Temporary Supply - Emergency

Well if the DNO will not supply the tennant I would not touch any of it. I would walk away

Locally to me the DNO dug up the footpath and removed both the supplies, the supply was being used legally as well as the one that was being used illegally in a shop with flats over it.


I suspect that if the newsagents supply is used to supply the property that has been disconnected the newsagent may possibly be disconnected as well.


Everything needs to be paid and settled so that the property can be reconnected, but the supplier may draw it out for quite some time, making the take away unusable for quite some time.


Andy B

I too smell a rat, so I'd say be very careful of what you become responsible for. Some one has done something illegal, do not get involved in helping them to do it again.

As an additional concern, the sort of premises that gets forcibly disconnected for electricity theft  (think of the sort of criminal wiring you see pictures of raids on cannabis farms) often leave the wiring in a nasty state - after all presumably the meter was bypassed to supply some extra load. 


If you do end up tapping a supply from next door, be very clear that you are not involved in deciding who pays that electricity bill, and that the arrangement is only temporary,  an emergency supply to keep freezers and so on running, and cannot be used as a permanent means to avoid paying standing charges, or for electricity theft from next door at some future time. Your paper work should reflect that.

I'd  also suggest you add an RCD to the 40A switch fuse, and be very careful that the isolation of the old supply is safe  and the earthing  is adaquate on the load side.  If in doubt, then a supply like heavy extension lead to a builders board with a few sockets, ideally not connecting to any of the existing (or as little as neccessary) may be safest.

Also make it very clear how it is to be changed over and removed safely once normal power supply is restored.

For part P purposes it is not notifiable, as it is commercial. However, this is not an excuse to bodge it !


Take care.

Thanks for all your input guys.


I walked away from the job. Advised the chap to hold tight until the supplier reinstates the supply.


I told him its too messy and too many people involved. There was the client, franchise owner, landlord, neighbour and supplier. 


A lot of people to liase with and make sure everyone is happy.

Some years ago I was doing EICRs for a firm on behalf of a Building Society for houses that had been repossessed and were going to be rented out as the market price had dropped, one house had a prepayment meter that was over seven hundred pounds in debt. The boss of the void maintenance company was told to just go down the corner shop and put over seven hundred pounds credit on the payment key to sort it out ASAP. 


Andy B.

That is some feat - I thought the whole point of pre-pay was it cut you off when the money ran out - a sort of 'shilling for the gas meter' type of meter for the 21st century without sending the man in to collect the coins.  Equally it is probably only 6 months to a year of consumption, and dwarfed by the cost of holding up the letting out process, so the decision makes commercial sense .

I know of one that was about £40 over and the meter was fed (Ticket like cards) to get power on in a similar situation although emergency credit was £5 before cut off. I asasumed it was a mixture of standing charges and perhaps previous agreed arrears scheduling but £700 WOW

My sister has a cottage in Scotland which she rents out. One tenant had not been paying the bills so a pre-payment meter had been fitted. After that tenant left, the new tenant, who had no record of bad payment, was told she would have to wait a year before a normal meter was fitted. Seemed most unreasonable.