Why did a random gas meter reader want to come into my home?

Posted by MeanCartographer9887@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 87 comments

Hello, I don’t know if anyone has any insight but I just wanted to ask as I got quite scared this evening. I’m 20 and was alone in the house today when a man knocked on the door at about 6-6:30 PM. He had a white shirt on that said something about electrics (but was definitely not a recognisable gas company). He didn’t have a clipboard or anything on him, not a badge or lanyard. He asked to come inside to do a gas meter reading.

I immediately felt a bit odd about it because I would assume if a reader wanted to come into the house it would be pre scheduled, so I asked if this was booked as my mother is the home owner and was out of town, he said it was a “random check”. He didn’t ask if I was the homeowner etc and said the meter is in the house, maybe close to the floor somewhere inside. At that point my two labs started barking and he then asked me if I just wanted to leave it. So I said I’m sorry I don’t know where the meter is, at that point he turned around and left. I then texted my mother to ask and she said it sounded really dodgy, our gas meter is outside and she said random checks don’t really happen?

I’m a pretty anxious person and am feeling quite paranoid now especially being in the house tomorrow alone again. I’m going to ask the neighbours if they had the same guy knock on their doors to see if he was going house to house, I’m not sure if that will bring any comfort however because I don’t know if that means it’s legit or not.

So my main questions are:

do random gas meter checks happen?

Are gas meters supposed to be inside?

Would only British Gas or our gas company check the meters or can any company?

Are you supposed to let meter readers into your home?

If it was dodgy, would it be a con or something else?

I hope someone can help. Thank you for reading.