Stealing Community Electricity inWinter

As the colder winter evenings start to draw in in Spain its worth highlighting a problem we uncovered on our complex last spring.

On a chance inspection of an electrical cupbord  our maintenace man noticed some rogue wires linked to the system. On investigation it appeared that a handy builder had added an illegal feed to their apartment through the cable duct, obviously for heaters or warm air conditioning through the winter......everyone was now paying for their comfort.

An electricty check is now a part of our regular bi-weekly inspections around the community and i would urge all presidents to make this a priority from now on. We believe it cost the community an extra 500 euro's across the winter from just one apartment.

Endelisa are investigating the situation for us, but will not prosecute for theft as they have been paid by the community...its then down to the community to go legal against the owner.

You have been warned  

We had a similar case.  An owner in one of our blocks has a "trastero", store room.  All the trasteros have a light but they are actually all connected to the community electricity supply, so they don't pay for it individually.

One of the owners had somehow managed to run a cable from his trastero up to his apartment and was using it as his main power supply!

Obviously as soon as we found out we got it taken down but trying to prosecute him for it just wasn't worth it.

Some people will just try anything!

Justin

A scam we had in our apartments, was an owner had been cut off due to unpaid bills

He was unemployed and had no money

He had a top floor apartment, like us

We all have solariums with a power point

He had strung an extension cable across the roof, to an apartment where the owners were non resident.

Plugged into their roof socket, he could then have free electric to run his appliances!

Our Presidente was informed of the rogue cable and it was promptly removed, with I believe, no legal action taken.

Most people now have had an isolation switch installed for the power point on their roof, or turn their electric & water off when shutting up their home.

We all also have water taps on our roofs, who knows, he may well have used water too?!

Something else to be aware of!

I bought a trastero in a new building just behind the one where we live. There was a light fitting hanging from the ceiling, so I put a light bulb in, flicked the switch on the wall, and was surprised to find it worked. Even more surprised that a couple of years on it still works. Obviously it runs off the community electric. I guess it's the same in most buildings? Naturally, it did cross my mind to run a cable out of the building, round the corner and down the road to our place - NOT. Even if it was practical to do so, I'm just not that kind of person. I take care to always turn the light off, but it always makes me wonder.........what sorry excuse for an architect designed the place that way? I'm glad there isn't an individual meter for the trastero, as the service charge alone would make it uneconomical to have light in it, but surely a timer switch on the outside of the door would have been far more intelligent? OK, they cost more, but one switch could serve several trasteros. I just wonder how many of the trasteros have lights permanently burning, or other appliances running off them. Someone could be using theirs as a cold storage, for example, with chest freezers running off community electric. Mad.

I hadn't thought about the terrace socket Fibby.  That one is even easier to do than threading a cable from a trastero to an apartment.

If anyone is getting exteortionate bills then maybe keep a close eye on your neighbours....

Justin

 To stop anyone stealing your electric you should read your meter then turn off the power to your property when you are not in residence. Care services can check the Meter cupboard for fraudulent theft. Then call the police who should prove who the thief is. 

I always read my meter before leaving as I was having huge electric bills.