My family bought a new house that we moved to earlier this year. When we did, we were asked by the person who helped us do things inside the house if we wanted to have another gas meter. Its a 1 family converted into 2 family home and theres only 1 of these gas meters. That person said we should get a 2nd gas meter since its a 2 family home.
We paid them $8300 to do the work in the house and an additionally $1000 for them to help us apply and install the 2nd gas meter in the house. The issue here is we were told this would probably take 2-3 months total for everything to be done. Its already 8 months into it and the reason was b/c when they filled out the paperwork and sent it online, it has to do with licensed plumber LAA here in NYC, we found out that it got rejected. Then i gave a call to that nyc number and we were told the earlier application was rejected and we had to apply again. The issue here is the person that we hired to do the work they keep telling us its going to be very soon that we will get the Okay and then get the gas meter and that person will install it for us.
However, i called the nyc number and we were told first time it gets rejected, 2nd time that person we hired to had go to the office physically and cannot do it online b/c it would get rejected. The person we hired said they sent it in and we are pretty sure he did this online as oppose to in person which i found out recently that is not the right way.
So now we are still waiting on this. Does anyone have any advice? We pretty much paid most of the money for him to do the work but its like the person keep on installing etc and we are very frustrated with this issue. We shouldn’t even gotten another gas meter in the 1st place because if we didn’t, we be finished with this issue. But that person said yea if you get it right now, you going to pay an additionaly $1000 but if you want to do it later in the future, then its going to cost you like $3000 or so. Note we already paid them the $8300 to do the converting gas to electric thing.
Are we even allowed to hire someone else to do this? Thus pay someone else to do the rest of the work that this person we pretty much already paid in full whats remaining?
Also im not 100 percent sure if im saying this stuff correctly as im not sure 100 percent. Its my family who asked me to call the phone number online etc to check on this issue.
Also i had called the nyc number and asked if it was true that person who does the work for us even reapply b/c we don’t really believe him. I was told no you can’t check online but u can only check if its been processed or rejected. Thus if it was sent and waiting, we wouldn’t even know if it was sent. They however told us that last week there was an application that was sent for our house and got rejected. I said that person said they applied again within the last 2 weeks so was that the one they rejected? They then said normally any that is applied, it could take up to 2 months for it to be looked at. But wouldn’t that not make sense though b/c the guy we hired wouldn’t reapply until they got the notice last week? I think it got rejected very fast and didn’t wait the 1-2 month process b/c they probably did it electronically and that always get rejected a 2nd time?
So basically you agree to get the second metre so as to be able to rent out the 2nd half ?
I don’t see why it is so expensive working with the one meter now.
Its just a minor change of the pipes to add the second meter.
Oh there may be an expense in TESTING any work done. Perhaps that is where the expense comes from.
[quote=“Pauly01, post:1, topic:701122”]
but its like the person keep on installing etc and we are very frustrated with this issue. [/QOUTE]
STALLING. Delaying. This guy is licensed ? well they will take his license off him.
You can say “we will complain if do not come to fix this !”
[QOUTE] Note we already paid them the $8300 to do the converting gas to electric thing.[/QOUTE]
Better to only pay half, or as you go. This way he has to work to get paid.
At the moment, he has your money without doing the work.
[QOUTE]Are we even allowed to hire someone else to do this?
[/QOUTE]
Yes. but you can’t claim all your money back. You can claim back the bit you over paid, and this may be the money for APPLYING, since he is obviously incapable of applying.
Your family hired an unspecified person (Licensed general contractor? Licensed plumber? Licensed electrician? Unlicensed handyman?) for over $9,000 to do something unspecified (something about adding a second gas meter, but you also mentioned something about “converting gas to electric thing”) in their new house in Brooklyn. The person has apparently not done the work and now you’re asking us what you can do about it. Frankly you haven’t provided enough information to say. If you had a contract with the person, that contract might specify what the person was to do and what deadline there was.
Realistically, you ought to hire an attorney to go over the contract and figure out what can be done. (It may be that the lawyer just needs to send a vaguely threatening letter to the person warning them to do the work.)
And I’d recommend that the lawyer you hire be someone who speaks Russian/Mandarin/Greek/whatever language it is that your family speaks, so that they can talk directly to him or her. I’m guessing that your family doesn’t speak English and that’s why they asked you to get involved. And I’ll bet that whatever language your family speaks, you’ll be able to find a lawyer who is a native speaker of that language.
