Motherpussbucket gas company (legal WAGs requested)

We moved into a house last October with a one year lease. I called all the utilities and had the services turned on. All were accommodating, except the furshlugginer gas company. We have two 100 gallon propane tanks (or LPG, I’m not sure), and the only gas appliances we have are the furnace and the clothes dryer. When I called the gas company, they said I had to pay a $100 deposit before they could sell me gas. I told them none of the other utilities required a deposit, but they said all rentals have to pay the deposit regardless. I told them I would pay cash, and argued that I since wanted no credit from them, they were holding no risk which had to be guaranteed, and I wasn’t going to pay the deposit. They said fine, they wouldn’t deliver gas unless I paid the deposit.

You would think I was over a barrel, but I had a ace in the hole. In addition to the gas furnace, the house has a very nice wood pellet stove. I bought 4 tons of wood pellets, stashed them in the crawlspace, and stayed toasty warm all winter. The propane tanks registered 40% full when we moved in (about 80 gallons), and since we are now only using it for the clothes dryer, I figure that will last about 20 years. I smugly thought the little guy had won this round.

Not so fast. Today I got a letter saying that if I didn’t pay the deposit (for non-existent gas deliveries), they would come out and shut off the gas tanks. This deprives me of access to gas that has already been paid for. The gas company owns the gas tanks, and I am leaning toward telling them to come and get them, but it burns me up that they will get back about $150 dollars worth of gas that has already been paid for. I f they take it, I swear to god I will take them to small claims court for the value of that gas.

What are my chances? Any other alternatives for sticking it to the Man?

This part sounds like a losing strategy, since you weren’t the one who paid for the gas in the tanks. Unless you paid for the gas when you moved in?

Who owns the tanks? Find out. Sometimes the property owner owns them, sometimes not. We pay $50 a year to the propane company for tank rental, but we could buy the tanks if we wanted to. If the property owner owns the tanks, the gas company needs to back off.

I think the gas company is being pissy with you. Why do they care about a deposit if you’re not using their product? I’m surprised they aren’t asking for a tank rental fee instead of a “deposit”.

The point is, I have more of a claim on the gas than they do. It was part of the premises when I moved in.

I imagine the previous owners paid a deposit, no?

If not, nm. If so (and they didn’t get it back when they moved), then why should you pay them more?

I’m sorta playing devil’s advocate (Judge Judy) here.

The gas is in their tank. You didn’t pay for it. It’s a toss-up as to who has the most right to the gas. They may have paid the previous tenant for the unused gas (doubtful, but possible).

You don’t own the tank or the gas. Saying that you have the right to do what you want with it because it’s on property you’re leasing – I don’t know if that’s gonna fly.

I’m looking for an analogy, but gas is so – insubstantial. :slight_smile: I rented a house once where the owner had left various personal items in the basement. I didn’t feel that I had any right to use them.

Or how about this? There are power lines hooked up to your house. Do you have the right to use them, say, for clotheslines or jump ropes?

I know. It’s not anywhere near the same thing.

I would have just paid the deposit. I’m surprised the other utilities didn’t ask for one. Anyway, good luck. :slight_smile:

It is possible that the gas company did credit the previous tenants for the amount of gas they didn’t use. What are you going to do if this is the case, and the gas company comes after you for theft? I also do not understand why you didn’t pay a deposit, (Especially since you’d likely get most if not all of the deposit back when you moved.) all the utilities around here require one, which at least doubles the cost of renting a house initially.

Have you been paying a rental fee on the tanks? If I were you, I would talk to the person you lease the house from. If the tanks are already paid for, then I can’t see the gas company having any right to come onto your property to cut off tanks that don’t belong to them. If, however, the tanks still belong to the gas company and the house owner has been paying the fee as part of the service to you, they can most likely turn off the gas and possibly even remove the tanks.

Talk to your leasing agent. Monday.

Then there is the thought that if the tanks are removed, will they charge to re-install them? I’d think that would make your landlord very unhappy with you. I would find out whether the tanks are owned by the gas company or by the landlord for sure ASAP.

In my area, the gas company owns the tanks and can do whatever they want with them. But once the gas was delivered and paid for, it belongs to the homeowner. When you bought the home, you acquired ownership of the gas. So if they remove the tanks they have to pay you for the gas.

The situation is exactly the same as if you found a gas company that would deal with you on your terms. You would call the old gas supplier and tell them to remove their tanks. They wouyld pay you for the remaining gas when they haul the tanks away. Your Public Utilities Commission can probably help you out here.

That is my position as well. If I moved into the house and found some bags of wood pellets in the basement, I would have no hesitation in using them, or defending them from someone who tried to take them…

In the OP you say the gas has already been paid for? How do you know this? Did you pay for it? Did the previous owner pay for it?

Yes, because that is how the gas delivery company works. They won’t deliver gas without a deposit, and they bill you on delivery, not after you use it. So either way, the gas is paid for already.

UNLESS the previous tenant already got their deposit back, and a refund or credit for the gas they didn’t use, which isn’t unlikely. If that is so, then the gas may legally belong to the gas company.

Name one fuel company (gasoline, fuel oil or LP gas) that buys back product they have already sold; I would say they would want to avoid that at all costs, from a contamination standpoint, as well as a profit motive. I would say that is highly unlikely, as the gas company seems uninterested in billing me for the gas in the tank, and has been for the past seven months. They just want a deposit; I can only imagine it is a fanatical devotion to company policy.

If it is a refundable deposit, it sounds like a lot of unnecessary histrionics. Pay the 100 clams, get a receipt, don’t order any more gas for 20 years, and then consider it found money when you get it back.

Going on the idea that the tanks belong to the company, it is possible that they gave credit to the customer when they moved, knowing that customer would be using their services elsewhere, or gave back the deposit (which might be considered in this case as a “pre-purchase” type thing as in, minimum purchase is $100) when the previous tenant moved. At the least, I wouldn’t let the tanks be removed, because I daresay the gas company will charge the landlord a fee to put them back for the next tenant when you move.

But make sure you get the interest on that deposit. That’s the deposit scam. Many companies take *your * money and invest it–and then keep the proceeds! Sure, you get your deposit back but they’ve made money off it.

I say phooey on that. I’m not a bank!

I fucking hate fucking natural gas companies. Nevermind my nearly five-year-struggle with my last gas company; I just moved into a new house, different city, and it’s the same fucking story with the local gas company. First they wouldn’t set up an account without a credit check. Then the same credit that got me my house loan wasn’t apparently good enough to get $150 worth of credit towards opening an account. The stove here is old, and when I replace it with an electric stove, I will have NO gas appliances and will oh-so-happily tell the gas company to go inhale some of their own product. So I empathize. Let’s plot:

a) buy some smaller tanks
b) transfer the gas into the smaller tanks
c) FORCE gas company to REMOVE their tanks from your property
d) hook up smaller tanks
e) remove smaller tanks prior to house inspection before selling :slight_smile:

…or, for a more petty revenge, call the gas company every day saying you smell gas. They are required to come out and check it out, even if they know you’re full of it.

You can complain to your Public Utilities Commission, but keep in mind that there is probably some underlying regulatory rule that allows them to do what they are doing. Each and every charge on a gas bill has to be approved by the PUC.