New Tenant Requests
Hello Forum,
This is my first post after lurking around a bit, and was hoping I could get some direction. I currently live in a house hacked duplex, and rented out the lower unit roughly a month ago. This is the 3rd tenant I have had in the space since purchasing myself. Today, I received the below email from the tenant looking for some fixes to happen on the unit. A number of them are straight forward enough and I can answer or take care of, but the final request seems to be a bit excessive, as basically the house would need to rewired.
"We are really enjoying the apartment so far and are slowly getting more and more settled in. Below please find a list of items that we have come across in the move-in process that need resolution.
1. Doorbell does not work
2. Ceiling fan in living room does not work; light works, but not fan component
3. Thermostat does not work; the display screen doesn't properly display so we cannot see the temperature or know what it is changing to when we hit buttons
4. Ceiling area looks problematic by bay windows in living room (photo attached)
5. Bathroom fan does not seem to function efficiently
6. Washer and dryer seem unbalanced
7. Electrical situation - There are no outlets in the kitchen that are available to use and some circuits are overloaded. This is difficult as it's in the kitchen where one would expect to plug in a blender, toaster, microwave, etc. We had plugged the microwave into the outlet with the fridge but have tripped the circuit several times, even when the fridge was not running. After an assessment of the electrical outlets throughout the apartment, it just does not make sense. We understand that this an older home but we want to feel comfortable with the electrical situation from a typical convenience situation as well as from a safety perspective.
As you can see in the attached spreadsheet (by circuit and by room), circuit 6 and 5 are overloaded. We tried moving the microwave into the dining room (after trying to microwave in the kitchen when the TV was off, living room lights off, and the fridge not running) but the only 3-prong outlet in dining room is on the same circuit as the kitchen so that didn't work. As it is, we have the toaster and coffee maker on the dining room windowsill where there is a 2-prong outlet not on circuit 6; however, when I was blow drying my hair in the bathroom it tripped the circuit because the coffee maker in the dining room was also on and it's on same circuit as the outlet in bathroom (I have now switched to using a different outlet in the bathroom on circuit 10 to avoid this problem).
We have tried over the past month to adapt and make adjustments but even the adjustments are not working, especially with the kitchen and appliances. After reviewing the attached spreadsheet, we would like to see if possible to have an electrician come out and assess the situation and see if there are any changes that can be made to add a usable 3-prong outlet in the kitchen as well as lighten the load on circuits 6 and 5. Please note that all 3-prong receptacles are not grounded. It also appears that there is a circuit for an electrical stove that perhaps could be used in some other fashion. The circuit breaker is a safety device; simply switching the circuit back on without investigating the underlying problem could become costly in the long run and, in many cases, extremely dangerous. We want to be sure that there is not a potentially dangerous electrical/fire issue.
There is also a socket in the living room where we can only access one section of it because something seems to be jammed in the other part."
This is the first I have been informed on all the above issues, as no other tenant made mention. Any thoughts would be great!
Thanks!