Moving to new apartment in same neighborhood and have question about cable box?

Question

I'm currently living with my parents and am moving into a new apartment (first floor of a house) 5 minutes away in the same neighborhood. The last tenant there (the landlord's mom) took the cable box with her, so while there is cable running into the apartment, there is no box.

Both locations are wired with Time Warner cable, so I was planning to take my HD cable box from here and bringing it there. Will it work?

If it doesn't, how should I go about getting a cable box in there without encriminating my landlord and his mom (as I would imagine they would want to know where the old box went if I ask for a new one)?

Answer 1

Time Warner will know very quickly that it is getting requests from the same user ID from two different cables.  Think about the interactive stuff -- it has to go back to TW.  They'll look at their records and know that you aren't the correct user.  If they feel like it, they'll prosecute you for theft of services -- and you'll get to pay a huge fine (if you don't want to go to jail, since they'll wait until you hit felony level -- if you count HD and pay-per-view opportunities, it won't take long).

They might've just turned it in, expecting you to get your own cable installation after you moved in, so it may returned and not stolen.

If cable service is included with your rent, tell the landlord you want the box or you'll go to TW to get one.  If they stole the box, the landlord should have to deal with it, not you.  You don't have to rat them out, just say there's no box in the unit -- TW can figure it out from there.

If it isn't included, just have TW install it under your name (probably better to do this anyway, since it looks like you could be renting from petty crooks) -- and let TW worry about where the box went (they'll just charge your landlord for it on the next bill).

Answer 2

It should work, as long as you are still paying for the same cable company.  Your cable box generally belongs to that company, meaning it will only work for that company and/or while you pay the bill.