, meter reader and supplier. REMEMBER you do not own the meter, it belongs to the meter operator.

As for the boiler if memory serves the pilot light should light on its own without outside intervention, the fact that you have been doing this manually for some time tells me that there has been a fault for sometime, and in all honesty quite a dangerous one as there appears to have been the possibility that the pilot light could extinguish and the supply of gas running through it would continue. If the piulot light was working correctly in these ciurcumstances it would simply re-light and you would be none the wiser.

Your supplier will not being using these events to take "advantage" of you, there are many polices and organisations in place to prevent such a thing and make it compeltely fool hardy for an establish organisation to even attempt. Even more so with the advent of the internet where infomation ca be pulled up in a moment on any and all subjects.

Simply put, your boiler has been limping along for some time now and has finally given up the fight. Its time to replace it with a new one. Incidently a new boiler will be more effieicint and use less gas to the do the same job the old one did so in the longer term you should see a reduction in your gas consumption.

If the engineer had not fitted the new meter and there was a gas leak as a result that caused an injury or worse would you then be seeking an anexplanation as to why this meter wasn't checked/replaced earlier?

As for legalities, the meter operator has acted in excactly the manner they should have in this matter. You may be able to claim on your household insurance for the installation of a new boiler, if not i would take up any offer your supplier may be able to offer you.