Question about cooking gas in Chicago? (apartment, renters, condo)

[naopal]

Hi,

I'm wondering if someone could help me answer a few questions regarding Peoples Gas? I moved into a new apartment at the beginning of January and was told by my apartment to call Peoples Gas to put the cooking gas in my name. At that time, the cooking gas in apartment (stove and oven) was on - it is still currently on.

I called People's Gas to request that the cooking gas be put in my name and they said they would need to send someone to turn on the gas and access the gas meter. I told them that the cooking gas was already on in my apartment and I just needed to put it in my name, but they insisted that it was not on and that it would need to be turned on. I'm thinking, "Okay...I've already use the stove and oven to cook, but if you say it's off, then it's off."

It has taken weeks to get an appointment, considering that I travel for work and their availability is sometimes weeks away. Someone came out today, but he didn't have access to the gas meter, so now I'll need to make another point - most likely two weeks out (grr!).

My questions are:

1. Why is Peoples Gas insisting that my cooking gas is off, when it's actually on?
2. Am I currently using free cooking gas since I do not yet have a gas meter to read my usage? Am I being charged? I'm so confused!

Thanks in advance for any insight. I'm originally from Dallas, and the idea of cooking gas and how it's set up is very foreign to me.

[chet everett]

The meter probably is remote from the actual shut off. This is not unheard of. The last reading that the previous owner was responsible for will be charged to them and your service will pick up after that. Gas is never "free".

[pidgeon92]

When someone moves out of an apartment, they need to call the utilities to stop service. The utilities will then do a final meter reading, and send a final invoice. Peoples Gas will shut off gas service when they do that final reading (Com Ed does not shut off electricity when they do the final reading). It sounds like the prior tenant failed to get the service terminated. It is your responsibility to get the service into your name, and get the serviceperson to the gas meter. I suggest you talk to your landlord and see if they will be willing to let the Peoples Gas personnel in when your appointment is scheduled. Alternately, you might have a neighbor in the building who would be able to do this for you.

Make sure you know where your meter is. I owned a 21-unit building for 20 years in Chicago, and the meters for each apartment were located in 5 different basements.

[ToriaT]

I would not worry about it as long as it gets fixes. Cooking gas is really cheap.

[via chicago]

When I moved there was probably a month or two period before I got around to transferring gas into my name (yes, Im lazy). Gas was on the whole time. Eventually called them up and they simply transferred the account into my name. I told them I had been there for a couple months and their response was "thats ok, we can just start billing from today forward."

In other words, it was pretty painless and no on-site visit required.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by via chicago

When I moved there was probably a month or two period before I got around to transferring gas into my name (yes, Im lazy). Gas was on the whole time. Eventually called them up and they simply transferred the account into my name. I told them I had been there for a couple months and their response was "thats ok, we can just start billing from today forward."

In other words, it was pretty painless and no on-site visit required.

This is typical.

They more than likely just want to do a meter read and charge you a fee for their visit. I'm closing on a condo tomorrow and I know the gas is still on in the unit, but they're INSISTING on coming out.

[UC18]

It's funny to see you use the phrase "cooking gas" eight or nine times and describe it as something with which you are unfamiliar. It's just natural gas. Your furnace and water heater probably also run on it, and probably did at your place in Dallas, too.

[Lifelong Chicagoan]

Originally Posted by UC18

It's funny to see you use the phrase "cooking gas" eight or nine times and describe it as something with which you are unfamiliar. It's just natural gas. Your furnace and water heater probably also run on it, and probably did at your place in Dallas, too.

Not to nitpick or start and argument, but it's possible the OP lived (rented) in a building with electric appliances and heat and never dealt with a furnace or water heater.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Lifelong Chicagoan

Not to nitpick or start and argument, but it's possible the OP lived (rented) in a building with electric appliances and heat and never dealt with a furnace or water heater.

Many older buildings, even when gas is the fuel used for heating, take advantage of the fact that larger shared heating plant is more cost effective than providing each unit with separate furnace or boiler / hot water heater.

Though the current preference of tenants seems to be toward having their own fully controlled infrastructure at one time renters were happy to let the landlord / building engineer concern themselves with such things.

[squishy506]

OP probably has radiators and only uses gas for the range. Many PMs call this "cooking gas" in the lease and ads.
Some older people call electricity bills the "light bill." We all know what they're talking about.

OP, I suggest you confirm your legal address in case People's Gas is looking at a completely different unit and telling you service is off. Once I rented a place here, and the lease had the wrong building address, but the right unit number. Transferring utilities was a pain until I realized the PM's mistake.

On occasion, I have seen pilots still lit when service was terminated. I work in property management and remember seeing fireplace pilots still lit and usable when gas in the rest of the unit was off. I don't know if this was something specific to the fireplaces we had at the community, but it could also explain why People's Gas thinks your service is off.

You may want to try telling them that the PM has service transferring in their name automatically when a tenant schedules a stop service request. The gas company in Las Vegas offers an automatic transfer to avoid these service calls, so I imagine it's available in Chicago, too. The PM specifically told you to transfer it to your name, not turn it on, which leads me to believe they have this agreement with People's Gas.