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Landlord at work stealing electricty
I'm asking this on behalf the lady who works in the unit adjacent to ours so I'm not too clear on the details.
My company is based on what used to be a farm but was converted many years ago (and rather badly) into a small collection of warehouses and basic offices by the old gaffer who owns the place. We get on well with him but this may be because our only real interaction with him is when he comes to collect the rent cheque. Apart from that, he keeps out of our way and we out of his. He comes across as a nice enough bloke; quite chatty and always says hello when he passes in the yard, but when you get to know him, he's not the sort of person you want to get on the wrong side of.
Today, Sarah, the lady next door came in to see us, asking for advice on how to approach him on an awkward matter. It seems he is stealing her electricity. This wasn't a big shock to us. The guy in the unit on the other side of us told us he used to get huge electricity bills and when he mentioned it to the landlord the bills magically reduced back to normal. Shortly after that we started getting the huge bills, two or three thousand pounds a quarter, much higher than usual. This stopped and now Sarah is getting the huge bills. None of us is doing anything which would cause large peaks in electricity usage. The landlord's heated swimming pool on the other hand is another matter.
Sarah called in an electrician friend to get a professional opinion and he basically said that the wiring in the junction box is very suspicious and suggests that someone is tapping into he supply. There's only one person it could be. I don't think he couldn't investigate further without the landlord knowing and Sarah is keen to keep this quiet until crunch time.
We never had to talk to the landlord about our unusually large bills as they stopped after a little while, so we're not sure how to help her. He's obviously being more careful and is hopping from one circuit to another in the hope he doesn't get rumbled.
She came to us for advice as I think she feels rather threatened by him; not that he would ever get violent towards her, but we're all men at my company and she is the sole tenant of her unit so perhaps feels a little 'outnumbered'. Perhaps intimidated would be a better word. He has been violent towards one of us in the past but that's water under the bridge. We don't want to rock the boat as we would never find as much space for the price we currently pay so we put us with the poor conditions for the sake of the business, but stealing electricity is going too far, particularly as he's a millionaire.
It has to stop, but how would you go about raising this with him? Get the police involved? Would the electricity board have anything to say about his actions? I can't see a solution whereby all parties walk away unscathed. He was a bit of a 'geezer' in his youth and is mentioned (and revered) in the biographies of London gangsters and pikey kings. It sounds silly, reading this back, but he really is the sort who would never let bygones be bygones. He'd hold this over your head for the rest of your life.
Is there any way to find out for certain that he's stealing electricity, without him finding out? Nobody wants to go throwing accusations around if there's even the slightest possibility we could be wrong, so we need to be 100% sure but without giving away what we're doing.
Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading.
My company is based on what used to be a farm but was converted many years ago (and rather badly) into a small collection of warehouses and basic offices by the old gaffer who owns the place. We get on well with him but this may be because our only real interaction with him is when he comes to collect the rent cheque. Apart from that, he keeps out of our way and we out of his. He comes across as a nice enough bloke; quite chatty and always says hello when he passes in the yard, but when you get to know him, he's not the sort of person you want to get on the wrong side of.
Today, Sarah, the lady next door came in to see us, asking for advice on how to approach him on an awkward matter. It seems he is stealing her electricity. This wasn't a big shock to us. The guy in the unit on the other side of us told us he used to get huge electricity bills and when he mentioned it to the landlord the bills magically reduced back to normal. Shortly after that we started getting the huge bills, two or three thousand pounds a quarter, much higher than usual. This stopped and now Sarah is getting the huge bills. None of us is doing anything which would cause large peaks in electricity usage. The landlord's heated swimming pool on the other hand is another matter.
Sarah called in an electrician friend to get a professional opinion and he basically said that the wiring in the junction box is very suspicious and suggests that someone is tapping into he supply. There's only one person it could be. I don't think he couldn't investigate further without the landlord knowing and Sarah is keen to keep this quiet until crunch time.
We never had to talk to the landlord about our unusually large bills as they stopped after a little while, so we're not sure how to help her. He's obviously being more careful and is hopping from one circuit to another in the hope he doesn't get rumbled.
She came to us for advice as I think she feels rather threatened by him; not that he would ever get violent towards her, but we're all men at my company and she is the sole tenant of her unit so perhaps feels a little 'outnumbered'. Perhaps intimidated would be a better word. He has been violent towards one of us in the past but that's water under the bridge. We don't want to rock the boat as we would never find as much space for the price we currently pay so we put us with the poor conditions for the sake of the business, but stealing electricity is going too far, particularly as he's a millionaire.
It has to stop, but how would you go about raising this with him? Get the police involved? Would the electricity board have anything to say about his actions? I can't see a solution whereby all parties walk away unscathed. He was a bit of a 'geezer' in his youth and is mentioned (and revered) in the biographies of London gangsters and pikey kings. It sounds silly, reading this back, but he really is the sort who would never let bygones be bygones. He'd hold this over your head for the rest of your life.
Is there any way to find out for certain that he's stealing electricity, without him finding out? Nobody wants to go throwing accusations around if there's even the slightest possibility we could be wrong, so we need to be 100% sure but without giving away what we're doing.
Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading.
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Comments
he could be taking the supply from the load side of the consumer unit though. one of the spare ways maybe.
True, I had thought about that and wondered if there was an additional circuit or could the supply be simply tapped into a ring main, cooker or shower circuit. The landlord would be very foolish for fear of blowing a fuse or taking a circuit breaker out. Perhaps if the Op could try switching of the CU first and then start on the fuses/CBs until the link is found. Hopefully all the Ops circuits will be labelled . This sort of activety is getting more common nowadays I have found.
the OP says there is a suspect link in a junction box, so it looks like he has lashed it in there, although where on the entire system that is is anybody's guess. it might be worth getting the electrician back, but i don't think identifying the rogue spur will be the problem, rather how to deal with the landlord about it.
What's the landlord going to do? Best option - he walks away and starts paying his own way. Worst option - he starts making threats to get it reconnected and then you get the Police involved.