anleja

This has the potential to be a long post... I'll try to keep it to the basics. It is about renting a house, concerns with wiring safety, and a landlord conflict. (You may want to stop here if none of these things concern you.)

Last month I started living in an old house, renting. We had a problem with one of the electrical outlets not working. We called the landlord and they fixed it. Afterwards I was a bit uncomfortable with the possibilty of faulty wiring. We have about 8 antique electrical wall fixtures, of which maybe 3 work when you put in a lightbulb.

I decided to call the housing inspector to inquire if the house had passed an electrical inspection (law requires renters of newly aquired properties to get inspections).

The lady told me that their information indicated that they landlord was listed as living in MY house, not that they were renting it to people. Not good for the landlord, this gives the gov't the impression that they are not claiming our rent payments as income. I was also informed that the last inspection was when the house was under the ownership of the previous owner, also not good for the current landlord.

The lady told me that when the house WAS inspected, they found no issues with the electric. I said something about how I was concerned about faulty wiring, told her about the outlet and the antique light fixtures. The lady told me that they don't usually inspect outlets in their inspections, but since I mentioned there being potential problems she made a complaint on my behalf to get the place inspected. I told her I didn't want to make a complaint, I just wanted to see if the place had been inspected. Well, she would not withdraw the complaint. I think she was already suspicious of the landlord due to them not registering it as a rental property.

So I called my landlord to tell them to expect to be contacted about the whole inspection thing (I didn't tell them about the residence issue, I figured that is none of my business anyway). I felt bad because I am pretty sure they would take care of any concern... and the guy was kinda mad at me because I didn't go to him first.

All this happened several days ago, today we got a call from the landlord, who was pissed because he now has to pay for an inspection, which they are probably going to do in a few days. (he said that the inspection of the previous owner would be transfered to them, so according to him they would be in compliance if I didn't call.)

So, he said, tomorrow he is going to come and take out the antique wall fixtures, seal the wires and plaster the holes in the wall before the inspection. Obviously he thinks the fixtures would be an inspection concern.

So now, he is pissed because I should have gone to him with any concern. When I spoke to him right after I called the housing inspector, he told me that he would do anything to ensure a safe house for us. Therefore, it seems kinda odd he is just now removing the fixtures, and not because of safety, but because the place is going to be deeply inspected.

Thanks if you read this far. I know rental/inspection issues are not too exciting.

Anyway, can you think of a better way you would have handled this, given the above information? Did I overstep my boundaries?

Also, the landlord said the fixtures would be safe if we didn't turn them on. Does anyone know if this is true, if you know anything about wiring? Wait a minute, it is the type of swith that you turn clockwise to turn on, clockwise to turn off, and around and around, so it is impossible to even tell if the non working ones are in the on or off positions.

Dammit, I don't even really know the point of this post. I don't know if I should feel bad for making the landlord have to pay for a possibly unnecessay inspection, or if I should feel mad for him trying to make me feel bad for calling the inspector about a potential fire hazard concern.