I rent a home and the power started having really bad surges last night. I called my power company and he says their end is fine. The electrician inside says there is an issue with the wiring of some sort. Is the landlord responsible for thing that got fried like my cable box and my computer?
The landlord may be responsible if it is proven that he has been negligent. In other words, if he knew of the problem and didn't act on it or tell you about it.
a artwork pc And the Freegin element substitute into plugged right into a surge Protector to. yet i dunno what exceeded off, there substitute into an exceedingly loud thunderclap and the lights furniture flickered and once I went to bypass to artwork the subsequent morning and grabbed the Powerbook, It substitute into lifeless and wouldnt come returned on.
Landlord is responsible for the necessary repairs. Go over your lease with a fine tooth comb, make sure there are no provisions to protect him against any litigation. It will probably say plainly somewhere that you are responsible for property damaged regardless of the cause of damage or what not just read it very carefully. If you made him aware of the problem and he did not have it fixed in a timely fasion, he may be responsible for damaged electronics. You'd better have a paper trail because all the good faith goes right out the window once you try to reach into his pocket. My brother from Chicago hit the nail square on the head with the open neutral three or four answers up.
No, the landlord does not have to pay you for an electrical problem (at least not in my state) you should number one buy a good surge protector and number two get your landlord to get an electrician out there and find the problem. Then I suggest you get renters insurance. The electrician says there is a problem did he check it out and see what the problem was, if so why did he not repair it? Many homes have a dropped neutral problem that could be in the meter base. at the main panel or even in the line side on the utility side. This would effect the whole house and if it is a single circuit then it could be many things but more then likely the same thing on a branch circuit. If it is a dropped neutral problem you will experience lights flickering and some things looking like they are going crazy. This is caused by the two hot wires that comes in loosing the neutral to carry back a load properly, one side may go as high as say 160 volts and th other side to drop to 80 volts or worse yet if you lose the neutral you are in big trouble. I would get it repaired before I plug anything in to your electrical outlets especially electronics.
get a surge suppressor, since a surge suppressor is not perfect, also get a UPS. That will condition the line. Next notify the landlord, he may not know that the house wiring is dangerous. If you are having problems and it is not the power company, it is a dangerous situation.
