help - freehold property coachhouse - 2 garages (neighbours under property) using electricity

wakkaday

hi guys
i hope you can help
i purchased a coach house property a few years ago and the neighbour at the time made the comment, oh you pay for the electricity in my garage. i rang my electricity company who said i don't. but thats neither here or there, anyone of getting a definite answer? without involving the neigbhour

FreeBear

Where is the meter & consumer unit (fuse board) located ?

If there is a circuit that supplies his/her garage, just turn the breaker off (or pull the fuse).

wakkaday

the meter is on my side of the property for gas and electricity
as for the the circuit board , this is inside my property (you mean the one with all the fuses right for lights etc ?) 


i just spoke to my electricity company and they compared a reading within 7 days and says i used around 1000w which is more then then i used  since december 2019 (actual reading) its about a 3 months worth use in 1 week, i think he said

they are going to get back to me with more details..so just waiting.


is there anyway the garages could be linked seperately to my meter? 
confused.

greatcrested

Look at the meter.

Turn off ALL your electricity and see if the meter keeps running. If it does, the garage is using electricity!

How many fuses/trip switches are there? Are they labelled? Is one of them marked 'garage'? If they are not labelled, turn them off one by one and see what cuts out. It's good practice/helpful to label them all anyway.

Comms69

wakkaday said:

hi guys
i hope you can help
i purchased a coach house property a few years ago and the neighbour at the time made the comment, oh you pay for the electricity in my garage. i rang my electricity company who said i don't. but thats neither here or there, anyone of getting a definite answer? without involving the neigbhour

Im somewhat confused, if this was years ago, surely you know by now how much you're paying for electricity?

RelievedSheff

It would be highly unusual that your supply would be feeding the garages not part of your property below. They are usually fed from their own properties supply.

wakkaday

greatcrested said:

Look at the meter.

Turn off ALL your electricity and see if the meter keeps running. If it does, the garage is using electricity!

How many fuses/trip switches are there? Are they labelled? Is one of them marked 'garage'? If they are not labelled, turn them off one by one and see what cuts out. It's good practice/helpful to label them all anyway.

i had my properfty refitted with a new circuit board actually but i was unaware at the time not sure if the electric guy just replicated the previous cirtcuit board.

the other day he had his pressure washer out and i heard a washing machine this morning. i think i will do what you have said aswell, but it will be obvious and clear cut if i turn off everything my end whilst the neighbour is using electric from his garage i guess

if this is the case, what is the next step?

greatcrested

Then you have two options:

1) talk to the neighbour (bake him a nice cake in advance?) and agree either that he gets his own supply or that he contributes (somehow) to your bill, or

2) cut off his supply, assuming your Consumer Unit has a trip switch for the garage

wakkaday

RelievedSheff said:

It would be highly unusual that your supply would be feeding the garages not part of your property below. They are usually fed from their own properties supply.

its a coach house, so the two garages are o a 999 year lease and under my property - the neighbours need to leave their house to access the garages. 

in terms of not knowing my electricity cost over years (i just pay the bill and to be honest don't understand it)

eddddy

wakkaday said:

i just spoke to my electricity company and they compared a reading within 7 days and says i used around 1000w which is more then then i used  since december 2019 (actual reading) its about a 3 months worth use in 1 week, i think he said

What made you ask the electricity company about the last 7 days usage - has the neighbour started doing something unusual in the garage over the last 7 days?

I very much doubt that the electricity was originally installed in the way you describe. So I guess a previous owner did the neighbour a favour, by letting the neighbour tap into the coach house's electricity supply.

And assuming it's just something like a double socket in the garage for a battery charger, power tools etc  plus a light - it's likely that they didn't bother taking a feed all the way back to your consumer unit (fuse box). They might have just spurred the extra socket off your ring main.

That would mean you can't turn off the socket in the garage without turning off your ring main (i.e. turning off a whole bunch of your sockets)

wakkaday

eddddy said:

wakkaday said:

i just spoke to my electricity company and they compared a reading within 7 days and says i used around 1000w which is more then then i used  since december 2019 (actual reading) its about a 3 months worth use in 1 week, i think he said

What made you ask the electricity company about the last 7 days usage - has the neighbour started doing something unusual in the garage over the last 7 days?

I very much doubt that the electricity was originally installed in the way you describe. So I guess a previous owner did the neighbour a favour, by letting the neighbour tap into the coach house's electricity supply.

And assuming it's just something like a double socket in the garage for a battery charger, power tools etc  plus a light - it's likely that they didn't bother taking a feed all the way back to your consumer unit (fuse box). They might have just spurred the extra socket off your ring main.

That would mean you can't turn off the socket in the garage without turning off your ring main (i.e. turning off a whole bunch of your sockets)

7 day reading is what i had , as i did post a reading last week and when i spoke to the electricity companyo they said provide another reading, so they looked at the 7 days

over the past few months been hearing a washing machine  from below, hence my suspicions