A Mom so nicely decided to share an experience she had with the Gas company.  You should read it so you will not be caught off guard.  She is not the only mom that have had this problem.  When you first move in you should check all your utilities, know how they check and charge you, know where your meters are and periodically check and write down the numbers so in the future you can questions some shady bills.

I’m not posting this to gripe, only to give you a warning if you are not aware of this.

I learned the hard way when we 1st came to Italy, that it is the hot water and long showers that run the gas bill through the roof. I also knew that the utilities in Italy don’t do regular meter checks and guess on most of the months.
Soooo, last winter was our first winter in a new house that was much bigger and we had 3 more adults in the house than usual. I was very cautious about our usage, and watched the bills closely to guage how big the bills would be. It was bigger, but not outrageous and we continued to be careful. I also had people checking meters quite often for our first year, but didn’t pay attention to which ones were which.

I was gone all summer and came back to a bill that was 1,500 euro. When I called on it, they said that they were guessing the whole time and that when they did a meter reading in July, they realised how much we were using and the 1,500 was the difference!!! ouch! They also had a notice to shut off the gas, and I am current on all of the other bills that I have recieved. They said that they would work with me, and allow me to pay that extra part in segments. I did learn that there is a way to either send SMS or email (I don’t remember which) that you can send them your meter readings each month so it will be accurate. I thought you all might like to know that if you didn’t already.