We are living in the entire 2 bedroom home. We just thought we get a 2nd meter b/c since its a 2 bedroom house, we get a 2nd meter as most homes are like this. Thus 1 family, 1 meter, thus 2 family, 2 meter etc.
Yea we pretty much paid the majority of everything. However the $8300 work that he did for us, he already did that. Its just this $1000 the rest of the work that basically nothing is happening and no progress is being made.
I would like to know if anyone else is familiar with this as some of you aren’t sure what im saying. Im confused as well a bit as they are tellilng me what to say etc.
Typically the city would require a pressure test. Heres one city’s guidelines. Very straight forward. This test is typically required on vacant houses that get rented. The utility won’t install the meter until the test is done.
There probably is bureaucratic red tape in getting a second meter approved. They have to apply for a permit. This should be a very routine plumbing job. I can’t imagine any competent plumber needing more than 1 or at most 2 days. Then the work has to be inspected and passed.
I had a gas line run for my new dryer last Nov. Took the plumber 2 1/2 hours. Last week, the Same plumber ran a line directly off my meter to my new generator. That took 4 hours.
My generator job required coming directly off the meter with old fashioned black pipe. The plumber had to go back to his shop to cut and thread several lengths of pipe. Costing me an extra hour labor. Plumbers rarely use black pipe any more.
In that previous thread, you said that the building department told you to call a licensed master plumber to submit an LAA (Limited Alteration Application). Did you ever call a licensed plumber?
Its a Duplex ? its divided in half, basically . eg left right, or top bottom.
One way to go is to not install the 2nd meter.
Suppose you live in one half , when your children leave, and rent out the other half.
You are entitled to charge rent which includes the price of gas.
They will use just about the same amount of gas as you ! Suppose they run their heater a lot and make the place hot ? you don’t need to run your heater so much!
And if they don’t use their heater, you have to use your heater more, and send up your gas bill… ! They suck heat out of your half and you pay to heat their place ! SO there is no big problem in having only one gas meter.
Okay looking for some advice on this as i contacted the phone number again and we had questions.
We asked them if that person we hired, if they don’t do the remaining work with the gas meter, could we hire someone else to do it. This would mean of course we going to pay more money as we going to have someone else take over the rest of the work but again its something very easy for them to do. Basically the person we hired, they are damn lazy about doing this stuff. The person on the phone mentioned that we wouldn’t be able to do this. This wouldn’t make sense a bit b/c what if the person we hired… let say they no longer work anymore or if something happened. Then we wouldn’t be able to have someone take it over and finish this? That wouldn’t make any sense. I didn’t ask them this though as that didn’t came up when asking him questions.
I then asked okay so if we were to cancel the rest of this such as cancel the new gas meter, could we do this. They said we could but this require the person we hired to fill out a form to cancel it. I said how long would that take and they said a while… maybe a few months but that would work.
The thing is the person who we hired they basically told us they not going to finish the work with the gas meter. Again this is the simplest part of the work. They did said they would help us finish the job by having someone else do it. First off… we told them we called the number and said this wouldn’t be allowed but of course they said don’t worry about it. So as of the moment, we have no clue whats going on and its nothing more than a delay. This shoudl have been done fully back in my or june at the latest. I don’t even know what to say.
This home is a 2 family home. It use to be 1 family but converted into 2. It has a downstairs and upstairs.
We found out the reason why it got rejected in the first place was b/c the person we hired, they filled out the form wrong… either they filled something wrong or they left something out which is why it got rejected for the second meter. Then i found out they applied again and got rejected when i called the office from checking nyc.gov. The thing they told us was if it got rejected the first time, the 2nd time they reapply… it has to be done in person at the office and not on the computer.
So we asked the person we hired, did you apply 2nd time online or at the office b/c we found out it has to be done in person. They didnt even answer our question and say dont worry about it we take care of it. So basically they reapplied online on the computer which is why 2nd time got rejected so fast.
So obviously right now we are upset what is taking so long until i called and found out they applying or reapplying it incorrectly and dont even want to fix this issue up.
yes it is legally set up at as a 2 family home. If i say its 2 family home… what did you assume i meant? If it wasn’t legally set as 2 family home, i would have said 1 family home.
You mean the LAA phone number? Yes i did. Or do u mean the person we hired? Because yes we did as well as i mentioned the details.
I’ll repeat my question. You were told to call a licensed master plumber (or perhaps you were told to call a LICENSED MASTER PLUMMBER). So is the person you hired a licensed (master) plumber? It seems a simple enough question, but with you, getting answers is like pulling teeth.