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Landlord not repairing Electrical Problems

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madjaxem

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Virginia

I moved into a rental home on October 15 2005. I noticed an electrical problem on December 15 and contacted my Landlord via phone who promised to get an electriciam to my home ASAP. On December 20 2006 five days later there was an electrical surge and damaged over 2000 worth of my belongings. The Landlord arrived 10 minutes later and called the electrician for the first time although he promised to do so 5 days prior. Is the Landlord liable for my damages?

Susan
 


ENASNI

Senior Member
madjaxem said:
What is the name of your state? Virginia

I moved into a rental home on October 15 2005. I noticed an electrical problem on December 15 and contacted my Landlord via phone who promised to get an electriciam to my home ASAP. On December 20 2006 five days later there was an electrical surge and damaged over 2000 worth of my belongings. The Landlord arrived 10 minutes later and called the electrician for the first time although he promised to do so 5 days prior. Is the Landlord liable for my damages?

Susan

Desperately seeking Susan's logical side... :(

YOU noticed the problem, YOU kept your $2000 dollars worth of equipment plugged in not the landlord. YOU need to see if you can argue with nice little ENASNI about that.


Okay I am hiding under my desk, come and find me. :eek:
 
Last edited:

acmb05

Senior Member
madjaxem said:
What is the name of your state? Virginia

I moved into a rental home on October 15 2005. I noticed an electrical problem on December 15 and contacted my Landlord via phone who promised to get an electriciam to my home ASAP. On December 20 2006 five days later there was an electrical surge and damaged over 2000 worth of my belongings. The Landlord arrived 10 minutes later and called the electrician for the first time although he promised to do so 5 days prior. Is the Landlord liable for my damages?

Susan
I have only Two words for you


"RENTERS INSURANCE"
 

madjaxem

Junior Member
ENASNI said:
Desperately seeking Susan's logical side... :(

YOU noticed the problem, YOU kept your $2000 dollars worth of equipment plugged in not the landlord. YOU need to see if you can argue with nice little ENASNI about that.


Okay I am hiding under my desk, come and find me. :eek:

What do you mean I noticed the problem? Of course I noticed the problem I am the one living here. Why would I unplug everything? I am not an electrician. The Landlord was supposed to hire one ASAP as he promised. The problem was with the grounding of the house which I had nothing to do with.
 

madjaxem

Junior Member
acmb05 said:
I have only Two words for you


"RENTERS INSURANCE"

I know I should have obtained renters insurance which I now have but even my agent told me although he would have paid my claim the insurance company would have taken the Landlord to court for not responding to my problem.
 

ENASNI

Senior Member
madjaxem said:
What do you mean I noticed the problem? Of course I noticed the problem I am the one living here. Why would I unplug everything? I am not an electrician. The Landlord was supposed to hire one ASAP as he promised. The problem was with the grounding of the house which I had nothing to do with.

I came out from under my desk for ^^^^ that???

forgettabout it! :rolleyes:
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
sue if your homes ground / neutral connection ( your lights once in while flicked brighter ? ) failed the easiest thing would be for you to submit claim to your renters ins. If you think your LL is responsible then you need to sit down with a atty and bring with you written reports as to the exact nature of the problem and let the atty advise you of your options. When the neutral failed at the 4 unit I had where I too lived in one unit I was lucky and caught it in time to stop it from frying everything. Both my neutral and the grounding had failed and it was making a 220v circuit out of 110s every time the lights flicked.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
madjaxem said:
I know I should have obtained renters insurance which I now have but even my agent told me although he would have paid my claim the insurance company would have taken the Landlord to court for not responding to my problem.
So because you didn't have renters insurance at the time, YOU will have to take him to court if you want your money back. Did you have surge protectors?
 

madjaxem

Junior Member
ecmst12 said:
So because you didn't have renters insurance at the time, YOU will have to take him to court if you want your money back. Did you have surge protectors?
I did have surge protectors for the three computers but it didn't help. I do have a suit against the LL and it is on the docket Friday 17th of March. I decided not to hire an attorney because the cost would be half of what I am out of already. I am a CASA volunteer so I do know a bit about court. I would not hold my LL liable if I had not informed him 5 days prior to this happening. I noticed my microwave dragging and dimming. I have a list of items I have asked the LL to repair and he doesn't. For the most part the only result has been inconvenience such as stove eyes needing replaced because my pots tilt, continuous running toilets, cat litter found in shower ect. but this time his ignoring my requests has cost me more then that. Not only did I lose 2,000 of items but the danger he put us through. My husband and I usually repairs things ourselves but we are not electricians and my lease states I can not hire anyone else to repair things that I must go through the LL.
 

