Crypto-mining: Screen tenants for own protection, landlords told
Local property owners must thoroughly screen any prospective tenants, and conduct regular checks on them, as ways to prevent the properties being turned into illegal cryptocurrency mining dens.
In giving this reminder, Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak Datuk Sebastian Ting said since February 2022, Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Piasau office had received eight complaints from the owners of properties here, ranging from industrial blocks, shophouses and residential premises.
He said these owners had been ordered by Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) to settle electricity bills amounting to between RM135,000 and RM831,000, ‘no thanks to cryptocurrency miners operating in their premises’.
The Piasau assemblyman said he was very concerned with this issue and thus, he urged property owners to conduct due diligence checks on the tenants before renting out their properties.
“Always be on the lookout for any suspicious activities.
“Seeing the amount owed (in unpaid electricity bills), even if you sell off the property, it may not be even enough to cover the outstanding amount,” he told reporters when met after attending a briefing conducted by SEB Northern Region customer service manager Mohamad Nazeeb at the SUPP Pujut office on Wednesday.
At present, Miri tops the list in terms of reports of power theft in Sarawak, as indicated by the latest bust of several illegal cryptocurrency mining centres here, which had the SEB incurring losses of up to RM4 million monthly.
Out of 260 illegal cryptocurrency mining cases uncovered in Sarawak since 2018, about 60 per cent (156 cases) were recorded in Miri, said SEB in a statement issued on April 16.
On this subject, Ting remarked: “The biggest concern is the risk of fire to properties and lives as there is a lot of ‘heat’ generated by such crypto-mining activities, and there have been several such (fire) cases reported already.”
He stressed that property owners should make it a point to meet up with prospective tenants and conduct periodic checks on property to ascertain genuine tenancy.
“On the legal viewpoint, they (landlords) are liable to be held accountable for power theft as the electricity meter is registered to their name,” he added.