electricity supply

[dranfield]

I have a holiday home on a site near great yarmouth.due to a maintenance dispute on the site myself and the other 100+ owners have been refused electricity cards for our meters by the site owner.he is the only person who can supply these cards.is this legal,is there any other legal way to get electricity? he has told us that if we install our own meters he will report us to the police for theft of electricity because he will refuse to read the meters.is there a friendly solicitors out there who can answer us.

[pink-kittens]

I have no idea of the legal aspect but surely, if you have an electricity meter and have your electric supplied by, say British Gas, how can you be stealing it if you are paying for it?

Who fitted the meters in now and to whom do you pay your bills? By cars do you mean prepayment cards? To whom does the money go when you put electric on the card?

Him withholding your means of heat and light should be stealing not the other way round - let's hope it is

[Annlinda]

I think I would get a generator and tell him to get stuffed where electricity is concerned

[buildersmate]

I suspect the issue here is that the site owner controls a single supply of electricity into the site for which he gets billed, and you are forced to pay him for electricity at whatever rate he decides. And he is rebuffing your attempts to be directly supplied by the utility company. The problem is that unless your lease enables you to dig your own cables on his site (unlikely), there is nothing you can do - except use your own generator - which could call his bluff.

[dranfield]

the tr ouble is,he gets billed from E-ON for all the power and the to recover the money he sells us prepayment cards.because of an unrelated dispute he now refuses to sell us these cards.by the way,we all own these properties freehold.its just the site that he owns.

[buildersmate]

So he's denying you access to an electricity supply? That surely must be contrary to the terms of the contract you have with him?

[dranfield]

unfortunatly theres nothing in the maintenance contract which mentions the supply of electricity.we appear to be really stuffed by this bully.

[dranfield]

it seems that because he's got his own "outmeter" next to the substation he can legally deny us power.Were stuffed.

[buildersmate]

Maybe not.
Have a look at this. This document comes from North Norfolk but very similar versions of it appear in various local authority websites across England and Wales. It provides 'Model Conditions of Contract' between a site owner and the tenants.
http://www.northnorfolk.org/licensing/document s/Conditions_Caravan_Residential.pdf

Within the text it talks about the requirement to provide an electricity supply and a requirement not to resell the electricity supplied at a higher price than that charges by the Utility Co.
The point is that your site owner may be in breach of the Planning Consent for the licence to use the site as a caravan site.
The relevant conditions are based on an Act of Parliament called the 'Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960'. Try phoning your local authority and ask whether your site has a planning condition on it that demands the site owner provide the facilities mentioned in the document. Post again if your want more help - I have this thread tracked.

[dranfield]

Buildersmate.....your a top man!!!
The only drawback is that its not a caravan park,its a chalet park....does that make a differance

[buildersmate]

Sorry - only just got to the emails.
I don't know the answer to your last question. Both chalet parks are caravan parks are subject to Planning permission that the owner must have sought.
I will have a look at the wording of the actual Act (Caravan Sites and the Control of Development Act) and see what it says about electricity supply. Then I will post another message here. In the meantime, you could do no harm by phoning the local authority in whose area you park is, ask to speak to Development Control (the Planning Department) explain the situation and ask whether they could check to see whether the planning consent for your site says anything about a requirement to adhere to the Caravan Sites and the Control of Development Act 1960.
Regards, BM

[dranfield]

hi buildersmate,looks like were stuffed.phoned the broads planning office and they said there's nothing to force him to supply power.i feel like selling up and giving up......how can he be allowed to treat people like this in this day and age.

[buildersmate]

OK. Sorry I couldn't help any further. It was worth a try.