(I don't post on these forums much, because my interest in the field is more as a hobby for improving Wikipedia technical articles, and asking esoteric code questions like this.)
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Is it permissible within the scope of the NEC for a landlord to punitively undersize the main breaker of a tenant, that is either not paying their utility bills or is not paying the bill in full, and thereby leaving the landlord to pay the bills?
Basically in such a situation, the tenant is permitted to continue to have electric service, but their use would be severely limited, from say a 200 amp main to a 60 or 30 amp main. For example, the tenant can only use one major appliance at a time, or must choose between operating the clothes dryer or the water heater.
Frequent tripping of the undersized main is not only likely, but expected. The primary goal is to make electric power usage an inconvenience or annoyance to the tenant, until they either pay their bills due or move out.
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I am aware that in northern parts of the USA, utilities can not be disconnected to tenants in winter months due to heating needs. I don't know if amperage capacity restriction is possible in this situation. (Such a question may have never been considered before now.)
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Apparently, such a measure would be difficult for a landlord to implement inexpensively, as breaker panels are typically sized for a specific custom main breaker that only fits that panel, and smaller main breakers may not be available for the panel.
Since I am not an expert in the equipment options available, the least expensive answer I can think of is to have an electrician wire the building to be dual-fed through a standby generator switch, and the standby position is instead used to feed utility power through the undersized main, and not modifying the metering or the house wiring.
This would also make it easy for a landlord to pre-wire a tenant building to be capable of "punitive power delivery" controlled with a simple flip of the standby switch, locked and tamper-resistant-tagged in that position by the landlord.
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As far as I can tell (as a non code expert) the NEC would have nothing to say about this, because undersizing of a main creates no fire or electrical safety hazards, other than the tenant having to frequently reset it, until they learn what they can do within the amperage limits of the too-small main breaker.
It may be necessary for the landlord to periodically replace the undersized main, as the frequent tripping events may wear it out. Apparently there is no inexpensive and readily-available method to count breaker trip events as they occur.
,
A commercialized form of this could be built as an electrical meter extension socket, with the punitive main breaker built into the extension socket.
This would allow the punitive main to be easily installed without any building wiring modifications:
1. An electrician pulls the tenant's meter
2. Plugs the tenant's meter into the extension socket
3. Plugs the extension into the regular meter socket
4. The utility bands both its own meter and the extension with anti-tamper seals
5. The charges for the utility to have to reband the meter are added to the tenant's overdue utility bills.
The extension adapter is designed so it can not be opened without removing its own meter socket band.
,
It seems possible for this to go a step further yet, and have an auto-reset breaker that resets itself after about 5-15 minutes (adjustable by the landlord). This way the tenant does not have to do anything to reset the breaker themselves, but they are definitely inconvenienced when the punitive main trips on them and their clothes dryer shuts off, or their hot water is not as hot as expected, etc.
,
In general it all seems within code safety requirements, and it appears legally acceptable to do this, if it is spelled out in the tenant's lease contract.
,
Is it permissible within the scope of the NEC for a landlord to punitively undersize the main breaker of a tenant, that is either not paying their utility bills or is not paying the bill in full, and thereby leaving the landlord to pay the bills?
Basically in such a situation, the tenant is permitted to continue to have electric service, but their use would be severely limited, from say a 200 amp main to a 60 or 30 amp main. For example, the tenant can only use one major appliance at a time, or must choose between operating the clothes dryer or the water heater.
Frequent tripping of the undersized main is not only likely, but expected. The primary goal is to make electric power usage an inconvenience or annoyance to the tenant, until they either pay their bills due or move out.
,
I am aware that in northern parts of the USA, utilities can not be disconnected to tenants in winter months due to heating needs. I don't know if amperage capacity restriction is possible in this situation. (Such a question may have never been considered before now.)
,
Apparently, such a measure would be difficult for a landlord to implement inexpensively, as breaker panels are typically sized for a specific custom main breaker that only fits that panel, and smaller main breakers may not be available for the panel.
Since I am not an expert in the equipment options available, the least expensive answer I can think of is to have an electrician wire the building to be dual-fed through a standby generator switch, and the standby position is instead used to feed utility power through the undersized main, and not modifying the metering or the house wiring.
This would also make it easy for a landlord to pre-wire a tenant building to be capable of "punitive power delivery" controlled with a simple flip of the standby switch, locked and tamper-resistant-tagged in that position by the landlord.
,
As far as I can tell (as a non code expert) the NEC would have nothing to say about this, because undersizing of a main creates no fire or electrical safety hazards, other than the tenant having to frequently reset it, until they learn what they can do within the amperage limits of the too-small main breaker.
It may be necessary for the landlord to periodically replace the undersized main, as the frequent tripping events may wear it out. Apparently there is no inexpensive and readily-available method to count breaker trip events as they occur.
,
A commercialized form of this could be built as an electrical meter extension socket, with the punitive main breaker built into the extension socket.
This would allow the punitive main to be easily installed without any building wiring modifications:
1. An electrician pulls the tenant's meter
2. Plugs the tenant's meter into the extension socket
3. Plugs the extension into the regular meter socket
4. The utility bands both its own meter and the extension with anti-tamper seals
5. The charges for the utility to have to reband the meter are added to the tenant's overdue utility bills.
The extension adapter is designed so it can not be opened without removing its own meter socket band.
,
It seems possible for this to go a step further yet, and have an auto-reset breaker that resets itself after about 5-15 minutes (adjustable by the landlord). This way the tenant does not have to do anything to reset the breaker themselves, but they are definitely inconvenienced when the punitive main trips on them and their clothes dryer shuts off, or their hot water is not as hot as expected, etc.
,
In general it all seems within code safety requirements, and it appears legally acceptable to do this, if it is spelled out in the tenant's lease contract.
