Gas billing in Budapest

My daughter has been receiving bills for Gas for the past 5 months for the same amount (15,000 HUF). The apartment uses gas for space heating only, and this hasn't been on for this period. The amount seems high for a standing charge. Do they operate some type of budget scheme. I visited the Gas office in Bethyany Ter last Thursday but after queing for an hour, got a person who spoke no English so ma at a loss to explain these bills. How can I find out the real cost? Do they do an annual meter reading only?

It depends how you have your account set up. (Assuming that you have the modern cirko system), at the start, they/you may have specified a set amount to pay every month and then read the meter once a year. Alternatively, you may have specified the option whereby you send in the meter reading each month and get a bill based on that. If you don't send in the readings, then typically their 'estimate' is on the high side.

Thanks for that. ... its what I expected. The apartment is old, and the meter looks quite old as well.. Have you any idea how I can change the account to a "actual" one based on readings ? When I registered last year, it took 2 hours of waiting and nobody there speaks english ... and this year when I went to try to sort it, the same result...

Yes, you'll find it very difficult to find somebody to speak English in Fogaz. You would need to either do it in person or get somebody to change it on their (Hungarian-only) online system at www.fogaz.hu

Excellent .. i just located a Hungarian in Galway who can translate the site for me! Thanks for your help ...

Actually, they have an English site ! If you go to [broken link removed] and click on the link at the bottom right of the page: "Tovabb a FOZGAZ oldalara", then the next page has language options at the top, including English! The click on Customer Service, Household Customers then you cna download PDFs that explain everything!

Yes, but the online system seems to be in Hungarian only for the time being. It works quite well.