During my call centre days, years ago, I took billing/collection calls for a natural gas company in Ontario. If the meter was inside or not accessible then it would be estimated based on past usage at the property. I believe the company I worked for only needed 1 reading a year, but went out every second month (estimated months in between). But anyway, we would always recommend customers with these inside or hard to get to meters to call their reading in to us once in a while so that we could ensure they were being billed properly. We would also allow for a payment plan for the high bill after several months of underestimation.
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