madjaxem

Junior Member
FarmerJ said:
sue if your homes ground / neutral connection ( your lights once in while flicked brighter ? ) failed the easiest thing would be for you to submit claim to your renters ins. If you think your LL is responsible then you need to sit down with a atty and bring with you written reports as to the exact nature of the problem and let the atty advise you of your options. When the neutral failed at the 4 unit I had where I too lived in one unit I was lucky and caught it in time to stop it from frying everything. Both my neutral and the grounding had failed and it was making a 220v circuit out of 110s every time the lights flicked.
When you say you caught it early does that mean you contacted your LL and they had the problem repaired before anything ruined? I know this could have been avoided had my LL hired an electrician as promised. 5 days after I told him about the problem is when the damage occurred.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
madjaxem said:
When you say you caught it early does that mean you contacted your LL and they had the problem repaired before anything ruined? I know this could have been avoided had my LL hired an electrician as promised. 5 days after I told him about the problem is when the damage occurred.
I would be very surprised if you got anything. You noticed the problem. You noticed the power surges by your own words. You could have safeguarded your $2000 worth of equipment but didn't. You left them plugged in when you knew there was an electrical problem.
If you had renter's insurance it would cover you. It is not your landlord's responsibility. And how did you inform your landlord? was it verbally or in writing? If only verbally that may not have been providing proper notice according to landlord/tenant law. Hence you didn't live up to what YOU were supposed to do.
Now, since people have already told you this, I highly doubt you will listen but you are probably just wasting everyone's time by going to court. Learn your lesson, buy renter's insurance and go from there.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
Max I was a owner occupant and it was caught before there was total failure wich would have created a non stop 220v circuit. Roof overhang over the drops tie down point was very narrow and likey 40 + yrs of rain /snow melt got into the connection of the neutral , soaked it enough to help corrode the connection , the connection for just second at a time would fail and thats when the lights flicked, power company was called and they had someone come out, he had me shut off the power to every apt for about 5 min while on the ladder and he cut off the old connector. stripped back to get new wire. used new connector and resealed it. it was done. As far as the ground to the building it was not very tight at the water meter so thats what helped create the 220v in whole building . any way if you noticed brighter flicks on your lights and maybe any motors like fridge motor running differently when this occured Its too bad you didnt call power co , they could have looked at the drop connections and at least determined if that was the cause. To have 220v surge both your buildings ground connections and neutral somewhere had to fail. Now it will be up to you to prove this was LLs neglect, so make sure you bring your proof into court with you.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
FarmerJ said:
Max I was a owner occupant and it was caught before there was total failure wich would have created a non stop 220v circuit. Roof overhang over the drops tie down point was very narrow and likey 40 + yrs of rain /snow melt got into the connection of the neutral , soaked it enough to help corrode the connection , the connection for just second at a time would fail and thats when the lights flicked, power company was called and they had someone come out, he had me shut off the power to every apt for about 5 min while on the ladder and he cut off the old connector. stripped back to get new wire. used new connector and resealed it. it was done. As far as the ground to the building it was not very tight at the water meter so thats what helped create the 220v in whole building . any way if you noticed brighter flicks on your lights and maybe any motors like fridge motor running differently when this occured Its too bad you didnt call power co , they could have looked at the drop connections and at least determined if that was the cause. To have 220v surge both your buildings ground connections and neutral somewhere had to fail. Now it will be up to you to prove this was LLs neglect, so make sure you bring your proof into court with you.

This can also happen to just 2 circuits as well if a "shared" neutral lost connection to ground.

Just for a bit of info :

for those that use "surge protectors"
many of them offer guarantees that will replace damaged equiptment.
BUT you need to be aware of what a surge protector is actually designed to do first.

Read the specs to see what the protector is designed to do. Most consumer protectors are only designed to protect from large surges. I mean like 1000 volts or more (read: lightning protection)(look for a "shunt" voltage rating). It would not have prevented the damage the OP sustained.

what you really want is a power conditioner. Some (not all) UPS ( no, not United Parcel Service, uninterruptable power supply) systems are rated as such. Read the manufacturers' info.
 
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