Tenant stealing electric
Hello BP folks,
I have a tenant in my 4 unit that has not transfered the electric into his name, it has been disconected and he has now run power cords to the basement and has them plugged into the recepticals their, those recepts are hooked to my meter. Is this a criminal, or a civil matter?
This is an interesting one. and while I don't know if it would be civil or criminal, you might want to be careful before you go calling the cops on him. If I were you I would just go and have a talk with the guy, find out if he is just cheap and thinks hes not hurting anyone or if he is broke and this is the only way he can afford power.
Maybe just go and explain to the guy that what he is doing is stealing and if he doesn't stop and get the power turned on in his name you will have to take this to a more serious level.
Only reason I would hesitate to call the cops is because you don't want the neighbors to start associating you property with the police showing up unless you really have to have them there.
Start the eviction yesterday!
I agree - that is a new one I've never heard of! I would talk to him first also. If he flat out refuses to get his own power after talking with him, you've got to take action. I would think it would be in your right to unplug everything from the basement if that is not part of his apartment. If that is his heat source, he will probably want heat before winter hits.
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First, I would start the eviction process immediately. You do have in your lease that the tenant is responsible for utilities, right? If you have no lease, then you just get them started giving them the boot. Second, I would lose the power to the receptacles, even temporarily, even if I had to pull the breaker or have an electrician disconnect the feed. Third, I would let the guy know that stealing utilities is a crime (everywhere I know of in the US) and any further attempt at doing so you will simply contact the utility company, who can get a citation or arrest issued to the guy.
Someone who will resort to that length is going to be no good. I once knew of a situation where a tenant who had their water cut off ran a water hose with dual female couplings from their neighbor's house to theirs at night and fed their house with water the neighbor was paying for, until the cops caught them one night. I would have more sympathy for the guy who sat there in the dark because he couldn't afford rent and utilities, than to someone who just decides to steal what they won't pay for (starving people in third-world countries without money stealing food excepted).
Get on this now. I have seen several fires from people trying to draw their main power from an extension cord. They are not made for that. Get it resolved ASAP. Stealing power is the least of your worries, this guy could burn your place down and kill somebody.
I agree with the others here, you need to have the tenant leave. This level of "creativity" is a huge red flag. The only point you might have to be careful with is the fact that you cut off the power to your tenant's apartment. In many jurisdictions, this is an illegal step, even if the tenant agreed in writing to transfer utilities . Not many tenants know that but you don't want to give him a reason to inquire.
Your tenant is just taking advantage of you. The picture above is what stealing electricity is all about. My tenant used a battery jumper cable end and an alligator clamp to run juice from the overhead wires and around the electric meter. It is amazing they did not burn the house down. They got away with this for months. Until I found it and called OG&E. I also had a commercial electrician in one of my rentals. Now he did a professional job of bypassing the meter. I found it by only by checking the meter and finding it had no service but he still had the lights on.
Originally posted by @Andreas W.:
I agree with the others here, you need to have the tenant leave. This level of "creativity" is a huge red flag. The only point you might have to be careful with is the fact that you cut off the power to your tenant's apartment. In many jurisdictions, this is an illegal step, even if the tenant agreed in writing to transfer utilities . Not many tenants know that but you don't want to give him a reason to inquire.
He wouldn't be cutting off power to the tenants unit. Simply to some plugs he doesn't use in the basement, which is his right.
Originally posted by @Joe Bertolino:
Get on this now. I have seen several fires from people trying to draw their main power from an extension cord. They are not made for that. Get it resolved ASAP. Stealing power is the least of your worries, this guy could burn your place down and kill somebody.
I second this. A handy man I used last winter burned his own house down by doing this.
Am I the only one surprised that this question is actually posted to the forums?
Ex: "Someone is threatening my livelihood and the lives of others. What should I do?"
You know what to do, my friend.
Best of luck!
Why does the tenant have access to the basement? If there is no reason for basement access, unplug in the basement and lock the basement. And give that tenant "notice to quit" addressing the matter.
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You can talk to the tenant, but he'll either try to deny it or he'll promise that he'll disconnect it. Lies. You should be very stern about it though and probably start the eviction process.
Is this tenant also behind on rent, by chance?
Originally posted by @Arlan Potter:
Your tenant is just taking advantage of you. The picture above is what stealing electricity is all about. My tenant used a battery jumper cable end and an alligator clamp to run juice from the overhead wires and around the electric meter. It is amazing they did not burn the house down. They got away with this for months. Until I found it and called OG&E. I also had a commercial electrician in one of my rentals. Now he did a professional job of bypassing the meter. I found it by only by checking the meter and finding it had no service but he still had the lights on.
Wow! It's amazing what dishonest people will do.
To the original poster. This is definitely a criminal offense but getting the cops to file charges is difficult. When it happened to me, I called the police to scare the guy a little and then I used physical measures (locks) to keep him out until he was evicted.
I agree, cutting off the illegal power source is not the problem. My comment was referring to the initial post where it says" the power has been disconnected". The trap for the landlord is if the LL disconnects the power to the tenant after the tenant fails to transfer it. That is illegal in many jurisdictions and could be used by a tenant against the LL. If the previous tenant had the power disconnected at move out, then it is not an issue for the LL.
@Andreas W. obviously the LL is not paying for it though otherwise the tenant would just use the power as usual and let the LL deal with any problems, not run a line to the basement. At least that's my thinking.
I've been in this situation before. As others have pointed out:
- Your tenant is stealing from you.
- You do not want to involve the police unless you must.
- Start the eviction process.
- Photo document everything with a timestamp.
- Some states allow the landlord to place power into the tenant's name. Do this and continue with the eviction.
This is not a tenant you want to remain on your property. If they have stolen from you once, they will do it again.