National Grid’s response to my letter:

Dear Online Customer,

Thank you for your inquiry. The reason that the gas service was shut off was National Grid must change the gas meters every 17-20 years and since the service tech was at the property he changed the gas meter for your apartment. The landlord of the property was notified of this and should have advised you that this was going to be done, we also installed an automatic meter reading device on your meter at no charge. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused, please contact National Grid at [removed] to schedule an appointment to your best convenience.

Sincerely,

National Grid Customer Service.

So many problems with this… sigh

[nb: they did respond quickly.. just took me a bit to post]