Any recourse against scum-bag landlord?

Hi all. To make a long story short, my husband and I discovered whilst moving out of our old flat that our landlord had been stealing electricity from us by wiring emergency lights, fire alarms and other common utilities (hello tumble dryers!) to our electrical meter.

Our local electric board has just confirmed, but the landlord has sneakily rewired the entire building. We do have photographs of the set-up before the re-wiring but the electric board didn't have much advice except 'report this to every agency you can think of'.

The problem is we don't really know who to turn to, especially to get any of the money back we're owed, apart from a solicitor which we can't really afford. We've drafted a letter to the Department of Trading Standards, but being on the Isle of Man makes it difficult to use the common links and such you might normally dig up on the internet when investigating disputes like this. Although our ex-landlord was an offical estate agent, I don't think they have any professional associations we can turn to.

Does anyone have any general advice or experience they can share? And isn't stealing electricity a crime instead of a civil offence?

Go to the Police.  This is a criminal act.  You should also consult a solicitor about recovering the money, which would be a civil matter.

Vicky

Thanks, Vicky. I've been hoping that it would be primarily a criminal act, although I'm sure the landlord will try to blame the previous building managers. I'll also try to ring CAB to see if they have any advice about local solicitors.

Good luck with that, Elizabeth.  My husband and I also had a horrible time with a landlady on the Isle of Man!  There was a bad leak coming from the toilet and running along the inside of the walls.  Her daughter told my husband to "stop causing trouble and that it was just the plaster walls drying out" when he described the problem.  12 weeks later after several colors of mold appeared throughout the apartment, the builder finally showed up and said, "oh yeah, there's a problem." DUH!  Lots of my things got ruined from the mold that even grew on the inside of our wardrobes.  We made the necessary phone calls, but were told as long as the landlord was taking steps to fix it, we had no recourse.  Ok, yeah, they finally got a plumber to fix the leak and placed an industrial size dryer in the tiny apartment for the next 6 weeks, but you can imagine the nightmare. 

Anyway, as you are discovering, the Isle of Man is not an easy place to make things right.  Try to see if there is any legal aide available and keep us posted.   

Ellen