Neighbor threatening to cut off electricity

We live in a lowrise (so no mgmt office) and our neighbor is doing renovation work. We received a notice yesterday informing us that electricity would be cut off on Monday for 6 hours. Upon investigation, it appears that there is a common electricity line coming into the building and the contractors wanted to upgrade it since the renovation is going to take up more power. We are furious and informed the contractor that this would be unacceptable as we have stuff in the freezer that would melt otherwise. Is this something that the police or another government agency will get involved in? They keep saying they will try to think about our "request".

This happens all the time in HK 6 hours will not defrost your freezer just make sure you don't open it when the power is off. If they are upgrading the cables then you benefit from a safer electricity supply and I presume they are not asking you to help pay for it. It happens about once a year. When a new low rise is built near by CLP will also cut the power for a few hours to install the supply. What is the big problem?


It is in a private building so as long as no building standards are not breeched the Govt will not get involved.

I understand your concern, and perhaps it would have been more prudent for your neighbour to gain your consent first rather than sending you a notice which simply stated that it was going to occur without discussing it with you first (quite rude in my opinion). But if the neighbour needs to do it, do you really want to stop him on the basis that some items in your freezer may melt. I lived in a country for a couple of years where there were frequent power outages of up to eight hours at a time. I never froze meat and didn't keep anything which may go off, and other items which did melt froze again.


Honestly speaking its really rude that he didn't discuss it with you first, run you through the issues he was facing and gain your consent, and to top it off he is giving you just 3 days notice. A week in my view is minimum, and two is what I would have done, but even if I only found out after the contractor came in and began work, I'd still give it a week to ensure my neighbours could use up the food in their house that they felt would go off and pay those four extra days out of pocket.


I doubt the police will do anything, clueless about which govt agency regulates this kind of thing, perhaps the buildings department. If he is an owner doing renovation though, hard to see what can be done. I lived in one place in Hong Kong where my supply got cut off for a different reason and I was given just a few days notice that it would be, and that was an apartment building with 42 flats.


I really suggest talking to your neighbour, getting more notice so you can use up the items in your house which may go off in the time period available, schedule it for a weekday so you are at work, and if you have a stay at home partner and kids who are on holidays at the moment, it can be arranged that they are out of the house for the duration of the outage, which should result in minimum inconvenience.


Personally as a neighbour I would not try and stop someone from completing the work desired, but equally just sending a notice telling your neighbour a power outage is going to occur with or without their consent is just bad manners. I'd have it out with the person, and get them to give you sufficient notice. If they don't well then you should look at your legal options.