tenant rights (Sacramento, Brea: real estate, rent, appliances)

[suzukirydr]

I'm having some issues with my landlord / property management agency. I rent an older home, built in 1940s, in Sacramento. Just before the new year, my power went out. Apparently, the fuzes were too big for the old electrical system, so instead of blowing out, the entire main board melted. After several days, the landlord finally agreed to authorize the repair. It was only a patch job, designed to get my power up and running. The electrician told the owner that the house ultimately needed to be rewired. Since it was over the holiday, the repairs were extra expensive, so the landlord opted to just have the circuit board fixed, and not rewire the whole house.

Yesterday, 1 month later, it happened again. The electrician came back, and told me the house only has one of the two functional power feeds. In order to fix the problem, the unfunctional feed needs to be replaced. This is a 2 man job that should take 4-6 hours.

The landlord is trying to blame me for running too many appliances. Admittedly, I did have 2 space heaters running, but this is my only source of heat, as the ancient gas floor furnace is a major hazard. However, the electrician assures me that once the house has fully functional power, then I can have heat, and toast...what a novelty.

This time when the power went out, the fuzes didn't break, as they generally do if I'm drawing too much from them.

I'm not sure what my rights are in this situation. I continue to lose countless hours of time, as well as the cost of replacing all my perishable goods.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[rgb123]

I dont know....but I fully believe it is the landlords responsibility, and especially if you were never warned about the problem. I dont think its really uncommon to have two space heaters, especially if there were issues with the heat! I'd be trying to get out of there myself....the landperson seems unreasonable and unfortunatley they usually win, right or wrong.

[Ultrarunner]

Older Homes ofter do not have the Electrical Capacity to run today's appliances... especially multiple heat producing appliances simultaneously.

Your home could have been built with anything from a single 30 Amp 120V Service to a more common 60 Amp 220V Service.

Many Cities now require 100 Amp 220V as the minimum for new construction and it is not at all uncommon for new homes with Central AC to have 200 Amp 220V.

What does this mean???

Two 1800 watt portable heaters require 30 Amps of Electricity... So you would be at your limit if you only have a 30 Amp Service.

Older Homes with limited Electric Panel Service often require GAS Heat, GAS Cooking and a Gas Dryer in order to function.

You should NEVER expect any Electric Service to be able to power more than one High Wattage, 1600 watt or higher, device per circuit... it doesn't matter if the home is 60 years old or new.

The difference between new and old homes is that a new home will have somewhere between 20 and 40 individual electric circuits, each with an individual circuit breaker. The Dishwasher, Garbage Disposal Counter Top Outlets will EACH have individual Circuit Breakers.

You are absolutely correct in your assumption. Properly sized fuses of circuit breakers are designed to protect the homes wiring by tripping if the safe circuit load is exceeded... in other words... you can't be responsible for damaging the wiring...

THE ONLY EXCEPTION IS... IF YOU HAVE replaced a blown fuse with a higher rated fuse or by-passed the fuse with the old penny trick. A higher rated replacement fuse will not protect the wiring or the home from an electrical fire.

A habitable unit must have heat... it is the law in California. The Gas Furnace needs to be repaired and it is the owner's responsibility. The is nothing wrong with an old furnace that is operating properly.

[Luke9686]

You did nothing wrong. Like the above said, they must have an operating heat source. If the landlord is playing hard ball, warn him once that if they aren't repaired, you will contact an attorney.

If he doesn't comply, call an attorney that specializes in Real Estate. Laws in California favor the tenant.