Can I claim back moneys on bills run up due to electrical fault?

ArdRi79

If big elec bills are run up due to an elec fault can I claim the money back from the landlord?

Im renting a 2 bedroom apartment and the Elec bills have averaged out at 300pm since I moved in due to an electrical fault with the immersion heater. It is constantly on and cannot be turned off. I have asked the landlords to repair it but despite promises it hasnt been done.

The house also has 2 broken rotting couches that were to be removed, unfinished repairs to the bathroom wall due to the last tennat and poorly fitted carpet thats been laid from randomly sized remnants... could that help any case I might bring?

Victor

It might be cheaper in the short run to hire your own electrician.

If this is a once off, probably not, but if its on-going, I would be looking for compensation.

tanyabond

By the sound of it you should not only be looking for compensation, but also for a new place to rent...

Milk & Honey

Why did you move in with the place in that condition? There must be hundreds of better places available.

Doom

It should have its own mcb, trip this
or if its a fuseboard, pull out the fuse, when you need the immersion just pop the mcb or fuse in......no more extra charges

Jehuty42

Milk & Honey wrote: »

Why did you move in with the place in that condition? There must be hundreds of better places available.

You'd be surprised. Good properties at affordable prices in nice areas with enough bedrooms are really really rare.

Ray Palmer

You would need to work out how much the immersion cost to run nd deduct some as you benefited from the hot water. A reasonable landlord should admit their part in your costs but I can see somebody just saying no.

It is a pretty easy low cost thing to fix so I wouldn't wait to have the LL fix it as the cost to you is quite high. Worth a talk to the LL. The quick solution is the mcb or the fuse depending on the set-up.

ArdRi79

Victor wrote: »

It might be cheaper in the short run to hire your own electrician.

If this is a once off, probably not, but if its on-going, I would be looking for compensation.

I took your advice there and got a sparks in Victor. He confirmed the electrical fault but also found that the timer on the wall wasnt working... to replace that will cost me an additional 130 and it wont be available before next week.

tanyabond wrote: »

By the sound of it you should not only be looking for compensation, but also for a new place to rent...

Your dead right Tanya Ive been looking. Some of the places Ive seen are dire but fingers crossed Ill get somewhere decent.

Milk & Honey wrote: »

Why did you move in with the place in that condition? There must be hundreds of better places available.

Its not all milk & honey here The last place I was living in looked lovely but it turned out to be in a bad area. The week I decided to move the road was blocked off by the gards because of the local scumbags rowing... one fella drove off only to come back and mill another lad out of it with his car...

Needless to say I wanted to be out of there pronto and the place Im in now is in a significantly nicer area.

Doom wrote: »

It should have its own mcb, trip this
or if its a fuseboard, pull out the fuse, when you need the immersion just pop the mcb or fuse in......no more extra charges

Sage advice there Doom cheers. I tried it but the immersion isnt on a seperate circuit so to knock it off Ive to knock off my fridge freezer and the tv. I can turn it off by messin with the immersion itself but Im not a sparks so its not safe to do long term.

Jehuty42 wrote: »

You'd be surprised. Good properties at affordable prices in nice areas with enough bedrooms are really really rare.

Very True Jehuty42. I viewed a fairly expensive place recently that looked lovely from the outside. It had an ideal location and the right number of rooms but when I went inside it was all thrown up so cheap that council flats looked posh in comparason.

Ochone agus ochone but I was on to the landlord with the report from the electrician and she'll pay for the new timer. Im off to Mabs to see about them sorting me out on the esb bill and if they can sort me it'll buy me some more time to go whatever road I need to go down to get the money back off the landlord.

Yeh cant stop progress what

Azureus

I had a similar problem and said it to my landlord, who reduced the rent by €100 per month until the problem was fixed. When the problem got fixed, he never said anything to me about putting the rent back up to the original price so I didnt...
Half expected him to take the difference out of my deposit but he never did. Always worth asking, you never know.

m.j.w

Did the electrician say anything about the circuit it was on. The immersion heater should not be on the same circuit as your fridge and tv. It should have its own circuit and there should be something in the meter board to isolate it.

