Neighbour turned off gas supply

Labtec81 · 8 February 2018 at 12:49AM

My neighbour for the last week minimum has been going into my gas meter box and shutting off my gas supply between 7 and 8.30pm and turning it back on at 6am when he leaves for work!! So at night I've had no hot water or central heating and after exhausting every other thing it might be I finally clicked what's been going on and I was right!! When I opened the box that houses the gas meter and checking what position the handle should be with a neighbours gas meter it was obvious mine had been deliberately turned off.

Funnily enough he'd complained about the boiler vibrating after the heating has been on for a few hours and he said he couldn't get a proper nights sleep, well whenever I heard it usually literally 5 minutes after it started making the vibrating noise I turned the tap on which relieved the pressure and stopped the boiler from vibrating!

But for my neighbour to take it upon himself to turn my gas off is surely against the law? Tampering with someone else's gas supply being the offence?

Had I not had a backup form of heating in the form of an electric fan heater I would have been freezing and 1 of the nights before I got the fan heater I was so cold because the temperature was -4 outside that my skin even changed colour to a purply blue colour, this is due to long term illness which has led to poor circulation.

I have emailed the landlord to broach this subject with my neighbour even though I've no actual proof it was definitely him, but the times it goes off and comes back on all coincide with when my neighbour leaves for work (when the gas supply comes back on) and when he comes home from work it mysteriously turns off between 7pm and 8.30pm, I got picked up by a friend of mine tonight at 8.15pm and as we drove off to go to the supermarket I saw my neighbour clear as day come out of the front door and when I checked the gas meter shortly after I'd got back at around 10pm the gas supply had been turned off!

Does anybody else have any further advice I need to be aware of??

Fisa002 · 8 February 2018 at 12:54AM

I suggest you install a small hidden camera and catch him. That!!!8217;s all the proof you would need. Am pretty sure it!!!8217;s illegal what he is doing.

stator · 8 February 2018 at 12:56AM

Stick a padlock on the meter box

Tell him to stop

Labtec81 · 8 February 2018 at 1:13AM

Stator would I be able to do this? As it would include drilling holes in the side of the meter box at both the front and side of the box, to accommodate a padlock, I just wondered if this was illegal to do as it would then restrict access to the gas supply company as well who wouldn't be able to get access if I wasn't at home should they need to for any reason.

Also drilling the box would cause damage to it and I don't really know who owns the gas meter box as in the gas supplier or whoever.

I'm happy to put a padlock on it of course, just don't want to break any laws while doing so.

And I would tell the neighbour doing it to stop but he's the type of person who'd deny it anyway and just carry on doing it... Also he's said things about me in the past while walking upstairs to his flat like I wouldn't hear him, along the lines of I'm a f*cking cripple which he denied saying to the landlord when confronted by him but soon back tracked when he was told I'd recorded him saying it, even though I actually hadn't.

elsien · 8 February 2018 at 1:18AM

What's it got to do with the landlord? Why are you expecting them to broach it with the neighbour - it's not their responsibility what your neighbour gets up to.

Might be more effective to ask them to get the boiler looked at if it's vibrating so much it can be heard next door.

Labtec81 · 8 February 2018 at 1:32AM

Well obviously one of his other tenants is interfering with my gas supply!! And of course it's their responsibility to confront my neighbour if he's causing a nuisance by what he's doing!

So ask me again what it's got to do with the landlord, hmm let's see... It's one of HIS tenants interfering with another tenants gas supply, who do you suggest to contact if not the landlord!!

Clearly the landlord should get involved, if I were a landlord I'd want to know if I had multiple tenants if one of them was causing a nuisance to another of my tenants! And obviously the landlord has the power to do something about it, even just having a word with him might stop it from happening again.

And the boiler is being looked at BUT the fact it vibrates does NOT give my neighbour the right to turn off my gas supply!!!!

[Deleted User] · 8 February 2018 at 1:57AM

I agree that the only thing you can do is lock the box the meter is in. Its the same as having a meter behind a locked front door, the meter guy wouldn't be able to access it without you being there.

But perhaps you could leave the padlock off if you know when the meter needs looking at, just for that one day. Or phone and see if you can get an appointment for meter reading. or give a key to a trustworthy neighbour with instructions to only give it to someone official.

But I am afraid there is no 'of course' in this instance with what a LL has to do. He doesn't 'have to' chastise another tenant in a case like this. Sorry. All you can do is obtain evidence and see if the police will chase it up. No guarantees there I'm afraid with murders, robberies, car crashes etc going on much as what your neighbour may be doing is interfering with your gas supply and creating a situation for you.

Labtec81 · 8 February 2018 at 2:46AM

Thanks for the advice deannatrois, I'll proceed with the padlock and hopefully that will be an end to it.

And AFF8879 I agree with you but the boiler doesn't actually vibrate that loud, I think it's more the pipes with trapped air, I did what others have suggested in the past and bled all the radiators to get rid of any trapped air but very little came out of the radiators at all, it's just that the proximity to my neighbours flat is very close, from door to door you're talking not even 1 metre, so he can hear the slightest noise and vice-versa.

Anyway since I turned the gas back on and restarted the boiler I've had the heating on for the last 4 hours with no noises whatsoever.

Davesnave · 8 February 2018 at 7:25AM

Labtec81 wrote: »

Well obviously one of his other tenants is interfering with my gas supply!! And of course it's their responsibility to confront my neighbour if he's causing a nuisance by what he's doing!

It might be 'obvious' to you, but as you still have no direct proof at present, it's a little premature to be expecting your landlord to intervene.

Your landlord isn't your parent and you're not a child, so in the first instance it's your responsibility to ascertain who's turning the gas off and then to confront the person doing it.

Depending on the reaction you get, you might then decide inform the police, especially if it keeps happening, because actions like that are harrassment.

You would then tell the landlord for their information, or if you wanted to install some kind of locking device on the box.

Slinky · 8 February 2018 at 9:03AM

If you're going to confront the neighbour, I suggest you do record the conversation, even if it's with a phone in a pocket, so you have some record of it.

davidmcn · 8 February 2018 at 9:17AM

Labtec81 wrote: »

I just wondered if this was illegal to do as it would then restrict access to the gas supply company as well who wouldn't be able to get access if I wasn't at home should they need to for any reason.

I'm happy to put a padlock on it of course, just don't want to break any laws while doing so.

The valve for everywhere I've lived has been inside the property, so if they can cope with getting through a locked front door I expect they can handle a padlock.

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Neighbour turned off gas supply

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