No Pay No Power

[HRL]

Hello everybody,

As my first post not sure how I should start. Here goes.

I have been a full rewire in a designated commercial dental surgery, it has its own supply and no private dwellings involved.
The surgery has been shut since October while all building work is carried out, payments have been fine up until just after christmas. Then for whatever reason payments stopped, I continued to work for quite sometime without being paid, and still provided materials on the grounds that payment will be made "soon". I had no reason to doubt this, however payment was never coming so i pulled off site.

I had certain circuits being used, i.e lighting and a few power circuits. i have carried out my testing and documented it but never handed the certificates over. There are no fire alarm certificates issued, emergency lighting circuits issued, and no electrical certificates issued.

At the beginning of the week i visited site to see what was happening only to find there were patients being operated on .

After leaving in complete amazement I tried to contact the owner chasing my money but to no avail. I thought about her using it as a working practice and decided that I should pay a visit and if there is no real break-through i would isolate the supply and make the building safe, so I did. I removed the meter tails from the henley block to the dis board and removed the mainswitch.

Obviously the owner went crazy and threatened the police, however I believe i would be liable if anything had happened so on the ground of health and safety and for peace of mind i did what i tought was right.

Oh and i didn't break in and wasn't aggressive.

Is this wrong in the eyes of the law?
Anybody know what the rules are on the owner turning on other circuits and trading like they are?

Thanks in advance from all in HRL

 

[dufjax]

I take it you had a contract that stated something to the effect "Goods remain the property of _ _ _ _ _ until paid for in full"

Jim

 

[HRL]

it is on the bottom of my invoices.

 

[dufjax]

Well I can't see you've done much wrong legally, but you may want to run it past a solicitor. Find it's really helpful to be a legal firms spark and get to know the partners by first name.. Then they only charge you £150 an hour and not £300

 

[bugsy]

What you did was out of order.

Firstly if your NIC registered they are going be after your backside ,
Secendly you were trespassing I.E. on the property without permission ( this is not a criminal offence but stillagainst the law ( it;s a tort - civil offence)

I know your proberbly really gagging at the bit now

Your best action is to in form him that his/ her public liability ins will be void ( no certs )
and public safety is at risk , then infoem them you will be contacting the local council and reporting him
If that doent work ( It wiil ) your have to go through small claims - been there donit got the tee shirt

 

[Davey101]

What you did was out of order.

Firstly if your NIC registered they are going be after your backside ,
Secendly you were trespassing I.E. on the property without permission ( this is not a criminal offence but stillagainst the law ( it;s a tort - civil offence)

No offence Bugsy, but HTF is he out of order?

If it is a simple case of communication breakdown/cashflow problems, then it may be a bit over the top, but if its a straight forward case of non-payment, then I say good for him.

The builder husband of a friend of my girlfriend went bankrupt last year, due to a non paying customer on a large job he did. I was laughing my *** off when I read the OP. I hope he gets his money now.

 

[bugsy]

I really sypathise with him
1: there were paitents in the building undergoing treatment, If any of were hurt due his actions they could sue him simple as .

I had the same experince 15yrs ago young and hot headed with an indian restraunt I walk in there at
8 pm on a saturday night told i had to chech a dimmer rack after a bit of prep i asked the manager to come into the basement and told him if he didnt pay i would disconnect - he didnt - i did and ended up in court

 

[TPES]

Good on you matey.... I've heard of this done before, And i would do the same in your position.

Even if i was told this is wrong in the eyes of the law it wouldn't stop me from doing what you did.

So many tradesman i know of have been shafted over by customers not paying up.

 

[dufjax]

I've a mate who years ago did a domestic rewire, when the owner wouldn't pay him he went round with a sledge hammer and smashed the board up. He's now quite high up in NG (Irish cream)

Jim

 

[Davey101]

I really sypathise with him
1: there were paitents in the building undergoing treatment, If any of were hurt due his actions they could sue him simple as .

I had the same experince 15yrs ago young and hot headed with an indian restraunt I walk in there at
8 pm on a saturday night told i had to chech a dimmer rack after a bit of prep i asked the manager to come into the basement and told him if he didnt pay i would disconnect - he didnt - i did and ended up in court

Not saying he's right in the eyes of the law, but morally he is. Would have done it first thing before any patients arrived

How did you get on in court, and did you get your money?

 

[bugsy]

Before I went to court went back with a pai of croppers cut all out going circuits for the dimmer racks and chopped out his supply for the kitchen put a notice in all local wholesalers.

I went to court judge was very nice ( lady ) and gave my an uncoditional discharge
although only because of a technicality due to the case representation

Matey at the restraunt paid me up front - including putting right.

 

[HRL]

There was a patient in there, i waited until she had gone, never endangered anybody.
The emergency lighting was fully functional. A good three hour test if you ask me!
Thanks for your responses

 

[bugsy]

In that case if they try to take things further your defence will be that you had not certified the installation the fire alarms and em's had not been tested and after careful consideration of the risk assement ( as they would not have been insured 0) you decieded your actions were in the clients intrest

 

[HRL]

Do you think that is good enough grounds for a solid case?

 

[m4tty]

Get the papers involved .... helps sometimes think someone on here had someone at The Sun help them out on something like this