Electrial Matters

[ihateabbey]

Could Somebody Give me some Guidence please over what offical Checks should be done on electrics on a rented property, Including Appliances such as heaters/immersion heaters etc..

I have a serious problem with my electrics as advised unoffically by an electrian aquintance which has resulted in a bill for nearly £1900 which after going down every avenue having a new meter fitted to the property and a Accuracy meter..we have found the cause!!!! caused by dodgey sockets/appliances.. Which I was of course unaware of.

I have had no electrical checks and been in the property over 12 months, and I'm not aware of any previous checks ie No Green testing safety stickers on appliances.

Is this my problem I need to deal with? Landlord was meant to be sending his own electrian round, however a week later and 2 phone calls I still dont have one.

I'm a bit confused and worried and need to know what I should do

Cheers..

AJ

[Steve__M]

As a landlord I do not have to carry out any checks on appliances, though if new electrical work were done since 2005 it may need to be checked and certified. And I suspect that if the house burnt down due to dodgy electrics I'd been told about, I might be criminally liable.

Is the £1900 the electric bill? For 12 months? I can imagine a badly insulated 3 bed house costing that much to run per year - if it's a studio flat, or if it's per month then that's another matter!

Electricity usage produces heat. Dodgy sockets cannot use excess electricity without also burning down the house. I can understand how eg. faulty time switches that cause heaters and immersion heaters to be on for too long could be a problem, but that doesn't make the appliance unsafe. Also you should know there is a problem because the house will be too hot or the hot water will be too hot.

I've been encouraging my tenants to invest in one of those meter things that can tell you what individual appliances are using. They thought their bills were high and blamed dodgy electrics (which I'd installed!). But I explained that 40 minute showers cost 80 pence a time, their enormously powerful games PCs cost £2.50 per day and they had a 52 inch plasma screen on standby all day etc. etc. which soon added up. I told them my guess that their electricity bill would be over £100 per month (they have gas heating) and they did not argue with me.

You could also turn off all your appliances one by one and see how quickly the meter is ticking around.

I'm not saying your electrician friend is wrong, but without evidence, should your landlord's electrician ever turn up he'll just say you've got the heating on too high or you use too much hot water.

[ihateabbey]

Hi, The Bills were fine ( £50 or so a quarter) for the first few months, ( NOT estimated either ) then we had it rocket to £1900!!

We have done the go round the appliance route.. All of ours are fine, however its when we plug things into certain sockets its sets the meter into overdrive.

There are 2 sockets downstairs now we have found that dont even work!.. and then one socket downstairs thats dodgey and one upstairs.

We actually let our own house out ( its to small for us) and rent this larger on (alougth its not that big!) and we have a PAT/electrical test every year in our own.. I thought it was the norm.. Obviousley not!

When we had a meter accuracy test ( before we knew the problem) The guy that came to take it of said we had used the equivlent of Hotel or Business warehouse!!!

I just getting fed up of it all, and Ive still not had the bloody offical electrian round

The 'unoffical' electrian said the rate the meter was going round with the one thing plugged into the dodgey socket you'd of thought that every single light,appliance,kettle,mi crowave, immersion, Heaters were on!!!

We are careful about energy use ( hence our bills being low for the majority)

[Steve__M]

£1900 a quarter does sound excessive - that's equivalent to running 9 1-bar electric heaters non-stop 24 hours a day. Your house should be very hot.

If you think it is down to one socket some of the time then we are talking over 40 amps of current which ought to trip the switch or blow the fuse in the consumer unit (fuse box) and ought to cause the appliance to emit a *lot* of heat.

I'd suggest something like one of these:

Electrical Energy Meter - £24.95- Plug in, best value electricity meter.

PS you're very good if you PA test your appliances every year. Like you I've been both a tenant and a landlord at the same time, and it's a right pain in the wotsit when you treat your tenants well and then your landlord treats you badly.

[ihateabbey]

Thanks for the advice!

I'm STILL waiting for the electrian to come. Will be nice to get this sorted out for once and all.

I wish my house was warm!!:o It dosent even have central heating! It has radiotrors running of open fire back boiler.

This is where the problem came in... When we also plugged one of the heaters ( turn on and off ) type into the socket when we were testing applicances this made the meter go into overdrive, and it was also just set on 1/2 and number 1!! Luckily we dont use them much as I think that would of trebled our problems!! HOWEVER..ITS still effecting the meter when one of them is plugged in.. and turned off!! We had to actually unplug it out of the socket in order to stop any power usage

I think there are numerous problems with the electrics...


Have a viewing first week in Feb for a new property!! Had enougth of it here

However we need to resolve this problem...by the looks of what youve said we are going to have to foot this bill...

I am right in saying if its found to be true that the house has a fault with the electrics...we STILL have to foot the WHOLE bill?

The house is a Converted Barn, and not cheap to rent either! I believe it was done approx 10-15 years ago. We had a guest to say whos a buider, and he noticed quite a few flaws with the whole build so wouldnt surprise me that there is wireing problems!

[ihateabbey]

Ok Small Update...

STILL awaiting for the electrian ( feeling hes never even called for one now!!) Now the Landlord wont answer his phone to me either.

Anyone any advice on what I should do from here. I have a viewing for another property February..I'm sick and tired of paying rent and not getting any service or respect back Its a disgrace...

I wondered what action I should take... Especially If I get succesful with the new propety. I dont want to leave all this mess, I could imagine it could get very sticky if I have left the property. Landlord could claim there was nothing wrong, And take it out of my £1200 Bond.

I darnt even plug a heater in as it makes the Meter go onto overdrive. I'm bloody Freezing Sat in the house with my Fleece coat on, and the same for our daughter Plus I'm annoyed the landlord has made no effort to even come round. Let alone claim he had booked an electrcian.. This has been getting on for nearly a month now.