Who pays for broken gas pipes?

February 17, 2009 6:33 PM

I live in Sydney and have a gas leak. We've had someone out and they said it is in the junction box or something. This faulty junction box is on my property and will cost close to $5000 to fix. Is AGL (the gas company) responsible for paying for this or am I?

I know that certain things on my property are the resposibility of the gas company e.g. the gas meter. I'm just not sure aout the actual lines and pipes themselves.

Do the lines and pipes for services become the responsibility of the property owner when they are on your land?

posted by Man_in_staysis to home & garden (6 comments total)

$5000? What, is it buried in concrete under the centre of your house? Any chance of a second opinion?

I think the rule generally is that everything up to and including the meter is AGL's problem; anything after that (inside the property) is your issue. If there's a continuing leak, AGL's public safety requirement will probably have them close and lock the meter until the leak is fixed.

However, a quick call to AGL will sort this out; a question along the lines of "where does your responsibility to repair equipment on my property stop?"
posted by 5MeoCMP at 6:46 PM on February 17

I rang them and you are correct. Anything up to the meter is the responsibility of AGL.

I was anticipating a fight with them hence my question on here searching for ammunition.
posted by Man_in_staysis at 7:33 PM on February 17

Still, $5000 -- that's a whole lot of dosh for a gas leak. I wouldn't be surprised if the quote you got was from someone who didn't want the job, and quoted a ludicrous amount to put you off. Really, get a second quote.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 8:02 PM on February 17

Will make any difference that I am part of a Strata Scheme with a private road and the leak is 100m down the road?
posted by Man_in_staysis at 8:07 PM on February 17

Honestly, I don't know; how complex is this junction box thingy? (note: not a plumber or gasfitter, but that's a term that I've only heard applied to electrical items)

I'd only expect a repair to be that expensive if:

(a) the leak is inaccessible (as in, involves digging a 100m trench to really determine the location)
(b) the junction thingy is very complex and must be completely replaced.

I'd say that, unless it's a life-or-death kind of gas leak, and the one quote you already have is from the only person in Sydney who can fix this, then a second quote is well worth getting.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 8:25 PM on February 17

Can't speak for other places besides where I live, but at least in the US, the utility is indeed responsible for the wires/pipes/whatnot up to the "point of demarcation". This normally would be your meter.

But as you say, you have a unique situation. Did you have your gas line installed, or was it there when you moved in? Can you get hold of the documents regarding the installation? Again, this is US based, but there are some situations where a customer wants some utility installed at their house, and the utility doesn't want to spend the money to do it. The deal usually is that the customer pays for the installation, and then the utility takes over the maintenance.

(Gas leaks- at my house, we had a gas leak in our main for unknown years. I'd be mowing the lawn, and notice a brown spot that was growing, but at a glacial pace. I thought nothing of it. Figured it was the vagaries of lawn behavior, or ants or something. Years go by, the brown spot is maybe 5 square feet. Some jerk walking their dog on our lawn at midnight on Saturday night gets a whiff of gas and starts ringing doorbells. Drama queen neighbor calls 911. I arrive home shortly later, half buzzed, to see a battalion of fire and police vehicles at the building. A fireman is pacing around with some kind of detector that's not doing anything. No gas can be smelled, except for the slightest whisp here and there. Just the tiniest suggestion of a gas smell. The fireman says "I can't find anything with this thing, better safe than sorry" and hammers a stake in the brown spot. Thus begins the ridiculous year long adventure with the gas company. They come out and do an emergency repair that night, shutting off our gas in the process. And they can't start it back up until everyone's home. Then a few days later, they come back and do the full repair, same deal. Then a couple weeks later, they show up at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon and proclaim that they need to again shut off the gas to replace the meter as some kind of planned maintenance. A YEAR later, they finally return to redo the landscaping they tore up.

During the one repair, they dug their hole and located the old line. The guy in the hole says "throw down the pliers!" He takes the pliers and the back of a shovel, and smashes the copper line flat. He cuts the line, folds the end over and again smashes it with the pliers. Then they go to lunch, smashed line hissing gas out.

My point is, unless you can hear hissing and it just stinks with gas, you have time to get your ducks in a row before getting the repair done.)
posted by gjc at 6:08 AM on February 18