Hi @katiebelcher_ and thanks for posting about this. 

It’s great to hear about you getting a heat pump. We have lots of heat pump members here on the forum as we ran a few trials where they were fitted. Are you part of a trial?

Please see this topic which outlines what you need to get done with removing a gas meter and supply:

If you’re confident the gas supply has been disconnected and removed (not just capped), you shouldn’t be paying a standing charge. If you have, it should be refunded. Please reach out to our Supply team to discuss. 

Hi Tim,

In the article you linked to 'Thinking about removing your gas supply?' it outlines the work we had done by Ovo which cost about £100 which was removal of the meter and capping the pipes (please see attached pictures). This is what I understood to be disconnected which is what the article implies also. Can you advise if there is anything else we need to do?

We have called Ovo several times, some people believe that they can set about a process whereby the standing charge is remove, one person said that the standing charge is there to deter people from stealing gas and was for our own safety! Another suggested that we might have to have the pipework under the house ripped up to be removed from the gas list.  

People want to help but we are losing faith that anyone has been trained on how to advise on this. 

Hiya!

I’m Blastoise186, one of the forum volunteers. Just so you’re aware, I’m not allowed to access your account or make any changes myself.

Personally, I’m pretty confident that since there’s no sign of a gas meter there and what seems like a permanent seal… Your supply should be disconnected. You are eligible to have all standing charges refunded from the date that the supply was terminated and the meter removed - as well as have the gas side of your account completely terminated once this is resolved.

I’d probably suggest trying the complaint process at https://ovoenergy.com/feedback as that’ll give you a good chance of a resolution that works for you. Hope this helps!

There’s no need to rip out literally all the remaining pipework though. You do have that option if you really want to go down that route, but usually having the supply disconnected, meter removed and a permanent seal in the form of capping off the pipes is enough.

In the article you linked to 'Thinking about removing your gas supply?' it outlines the work we had done by Ovo which cost about £100 which was removal of the meter and capping the pipes (please see attached pictures). This is what I understood to be disconnected which is what the article implies also. Can you advise if there is anything else we need to do?

 

 

Hi @katiebelcher_ and thanks for the reply and photos. 

What is a 'capped meter'?

This does not refer to a disconnection or dead supply. A capped meter refers to a gas supply that has been cut-off by inserting some sort of physical block into the ECV (Emergency Cutout Valve) or pipework leading to the meter.

Why are gas meters capped?

Meters can be capped for a number of reasons:

• Unsafe situations, e.g. a leak on the meter that can't be fixed
• Vacant properties, e.g. a property's been unoccupied for some time the electricity and gas supplies will be disconnected / capped
• Theft of gas, e.g. a customer has tampered with their gas meter
• Collections, e.g. customer refuses to pay
• Installations, e.g. during a reposition an engineer may cap the meter once they have exchanged it to ensure there is no risk of gas escape before the member gets a gas safety engineer to connect the meter back up to their boiler

In your case, the meter is gone, so you shouldn’t be paying standing charges. 

Next steps once the meter is removed:  our advisor should request from our back office a process called a 'voluntary withdrawal', which removes the supply on Xoserve (the national gas database). 

The gas transporter will also check with the customer 6-12 months from becoming supplier-less to see if they have any need for gas at the property. But either way from the date the supply is removed, those standing charges will stop. 

Are you able to link this topic in an online chat? If you don’t have any luck, I’ll bring in the Forum_Support team. 

Thank you for your reply, I am encouraged by what you have said and hopefully we will be able to get this sorted. It's good to have the option of the complaints process, thanks for the link.