National Grid - Commercial Accounts for Residential Units?
I saw an earlier Forum post about National Grid insisting that a four-story single family home had to open a commercial account to get gas service. Our four-unit condominium experienced a variation on this theme, and I’d be grateful if anyone can shed some further light on this. Our condo recently changed banks, and when…
I saw an earlier Forum post about National Grid insisting that a four-story single family home had to open a commercial account to get gas service. Our four-unit condominium experienced a variation on this theme, and I’d be grateful if anyone can shed some further light on this.
Our condo recently changed banks, and when we contacted National Grid to update the bank info for automatic billing, they insisted that while we had been considered a residential account before, we were now considered a commercial account. They also charged us a $500+ “security” deposit, which they said we’d get back when we closed the account. Now, short of some disaster that burned the building to the ground, I can’t imagine a situation where we’d ever close the account. When we balked at paying the security deposit, they added it as a “late payment” on our bill, and then threatened to shut off the gas if we didn’t pay. (Actually, they threatened to “notify [our] tenants” of an impending gas shut-down. Do they not understand the concept of a condominium? And that we don’t have tenants?)
This just seems wrong on so many levels. I can understand that a four-unit rental building would be considered commercial real estate, but four condominiums is not the same thing — this is a building that consists of four separate single-family homes. We just happen to share a common water heater, and a common boiler to heat the common hallways. More to the point, this is not a new account. We’ve had an account with National Grid (formerly Keyspan) for many years, obviously. Finally, how are they allowed to consider a newly-assessed security deposit as a late payment?
Anyone else have a similar experience? And is there any other gas service provider in Brooklyn, or are we stuck with National Grid?
Call back and tell them there has been an error. Just keep calling until they fix the problem. (Or get your lawyer to send a letter.)
National Grid is incompetent and inconsistent. Depends who you get on the phone. I don’t have time to go into all the mistakes they’ve made, but one was telling us the gas was on (and billing us for It) when it was off, which partly caused our gas line to be destroyed. Another was out of the blue sending a “revised” bill to a collection agency on a long -closed account and notifying us one week before. Fortunately, they resolved that in our favor. They also billed us the wring amounts many times over a period of years. One month they billed us $800 (for an apt).
I am the owner of a 3 family used as a 1 family building. Nat Grid tried to pull this on me when we installed new service for a boiler – after having a residential account for 30 years. I had a tantrum and they backed off. They still overbilled me massively for the first couple of months though. I think it’s routine.
I got the deposit back over the course of the last three years, not in one lump sum. The commercial account is only for the common areas which is the case for all buildings of 2 units or more.
The deposit is returned after 3 years of paying your bill on time- I have a commercial account and confirmed this the other day.