Electrical issue in rental property - agents not responding appropriately

charliewocka

Hi,


Am currently a tenant in a fully managed property (terraced house). A few weeks ago I came down to my kitchen to find the washing machine had leaked everywhere. Contacted the estate agent who got British Gas homecare team around to investigate as there was water everywhere.


While investigating the issue, the plumber pulled out the washing machine and it was discovered that the washing machine was plugged into a trailing extension socket that was located directly UNDERNEATH the washing machine. Thank heavens the water didn't make contact as it appeared to flood on one side (or the floor is super unevern ). There isn't a power socket located close enough to the machine for it to be plugged into.


I raised the issue on the Monday with the agents as I understood it to be that all portable appliances need to be wired into a wall socket. I got a response of 'we'll email the LL and see what she says'. After a week of hearing nothing I chased the agent again who said LL would send round her 'handyman' to take a look. That was fine, and requested I be kept fully in the loop.


Handyman turned up unannounced one day while I was at work and dealt with my brother who lives with me. He agreed it wasn't acceptable and needed to be done. I emailed the agent and the handyman to request that ALL issues on the property come through me as my brother has Aspergers, gets confused and has communication issues (plus it's my name as the tenant on the property) and this was fine.


Get a call last week to say they would come round tomorrow to sort out the problem, and have just had an email form the agent to say the handyman has twisted his knee and won't be able to make it tomorrow and will come on Monday instead. I'm not here next week due to working away so my response has been:


I’m not available next week as I’m overseas.

Given the urgency of this work from a health and safety and legislative perspective, is there an alternative way of getting this done? It’s been a number of weeks now.


Any advice on this? I'm having to use the washing machine to wash my clothes but am afraid of water entering into the electrics and causing serious issues, and also from a safety perspective.

Foxy-Stoat_3

Handy man cannot carry out electrical work, unless he is Part P qualified.

Get the Agent to tell the LL to instruct an electrican to carry out the works, they should be able to sort this out fairly easily, unless the wiring is shot to sh*t.

jjlandlord

I don't think that there is any regulation that says that a washing machine cannot be connected through an extension lead, as long as that extension lead is appropriate and not overloaded, of course.

Just make sure that it is held up to avoid getting it wet and you're good.

anselld

There is nothing fundamentally unsafe about using an extension lead provided it is correctly fused and rated. It should of course be located so as not to present trip hazard etc.

Can you not just relocate the extension lead for the time being?

Mallotum_X

many extension leads can be wall mounted it just needs to be fixed on the wall behind the machine and it wont get wet from a flood.

rdr

Mallotum_X wrote: »

many extension leads can be wall mounted it just needs to be fixed on the wall behind the machine and it wont get wet from a flood.

Just 2 screws in the wall and then hook it up