Gas Supply Capped Off?

[Mumofoneandanotherontheway]

We live in a HA property & I received a text yesterday evening to say they’ve booked a gas safety check for today between 12-5, unfortunately that was short notice and I had a few errands so couldn’t make the appointment.
Engineer turned up at 215pm and I explained the above to him (he seemed very moody), he said I needed to have the appointment as it’s been set. Told him it was short notice and I was in the middle of getting ready to pop out.
He went away, I then saw on my cctv camera that he then came back 1hour later, went straight to the gas meter and was there for 3minutes before getting back into his van and leaving.
I noticed all this at 630pm when going to make dinner and there was no gas. Checked the meter and there’s a sign there to say ‘Danger do not use’
He’s not notified us or left a note in my post box, literally went straight to his van after going to my gas meter and drove off.

Contact HA about this and they said there is nothing they can do until tomorrow, also contacted the company he came from and they said the same! I’m absolutely fuming, I’ve got 3young kids under 5 - 1 of which is 2m old. Could not bath any of them this evening or cook there meals!
Where do I stand with this?
Thank you for reading if you’ve got this far

Have they got their gas safety check policy on their website?, the company I work for are subcontractors for a council, we have to make 3 visits before legal proceedings commence to cap the gas off

He is legally obliged to cap the gas if he finds something dangerous, he could be very heavily fined if he left an unsafe gas supply in tact. He was only following the law.

Yes but he should have given you a notice explaining he’d done this! And surely he should have immediately advised the HA of the emergency situation, and then they could have spoke with you.

Grr spoken of course!

My company have contracts with several housing associations. If your gas safety check is overdue then some HA will take this course of action. The fact that he left and come back suggests that he was told to cap the supply.

Our gas safety check isn’t actually due until July. But what I don’t understand is if that’s the action he was required to take then why not let us know? No one is taking responsibility for the capping of the gas nor our HA or the contractor. I honestly believe he did this out of spite because I refused for the appointment to go ahead. But sending us out a text at 630pm the evening before the appointment is hardly enough notice.

It wil have been capped if it was unsafe or suspected unsafe. Just rebook the check & if all is well it will be switched back on?

Hi all, thank you for your responses. So since morning I’ve been back and forth and been told it was capped because they did not get access and they’ve sent out 3 letters to us ‘apparently’. I’ve been in touch with my local MP and also the CE of the HA and they have made sure the gas is uncapped today. The lady from the CE office did say they normally have a procedure of 3 attempts before taking this step, however on this occasion the contractor has bypassed and done it on the first attempt.
Where do I stand with this? Of course once they have it back on this evening I will definitely be putting in a formal complaint. 3 young kids under 5 and we’ve had no gas or hot water since 330 yesterday. We’ve had to get meals from outside. I’ve had to go to neighbours to wash babies bottles, boil water for her feeds & give my kids a bath there.

Do you not have an immersion heater?

Do you not have a kettle? It wouldn't hurt your children to go without a bath for one day. I think your mistake was thinking that the gas safety check was optional. I get that it is annoying to have limited notice, but unless there was something vital you needed to do, you should have rearranged to be there, imo. (I'm a Council tenant).

I had pest control coming the same time he turned up, had he come later on or earlier I would have gladly let him in. Pest control called me to say they will be there between 2:30-3:15, gas guy turned up at 2:15, they both would have had to be in the kitchen at the same time & with a new born & being asthmatic I wouldn’t have wanted to many people in my home at the same time. I always have my gas safety check on time never have I rearranged or cancelled. I called to cancel the appointment yesterday with them anyway as I also had mine & babies 8week review at the doctors surgery at 4, so wasn’t sure what time the gas guy was going to turn up. Also no they couldn’t go without having a bath, yesterday being so hot they were very sticky & sweaty! I have a kettle but as I descale i refuse to boil babies water in there & always boil it on the gas in a steel pan. Just what I’ve always done with all 3 of my children. HA have clearly outlined it should not have been capped off

21flora no we don’t

Its annoying but one day in the middleof summer isn't the end of the world. Better that than a gas explosion from unsafety. There was one recently Tragic.

It was short notice, but instead to taking umbrage, you actually could have let the guy in. Explained that Pest Control were also coming and encouraged him to be quick.

He was in the wrong to cap your supply, there could have been a miscommunication somewhere at his end.

Sounds like its all being sorted now.

Hannahcolobus we have not received a single letter from them. I’m not one of those people who doesn’t let them in, I rather stay on top of things especially like something like gas which can be very dangerous if something goes wrong. I clearly said to him I will call the contractor tomorrow morning and arrange a date for later this week or next when ever the next available appointment is. They haven’t sent any letters as our deadline isn’t until end of July.
But I understand what you mean and they have no other choice than to cap if they didn’t get access but we’re not on the deadline yet.
Also i wonder what his reason was to come back an hour later cap it and not let us know.

So I’ve just had him out half an hour ago, he came to the door acting as if he’s never been here before. I said you was here yesterday and capped my supply off, he completely denied it and said you said you can’t make it so I went. I said okay, so you didn’t cap the gas supply, he again said no. I then told him I saw him in the cctv camera come back an hour later to cap it off and that he’s lying! He then said he was told to do so from the office and he felt guilty about it! I asked him why he didn’t inform us he was capping it off especially when he could have just rung the bell to see if we was in or even left a note through the post box - he completely went silent and didn’t know what to say.
I’m so annoyed he lied to my face I will be getting to the bottom of this!