Electric problems, could we claim rent reduction?

[chesternutz]

Hi

1 week after moving in our electric blew on sockets in living and dining room downstairs, the electrician has been back twice and still not fixed it.

The landlord has kindly broughtus an extension so we can still use front room.

 

question - could we claim rent reduction? feel bad though as he is such a nice landlord and doing all he can to chase electrician and paying out a whack to get it all fixed!

 

cheers

 

[Joa]

landlord...doing all he can to chase electrician and paying out a whack to get it all fixed!

things do go belly up sometimes and nobody ever can expect absolute perfection. The landlord is attending to the problem the best way he can- so at the moment it would not be right to reduce the rent.

I would ask the electrician however why did the circuits blew up. If it transpires that the landlord rented you a property with unsafe wiring then it would be entirely different matter. Landlords, currently,are not legally obliged to test the safety of electrics in the property (unlike the gas safety matters), it would only be a good practice to do so. Therefore it would be difficult to say that landlord screwed up in any way. Asking for any compensation or reduction could sour your relationship with the landlord, which is very very precious thing, more precious then a small rent reduction in a long run.