I know we are going to have to go and see a lawyer about this, but I am furious at the moment and looking for someone to blame.
As you know we settled and moved into a new house two weeks ago. I got home from work last night at 6:30pm to find the electricity off. House was dark and cold. I assumed it was a blackout as it was a windy night so lit a couple of candles had a glass of red and fired up my laptop as there was no TV, radio, light etc.
When DH got home at about 7:30pm, we called ETSA and they had no record of power failures in our area and asked us to check the fuse box where we discovered someone had stolen all the circuit breakers and fuses out of the fuse box and left a note saying they had been removed as the wiring was dangerous and faulty. This was a complete surprise as the wiring was signed off by the building inspector before we cooled off. The note was on ETSA paper but when we spoke to ETSA they had no record of someone attending our house or doing the disconnection.
The person who removed the fuses (who I shall refer to as the 'theif') left his name and number on the paper but he wouldn't answer his phone last night. DH left a couple of furious messages before we gave up, went to coles to buy torches, and then went to bed at 9:30pm without any tea and feeling very upset.
This morning the thief called back and he told us that he had not been paid for the electrical work by the previous owner so had decided to reclaim his stuff !!! When I walked out the front this morning to get in my car (since we couldn't open the electric garage door) I discovered he had also taken all the light fittings from the front of the house. He didn't even offer to come and fix the situation.
So we have been running around all morning trying to get another electrician to reconnect the power for us. The Real Estate Agent gave us the previous owner's phone number who was apologetic, but can't really do anything. All of this hassle was for a $200 outstanding bill aged at 62 days !!!! You would have thought that the previous owner would have used some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars we gave her two weeks ago to pay a $200 bill.
We are an innocent party caught in the middle of a dispute between an electrician contracted by the previous owner, and the previous owner. I think we will one of them to court over it to claim for damages, but who is at fault?
1. Is it the electrician/thief who trespassed and stole our property,
2. Is it the previous owner who didn't fulfill all financial obligations relating to the property prior to settlement (I found the clause in the contract)
We have filed a police report and they have advised that they will go around and speak to the electician, then I guess we will work out who has to foot the $1-1.5k bill that we incurred this afternoon to get another electrician to reconnect the power.
Has anyone ever had anything like this happen to them before? If so what did you do after you had filed the police report - do we contact the insurance company, or go straight to a lawyer? If we claim through insurance it will push our premiums up won't it? Should we lodge a complain with the organisation that regulates electricians?
I'm still furious!