Landlords, Electrics and Windows

Ugly_Child

I'm wondering whether a landlord is required to modernise windows in a rented accommodation? The windows in our rented flat are single pane, what looks like aluminium framed and falling to pieces in parts. I'd say that they will substantially raise our heating bills.

Another issue is the electrics in the property, they need to have a complete overhaul. Ceramic fuses and in some cases unsafe sockets. In addition it looks like the board has been set up illegally to run of the night meter to mask the high bills, though the landlord is claim this is a fault. My question regarding the electricity is,

Is the landlord responsible for any hassle from the ESB for the night meter setup or fault because they didn't establish the safety of the electrics before allowing tenants to move in?

The ESB are taking a look at the place on Tuesday and I'm looking to not get stung by something dodgy the landlord or previous tenants have done.

convert

The landlord is required to ensure that the house/apartment is in a habitable condition and that the wiring is safe.

Have you lived in the house for long or have you only just moved in? Did you take a look at the wiring before you moved in? And have you expressed your concerns over the conditions of the wiring/fuses to the landlord?

AFAIK, any maintenance on the electrics in the house is the landlord's responsibility and it's up to them to maintain it and upgrade it if necessary. I'm not sure where the responsibility would lie with regard to the night meter, but you could contact Threshold and seek their advice regarding the matter.

As for the windows: did you mention it to the landlord or EA before you moved in to use it as a bargaining tool? Did you ask for/see and BER cert? You could try approaching the landlord and asking if there was any possibility of having the windows replaced, but I wouldn't hold my breath. And if they did say yes, then you could still be waiting quite a while for the new windows.

Ugly_Child

convert wrote: »

The landlord is required to ensure that the house/apartment is in a habitable condition and that the wiring is safe.

Have you lived in the house for long or have you only just moved in? Did you take a look at the wiring before you moved in? And have you expressed your concerns over the conditions of the wiring/fuses to the landlord?

AFAIK, any maintenance on the electrics in the house is the landlord's responsibility and it's up to them to maintain it and upgrade it if necessary. I'm not sure where the responsibility would lie with regard to the night meter, but you could contact Threshold and seek their advice regarding the matter.

As for the windows: did you mention it to the landlord or EA before you moved in to use it as a bargaining tool? Did you ask for/see and BER cert? You could try approaching the landlord and asking if there was any possibility of having the windows replaced, but I wouldn't hold my breath. And if they did say yes, then you could still be waiting quite a while for the new windows.

Thanks for the advice convert. The landlord is unfortunatly letting through an agent who has great difficulty contacting the landlord. I am told she is elderly. The agent aranged to have an electrician come out to us and look over the system. Where upon he told us he couldn't touch it due to the illegal set up. We were assured that the utilities of the flat were in good order, but the agent has fobbed us off getting a number of items including a BER. We unfortunatly needed to move in urgently and so had to go along with this.