Just for a change of pace; My family has a small cottage up the coast of B.C., and when my son was up there this week, he found an extension cord plugged into my outside electric outlet. My last electric bill was bout 25% higher than for the same time period last year, and this winter has been milder. The next-door-neighbor (a woman between 65-70, former bank clerk, churchgoer and volunteer) is doing a major renovation on her house. Her workman has a trailer parked on her property and using her lane garage to store his tools in exchange for working for her. My back fence and gate was damaged when he took down her back fence, and although I finally got her to fix it, or so she reported, my son says there is still a problem opening and closing my gate. I reported the trespass and theft of electricity to the RCMP, have changed the front door lock (she had a key), and my son pulled the breaker for the outdoor electric outlet when he left and came back into the city. There has been an ongoing problem with the common fence that divides the two properties, and I'm out of pocket on that. All in all, I don't have time or energy for these kind of problems, and I'm heading up there to talk to a lawyer about the situation, hoping to contain it - she's not going to change. Any comments or suggestions? Are you there, O Divine Divvi?
No advice but know of a similiar story. A friend lives in a townhouse complex and one of the neighbours was known to have no income whatsoever and the electric company had cut off his power in the fall. Several weeks passed and it was mid winter and neighbours wondered how the person was surviving with no power and no heat (townhouses had electric baseboard heaters). Eventually the next door neighbour went out on their back deck and discovered that the person had plugged an extension cord into the outside deck outlet-----the next door neighbour was footing the bill for two units. Obviously the person would have only been plugging in a heater and small appliances and a lamp as needed but still, it was upsetting to discover what was going on.
mary thats unfortunate you are again having issues with the cottage. your only recourse for releif may be exactly your idea of visiting with an atty to see what the options are. pilfering from any source is going to land them in hot water. i have heard of folks who do that with cable and lots of trouble. unless you are really using the property - maybe considering putting itup for sale to avoid all the hassles would give you some peace and a new investment income= hope it resolves soon -goodluck! mary.. divvi
Thanks, everyone, for all the good feedback. I'll make a ferry reservation and head up the coast tomorrow. I've e-mailed an attorney there with the details and hope that he can see me on Monday. Then back to Vancouver and classes at UBC. This semester I'm taking Philosophy 102. (I happened to pick up a DVD at the library put out by The Great Courses Teaching Company, and this one is a series of 12 lectures by Dr. Rufus Fears of the University of Oklahoma titled, "Book That Have Made History." The professor is topnotch, and he hooked me on what the great philosophers have to say.)
75 if you have to have proof of them stealing your juice you might want to check into trail cameras,hunters use them,they can be set up away from target an when anything breaks beam they take picture,some don't even flash so culprit wouldn't even know they were the star of the show,just a thought
Good idea, ol don, thanks. I'll check into that. I'd gone so far as to ask the Security System up the coast about installing a camera, but I haven't heard back from them. I never did get up to see the lawyer - I'd packed the car and was ready to head out early in the morning, but during the night got sick and had to cancel everything. It turned out to be a passing virus. Talking about security systems - do they really have any value other than the sticker on your front door? By the time anyone gets to your place - about half an hour - the valuables (my computer?) could be cleaned out. As for a break-in during the night, wouldn't a person be just as well off to have a phone handy and dial 911? I've paid for an elaborate system with a key in a special locked box near the front door, and yet, on Friday, there was an alarm, and the Security System came out and checked the outside of the house, but didn't come inside. The report they left said, "1526: arrived on site. All areas clear and secure." Explanation: my son has been visiting me and sleeping in a room in the basement. I left the house for the afternoon, put on the alarm system but forgot to lock the door from the basement to the main floor. Son came up to leave me a note that he was going over to Vancouver Island for the weekend, triggering the alarm. The reason I know the Security System didn't come in the house to check it out was that the day before I had had the front door re-keyed and had not yet replaced the key in the special locked box.
Mary75, perhaps that was the reason they didn't come in. We have a burglar alarm in place; it has one setting for the night so that we can move around in the bedroom and bathroom, and a different setting which covers the whole house when we are away. We got it installed after our house was burgled once many years ago while we were asleep in the downstairs bedroom. I love it, I sleep well and it has the added function now of going off if dh should try to leave the bedroom area in the night. The security people are here in 15 minutes and it makes a loud noise, if nothing else. I like to think it would make any thieves hurry and get out fast.