Landlord callout charge

clutton_2

i would have said you may be responsible as it might be thought reasonable that it was a Provider problem if several properties in your locality were without electric at the same time -

silvercar

Landlord chose to call the electrician so it is his bill. If he had asked you to see if neighbours were also without power or phones the national grid himself (or asked you to) then he wouldn't have needed an electrician.

clutton_2

fair point silvercar - but surely anyone with common sense would check out with more than one neighbour before calling in an emergency service ?

PasturesNew

I'd have taken a walk down the street to peer at other people's places .... and left it for a day or so to see if it magically fixed itself. But that's just me... I'm odd like that. Some stuff just fixes itself by magic, as this would have done.

JanCee

You called the LL - he called the electrician = his responsibility. Tell him it is tax deductable. If he says he will take it out of your deposit then you must let him know that you will dispute it, in court if necessary. Communicate in writing and keep copies.

Allan87

clutton wrote: »

fair point silvercar - but surely anyone with common sense would check out with more than one neighbour before calling in an emergency service ?

Is that directed at me or my landlord? As all I did was follow the landlord's guidelines and inform them of a powercut, only one other flat in the building was affected and other houses on the street were fine so I assumed it was something internal to the building. After I confirmed trip switches were fine they made the choice to call someone out.

silvercar

Rental or owner occupier, surely the logical thing to do is first check if your trip switches have tripped and then, if not, check the street. Even if you didn't check the street and phoned the electric helpline for your area, the first thing they ask you to do is check your neighbouring properties.

poppysarah

Having rung them once about a powercut in Ardwick they asked me to go otuside and check what lights were on in neighbouring propertys.
Ardwick. In the dark. They're having a laugh. I did though, and they told me it was a major thing with a workman putting something through a mains cable.

Zelie

silvercar wrote: »

Rental or owner occupier, surely the logical thing to do is first check if your trip switches have tripped and then, if not, check the street. Even if you didn't check the street and phoned the electric helpline for your area, the first thing they ask you to do is check your neighbouring properties.

Are you reading different posts than I am? The op stated " only one other flat in the building was affected and other houses on the street were fine". Seems perfectly reasonable to go to the landlord as the next port of call. At which point fuses etc were checked and the landlord decided to send an electrician.

I don't see how it can ever be considered the tenant's fault. The tenant is no more psychic than the landlord and if the landlord thought it merited an electrician then it's their responsibility. If they take it out of deposit then challenge it - and make sure you write to them quickly and inform them that it's THEIR expense.

Allan87

My landlord has told me that as the fault was not inside the flat the liability is with the provider and I should take the matter up with them. They're saying I breached this section of the contract because no fault was found, have I hit a brick wall?

(b) In the event of the Tenant reporting a defect which results in the calling out of a contractor through the offices of the Landlord and no fault is discovered or a fault is discovered which is directly attributa!ble to an act or default of the Tenant or any one of them then the Tenant shall pay and be responsible for the contractors account. Should the Tenant call out a contractor without prior permission from the Landlord the Tenant will be liable for all costs