Neighbour cutting electricity

[asadinho]

Hello oracle. On bank holiday sunday evening around 10.30, I was playing some music at a reasonable volume, and suddenly our electricity went off. Moments later the upstairs neighbour came down wielding a pair of pliers saying that he's cut the electricity. We are reasonable people and we do not wish to disturb anyone. If the music was too loud, we would gladly turn it down if communicated. He previously complained over 6 months ago, by turning up at our door waving pliers in my face somewhat threateningly. We have been conscious of the level that we must keep the sound thereafter, and this was his first complaint since. Having recently bought new speakers, positioned in another part of the room, we are not aware of the sound thresholds of the house with the new set-up.

The neighbour in question acts as a caretaker of sorts for the building, yet claims to be the landlord and is generally prone to terrorising other tenants for a variety of minor complaints. Another neighbour told me that he did exactly the same to him at 2pm. Needless to say, tampering with the fuse box of another home's electricity seems to be far from legal. What are the laws on this? He has threatened to do it again, and this is obviously not the way to deal with the issue. Luckily I did not have any work open on any of my computers, but if he were to do that again, I could lose valuable data. It is an extremely irresponsible thing to do, not knowing whether or not anyone here relies on electricity for medical equipment. Please kindly advise.

[woofgang]

If he is not the landlord then complain to the landlord.

[asadinho]

Many thanks for all the helpful feedback!

I think I will start by contacting the landlord and electricity provider, followed by a letter to the neighbour forewarning him of the consequences of a repeat. It would seem that it is a civil matter, but I'm wondering if it counts as Criminal Damage. Proving it happened to the police will not be a problem as there were three of us here. Our other neighbour will probably be glad to vouch that it has happened to him as well.

The fuse box is shared between the flats, so there's not much we can do (physically) to stop him from having access.

As for the sound levels, the levels in our living room were low enough for normal conversation to be heard over the music, however, the problem lies with the low frequencies that travel upstairs. Other neighbours have said they cannot hear anything, but this chap lives directly above us. Again, we're happy to cooperate to find a level that doesn't bother anyone, but he's gone about opening dialogue in just the worst possible way.

Thanks again guys :)

[EvianBaby]

But did he actually cut the wires or did he just take the fuse out?

[tonywiltshire]

If your tenancy commenced after the 15 January1989 you will probably be an assured shorthold tenant which is regulated by the housing act 1998, and the name & address of your Landlord should be on your tenancy agreement so there should be no doubt as to the identity of your landlord. If there is write to whoever you pay your rent to and ask, if they do not reply within 21 days they are committing an offence and you should report this to the tenancy relations officer at your LA.
It would be an offence for your Landlord to disconnect any supplies to your home and if they do this should also be reported to the tenancy relation’s officer.

[asadinho]

He just flipped the switch on the circuit breaker.

And we do, of course, know who our landlord is. We have a good relationship with her. This guy just purports - somewhat amusingly - to be our landlord. Will look into tenancy relations at the council. Thank you - that's very helpful!

[factor-fiction]

Speaking to the real landlord seems the obvious starting point.

[EDDIE51]

As he just turned off the switch there is no damage so the suggestions of charging him with criminal damage is a non starter.
If this continues then someone is going to have to look at putting individual fuse boxes inside each flat.