So my family rent half of an old remodeled home that’s been broken into two units by our leech. City recently did some inspections and had a laundry list of things to fix, most of which was directed at the leech but they told us we can’t use the three-to-two prong adapters we’ve been using since we moved here to plug in all of our modern electronics.
The maintenance guy told us they would install gfci outlets and asked how many we wanted, but that never ended up happening. I’m probably gonna try to ask the landlord directly but given our interactions so far I’m not optimistic. So I need a backup plan if he takes the easy route and risks our health and the potential to burn the place down to save a few hundred dollars of the rent I pay him.
Obviously I can just not be using them when the city comes back but in the long run I know it’s not safe for my family, but I also can’t force the leech to make the place safe for my child. Is there something safer than an adapter we could use once this passes? We can’t really give up all of our three pronged electronics and it would still not solve the safety issue if we did.
I used to have a 3-to-2 adapter with a little metal ring on the bottom for attaching an external ground wire if you have like a radiator or other metal plumbing around. use 8 gauge wire or lower
Any tenants rights orgs in your city? Ask them about putting your rent in escrow or even directly diverting rent to pay for repairs. In some places tenants laws let you go over the landlord’s head, or stick it in a separate account the landlord can’t have until they complete the repairs.
I don’t think so within my neighborhood but there is a legal aid society for the city overall which might be able to tell me if this is a problem that requires remediation. I have a feeling since the building inspector didn’t force the issue that it’s likely not a legal requirement, just a safety issue.
The inspector probably doesn’t know the ins and outs of rental law, he’s just there to make sure the building conforms to code. I’d hit up your legal aid folks and ask for help.
It wouldn’t be hard to swap in GFI outlets yourself if that’s what you think would need to happen. Do you have access to the breaker box? Could maybe talk the landlord into deducting the cost from your rent?
I would strongly recommend against doing amateur electrical unless you have to. For all kinds of reasons, mostly involving dying.
Yeah that’s my worry too, I’m a bit skittish and have no real experience with wiring.
Electrical, plumbing, and anything that involves going on a roof should be left to professionals whenever possible. two of them can get you killed real easy and plumbing can kill the building real easy.
Don’t forget that electrical can burn the building down too. It’s not worth the risk
If you’re anxious about it then yeah maybe try and get the landlord to fix it.
I’m not sure, the units are connected in the basement and I’m not sure I could do it without shutting down power to the other tenants. I could ask though.
You should be able to figure out what circuit it’s on even if they aren’t labeled through trial and error flipping them one at a time. Aside from desktop computers you might just have to reset some clocks.
Never do ‘repair and deduct’.
Even if you have written proof of your landlord telling you to do it, they can still file an eviction against you for not paying your rent in full then you’ll only be able to contest it once it goes to court—if you have proof. Not worth it.
I’m currently living an ungrounded lifestyle and I have the adapters everywhere. The only device I decided not to plug in is the microwave since it has a high voltage transformer and the microwave I had was very cheap. Not having a ground wire is potentially a safety issue but not in the way most people think. The ground wire just provides an alternate path to return current back to the panel in case the hot wire in the device should come loose and touch the metal case on the device. You can install gfi outlets without a ground wire but the gfi does need to be the first outlet on a branch circuit and labeled as ‘no equipment ground’. You would need to figure that out by following the circuit from the panel and unless the outlet is turned off by a switch you need to turn it off at the panel while replacing the outlet. It’s pretty easy to do with a screwdriver and something to trim the insulation off the wire like a wire stripper or utility knife and I would use a meter to prove the circuit is de-energized before working on it. I’m not sure what their issue is with the adapters unless they are telling the rentseeker to rewire the house with a ground wire. An ungrounded gfi is exactly the same as using a 3-2 adapter your just using the 3 hole gfi as the adapter in this case but your also getting gfi protection. Not sure if I made it clear but ground wire and gfi are two different safety concerns.
I think it’s a legal gap. Presumably it’s against the city’s regulations for the adapters to be used to plug a three prong into an ungrounded outlet. But it doesn’t seem like the landlord has to provide outlets that are compatible with modern appliances.
I’m pretty sure they only make three hole gfci outlets so your best bet is to at least get the first outlet in the circuit with a gfci outlet and the rest either gfci (redundant after the first one) or three prong outlets and they all have to be marked ‘no equipment ground’. The other comments about making the landlord do it is probably the best advice. The rentseeker should have just rewired the house if it was remodeled.
