Leased garage (Naughty neighbors)

Davesnave

G_M wrote: »

And yet you'd then expect the OP's own garage door to stop working when he switched off his flat's power........

Perhaps.

I don't even have a nodding acquaintance with the 17th Edition of the wiring regs, so I've no idea what goes on nowadays, but when I laid a 30m cable to an outbuilding in 1990, I had to put it on a different circuit with its own more sensitive trip.

Outdated knowledge apart, I just can't believe that within the last 5 years a national house builder has intentionally enabled people to have free electricity in perpetuity by piggybacking on the street lamp supply or, even worse, a private individual's.

Mutton_Geoff

EachPenny wrote: »

I'd not be happy sleeping above a 'room' without any form of alarm, which has an unattended tumble dryer operating in it

I wouldn't be happy owning anything above, never mind sleeping in it!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-42709825/a-million-dangerous-tumble-dryers-still-in-uk

silvercar

You can get battery operated garage doors. Random google search leads me to this one.

Are you sure the neighbours haven't installed their own electric supply? Albit without the consent of the freeholder.

davidmcn

EachPenny wrote: »

I could easily imagine concerns about having a garage used by a third-party underneath a dwelling leading to all kinds of restrictions on what can and cannot be done in the garage - for example storing fuel, filling vehicle tanks, vehicle maintenance etc. Although it is common for people to have another flat below them, garages pose a different level of risk, and electrical supplies in buildings which are not normally occupied have a different level of risk compared to a dwelling.

But not concerns which (in my experience) end up in an insurance proposal form or as exclusions to cover. At the end of the day part of what we're paying the insurers to do is to take on the risk of the occupiers doing risky or careless things.

Such activities however may well be prohibited in the lease.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

I wouldn't be happy owning anything above, never mind sleeping in it!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-42709825/a-million-dangerous-tumble-dryers-still-in-uk

I think that would be the single point that would bother me most. I don't leave my own washing machine alone and go out or go to sleep just in case - and it's a German make (not Hotpoint or whatever).

So to have someone else's washing machine operating underneath my home would have me tearing my hair out knowing just what proportion of the human race are pretty careless/thoughtless. So I'd have worries about hassle if they caused me to have a fire, followed by hassle finding out if I could get compensation out of them for what they had put me through. My head hurts thinking of it..

gary83

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I think that would be the single point that would bother me most. I don't leave my own washing machine alone and go out or go to sleep just in case - and it's a German make (not Hotpoint or whatever).

So to have someone else's washing machine operating underneath my home would have me tearing my hair out knowing just what proportion of the human race are pretty careless/thoughtless. So I'd have worries about hassle if they caused me to have a fire, followed by hassle finding out if I could get compensation out of them for what they had put me through. My head hurts thinking of it..

I think it'd be interesting to see the figures over the last 40 odd years or however long it's been since practically everyone had a washing machine in their own house of just how many have caught fire, it's not like they're spontaneously combusting constantly

AdrianC

The Whirlpool dryer recall has certainly caught the headlines - and minds - and approximately 1m of the 3.8m affected machines are thought to still be extant.

But how many fires have actually been attributed to them over the three years or so since it all started? AIUI, the root cause is basic neglect - people not emptying the fluff filter, which then clogs, too close to the heater element.

Margot123

This sounds like a major fire risk to me.
Contact your local Fire Brigade office for advice.

EmmyLou30

My brothers coach house has no electrical supply to the garages below and the leases stipulate no filling or storing of fuel for exactly the reason people have mentioned here....fire risk. The thought of someone leaving their tumble dryer on below me would fill me with dread too. His garages have no power so he's safe in the knowledge that nothing bad is likely to happen. If I were the OP I'd speak to the garage leaser/user (once I'd checked the lease and was sure they weren't supposed to have a tumble dryer in there) and ask them to remove it.

ProDave

I don't see the fire risk of a TD or WM being any greater than the risk of a car in the garage, with many gallons of volatile fuel catching fire.

Remember the ceiling between a garage and habitable space should have been built to a much higher fire rating than a normal ceiling.