tennant responsibilities

corsel

We lost all our electrical power apart from lights last night and so this morning our agency sent out an electrician. He reset the trip switch after switching off all appliances. This did the trick. Our agency now tells us that we will be charged for call out next time as this was a simple thing to fix. I'm keen to know if this is reasonable before I argue. Both my husband and I really didn't have a clue how to fix the problem and to be honest everything in the house has been done "on the cheap" and so we would be loathe to touch the electrics. Does anyone know where we stand?

Gorgeous_George

I think the Letting Agents are right (but I'm a LL so would say that ).

Seriously, you cannot expect the LL to pick up the tab for a trip switch working correctly. A dodgy kettle, a blown lightbulb can trip the switch. You should reset it and try to work out which appliance causes it to trip.

GG

poppysarah

Electrics normally go because either something has broken and tripped the safety switch, or because you've got a major problem.

When the electricity goes off unplug everything and go and look at the fuse box. See which switch has tripped. Put it back up and if it stays up then fine - something you were just using has broken. Trial and error and a good sniff will indicate what it was.
Don't use the thing that trips the power until you've checked the fuse in it /and or taken it to an expert/thrown it in the bin.

People always say "Oh I hadn't just plugged anything in - it just went" and you go and look and there'll be an iron and ironing board out - and they say "oh apart from the iron"...

Irons are quite often the culprits along with nasty cheap lightbulbs. But the bulbs should only blow the lighting circuit nothing else.

If you've unplugged everything (including fridge etc) and the fuse switch still won't stay up then you've got a problem that needs looking at. But always double check everything is switched off.

corsel

Thanks guys ..glad I didn't lose my rag with them then!!

Ladybird20

itsa a good question though

BrixMorta

I’ve had tenants call asking us to send an electrician to change a light bulb and others saying heating not working when they haven’t turned it on in the first place. Night storage heaters are the usual culprits with tenants phoning in mid day to say they have turned storage heater on an hour ago and blasted thing doesn’t work!?

olly300

BrixMorta wrote: »

I’ve had tenants call asking us to send an electrician to change a light bulb and others saying heating not working when they haven’t turned it on in the first place. Night storage heaters are the usual culprits with tenants phoning in mid day to say they have turned storage heater on an hour ago and blasted thing doesn’t work!?

If you leave the tenants a folder with information in it include basic information and tell them to check that first before phoning you then some of the problems i.e. heating won't happen.

PasturesNew

BrixMorta wrote: »

I’ve had tenants call asking us to send an electrician to change a light bulb and others saying heating not working when they haven’t turned it on in the first place. Night storage heaters are the usual culprits with tenants phoning in mid day to say they have turned storage heater on an hour ago and blasted thing doesn’t work!?

I wish Landlords did change lightbulbs ... I've got one that's blown in my dressing area and I can't reach the darned thing... especially as it's in a peculiar light housing.


As for the night storage heater. Scarey beast that is. No instructions, daren't use it... I'm petrified of it.

If I were a landlord I'd have a Welcome Pack in the flat telling them what's what etc. When you're in rented accommodation you do come across things you've never seen/used before. I didn't even know my electricity meter was on Economy7 until I tried to phone the meter reading through and she had to talk me through reading that, I'd never seen such a meter before.

olly300

PasturesNew wrote: »

If I were a landlord I'd have a Welcome Pack in the flat telling them what's what etc. When you're in rented accommodation you do come across things you've never seen/used before. I didn't even know my electricity meter was on Economy7 until I tried to phone the meter reading through and she had to talk me through reading that, I'd never seen such a meter before.

I've had 3 landlords who have either left a folder of useful information or a pile of manuals for the heating, washing machine etc with notes on them in one place.

It's annoying that people presume that other people know how to use an appliance without being shown.

In my university halls there were issues with some students nearly burning kitchens down due to putting metal in the microwave.

sillyvixen

trip switch used to go in my last rental property after about an hour of ironing - the first time it happened i called my dad who is an electrical enginer - as lights were working just plugs gone off (tv etc) he said it was the trip switch - we could not find it and he came and sorted it - after that we new what to do. he says it is a sensitive circuit as i have never had a problem with the same appliences in my own home.

poppysarah

Sensitive circuit? No, a fault that happens to an iron that's been on for an hour. Either buy a new iron or don't iron for that long.