Question about city gas lines

Submitted by ChillOutMetzy t3_119ke4q in rva

Hey y’all, Wanted to see if anyone knew what may be going on with my friend’s gas situation, and what course of action should be taken. She bought a house on the Henrico/Richmond border about a year ago. She thought her hvac system was electric, but just discovered it is natural gas. She has been using this for the whole year and has not received a bill. There have been letters arriving at the house addressed to other names, but she hasn’t opened them.

Who is the Richmond natural gas management company, and what amount of responsibility do you think they’re going to try to pin on her? I personally think she shouldn’t be responsible for the bills because she (1)wasn’t aware, (2)never asked for the service to be on, and (3)never received any communication addressed to her about the service from the city. But- I don’t have city gas so I also don’t know nothin about nothin.

What do y’all think?

EDIT- thanks for the outside perspective everyone. I think we both didn’t think much about the human aspect so I appreciate that being brought up… a lot. :p I let her know what y’all shared and she also found it very helpful.

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mo_bacon t1_j9mof3m wrote

The city of Richmond is the gas utility. Of course your friend should pay the bills, they still used the gas. Would they have gone without heat or hot water otherwise? Should the old owners pay the bills? It's this the AITA subreddit?

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1975hh3 t1_j9n0m9c wrote

Haha I thought the same thing. Perfect for AITA.

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ChillOutMetzy OP t1_j9ohk23 wrote

I’m sure seeing the bills and realizing the impact they had, (rather than thinking she was doing alright with her electric bill), would have impacted her heat and air use.

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augie_wartooth t1_j9mq615 wrote

She used the gas, so she is responsible for it. If she doesn’t pay it, she saddles the former account holder with the balance and that sucks. She never asked for the service to be put in her name, but if it were off, she’d have no heat. (How someone could not know what kind of heat they have in a house they BOUGHT is pretty incredible to me.) It’s wild to me that you or she could think there’s any other answer besides “pay the outstanding bills for the service I used and get the account switched to my name.”

If there was an outstanding balance when she closed on the house, nothing before that date is her responsibility. After that, though, it is.

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manintheyellowhat t1_j9nccwz wrote

Yeah, the whole “she didn’t know/ask for the service” excuse really doesn’t work in this scenario. You own the house, take some responsibility for the systems you purchased.

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-B001- t1_j9oek5p wrote

The house was magically heated 😜

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ChillOutMetzy OP t1_j9oi27x wrote

Lol I don’t think it’s that far fetched to believe your hvac system is powered by electric.

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-B001- t1_j9old9q wrote

Yea, I mean that's true. Didn't mean to be, well, mean, lol.

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gdtrfb804 t1_j9mohqp wrote

The City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities (Richmond Gasworks) is the service provider.

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ChillOutMetzy OP t1_j9oi662 wrote

Ty. I’ll let her know so she can get in contact with them asap.

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JeffRVA t1_j9mqi7z wrote

If it’s anything like what I went through with my old house when I sold it, the city never closed out the previous owner’s account and is still billing them for the new owner’s usage. Meanwhile they’re going through multiple layers of hell trying to get Richmond Gas Works to close the account out and stop billing them. But since the new owner set up an account the bills have to go somewhere.

Your friend needs to call them and try to get it straight or like someone else mentioned on another recent post go in-person to their local customer service center. Be prepare her to want to scream and be more frustrated than she’s ever been at their utter incompetence.

All that being said, it sounds like there was some major miscommunication when she closed on the house about utilities. Is she actually in Henrico or Richmond? If it’s the former that might be part of the misunderstanding as all Henrico natural gas users are serviced by Richmond Gas Works.

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ChillOutMetzy OP t1_j9oi8qy wrote

This is a helpful perspective, thanks. She is in henrico by less than a half mile.

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lemonartichoke t1_j9osnic wrote

Realtors will go “oh that’s a heat pump” a lot, when it actually isn’t.

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Typical_Hyena t1_j9pk557 wrote

I'm going on nearly 2 years to sort out our water/trash bill with the city after we moved- they confirmed in writing multiple times that we had requested shutoff on X date and that we shouldn't have been billed for the next 4 months when we didn't live there, but the bill wasn't adjusted. They tried to take my tax refund last year, I contested it, they gave me my refund but are STILL sending me bills. I'm gearing up for the fight again this year now that I have filed. If it was less than $100 I would just let them take my money so I could move on...

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JeffRVA t1_j9poin0 wrote

In my case I finally reached out to the city councilman's office for the district I work in (I lived in Henrico) and he put my in contact with the mayor's office. I ended up exchanging emails with what appeared to be some fairly high up folks and then the head of DPU herself. And that's when it finally got resolved. Had it not been I was about to go to the news media and had I found it sooner I also would have filed a complaint with the SCC:

https://scc.virginia.gov/pages/Utility-Complaints

Might be something to consider in your case.

By comparison, when I called Henrico DPU to close out my trash/water/sewer I made one phone call. They sent me a final bill, I paid said final bill, and never heard another word from them.

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Typical_Hyena t1_j9pqg4u wrote

Thanks for the tip! I will definitely consider this option going forward.

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