ArdRi79

Azureus wrote: »

I had a similar problem and said it to my landlord, who reduced the rent by €100 per month until the problem was fixed. When the problem got fixed, he never said anything to me about putting the rent back up to the original price so I didnt...
Half expected him to take the difference out of my deposit but he never did. Always worth asking, you never know.

I think I will have a word cheers Azureus

m.j.w wrote: »

Did the electrician say anything about the circuit it was on. The immersion heater should not be on the same circuit as your fridge and tv. It should have its own circuit and there should be something in the meter board to isolate it.

He said it was unusual m.j.w and if it was his place he'd fix that but thats it. Do you think its dodgy to have it on the same circuit as the fridge and that?

hopalong_ie

Are you sure you were not actually using the water, firstly you don't say if you have a night meter or not, is the tank insulated with foam or not. Does the immersion unit have a thermostat under its cover set to 60c.

Why I ask if that usually a tank would actually boil out of the over flow if a 3kw element was constantly heating it without water been drawn off and replaced with cold water.

Plenty of discussion on this in the DIY forum and the opinion seems to be that it should not cost more than a couple of euros more a month to leave an immersion on rather than time it as it will be controlled by the thermostat on it.

Assuming the sparking is not comming from the unit itself this would seem to be unlikely to be all malfunctioning. Otherwise you saying, its on wrong circuit, Timers dead but constantly on, thermostat is dead but still circuit is complete and the heat loss from the tank was enough for it not to boil while be heated 24/7 by possibly a 3kw element, of course depending of tank / element design.

If your not on night rate assuming an electricity rate of 20c per unit and a 3kw element that was on non stop it would cost you €430 a month for heating the water alone all things above being true.

ArdRi79

hopalong_ie wrote: »

Are you sure you were not actually using the water, firstly you don't say if you have a night meter or not, is the tank insulated with foam or not. Does the immersion unit have a thermostat under its cover set to 60c.

Cheers for replying hopalong_ie my water usage is limited to a shower in the morning, tea, washing the dishes and doing a machine wash every second or third day. Would that be enough water used to keep the immersion running?.

I dont know what a night meter is but the tank is insulated internally, its not one of those brass yolks with a lagging jacket on it. I dont see a theromostat on the tank it has two round silver covers with wiring and a red switch going from positive to negative beneath them.

Why I ask if that usually a tank would actually boil out of the over flow if a 3kw element was constantly heating it without water been drawn off and replaced with cold water.

To the best of my knowledge nothing has come out the overflow.

Plenty of discussion on this in the DIY forum and the opinion seems to be that it should not cost more than a couple of euros more a month to leave an immersion on rather than time it as it will be controlled by the thermostat on it.

I dont see a thermostat on the thing as I said. The sparks was saying the places were thrown up. He had to completely rewire a bedroom in one of the apartments in my complex because for some reason there was no power goin to it. Maybe the lazy fecker who didnt put the immersion on its own circuit and probably made a hames of that bedroom didnt put a thermostat on my immersion either.

Assuming the sparking is not comming from the unit itself this would seem to be unlikely to be all malfunctioning. Otherwise you saying, its on wrong circuit, Timers dead but constantly on, thermostat is dead but still circuit is complete and the heat loss from the tank was enough for it not to boil while be heated 24/7 by possibly a 3kw element, of course depending of tank / element design.

All I can tell you is for the month of april I wasnt home 3 days a week and when I was only the lights the kettle and the hob were used and I still ran up a bill close to 300 euro on the esb. Something is eating the electricity and the immersion heater is the only thing that should be running... except the fridge freezer.

If your not on night rate assuming an electricity rate of 20c per unit and a 3kw element that was on non stop it would cost you €430 a month for heating the water alone all things above being true.

Thank god for small mercies what. Im on night rate.