My fiance and I are currently renting an apartment in Baltimore, MD and recently we have become alarmed by much of the house's wiring. Things we have seen included:
- countless wires that are spliced together outside of electrical boxes
- wires spliced together with only electrical tape inside electrical boxes
- wires spliced together with only electrical tape outside of an electrical box
- wires that are black spliced to wires that are white
- single wires running from one electrical box to another (i.e. only hot or only neutral)
- loose wires laying in the back of our cabinets
- wires pinned (and chafed) between our oven and sharp corners of the cabinetry
- lighting fixtures that are wired in series instead of parallel
- twisted pairs without any sort of jacket running from one fixture to another
A lot of this was here when we arrived but we have personally observed a couple fixes entailing several of the bullet points above within the last few months.
I don't think that there is any combination of grandfathering in and loopholes that could result in this setup being up to code but are things like this common in older(early 1900's) houses? We've brought it up with our land lord but he hasn't taken any significant action to correct the issues. Would it be excessively paranoid to insist that someone inspect the place? If not what type of inspection should we ask for?
Best Answer
I had this same situation. I made a (written) list of issues (with pictures) and gave it to the landlord. When it became clear that the landlord would not fix them, I called an inspector. It turned out that there was a completely different department overseeing residential safety inspection vs. building code inspection, but after getting that sorted, they gave the home a free inspection and gave the landlord a fine and deadline to fix the issues. The landlord was understandably upset and asked us to leave, and we happily signed the lease-termination. I maybe should have told the landlord that I was going to refer the issues to the city by such-and-such a date and this may have avoided involving the city and angering the landlord. We probably would have been let out of lease under better terms, but there would have been no incentive for the landlord to fix anything and the cycle would have begun again with the next tenants.
I recommend you give the landlord every opportunity to fix your concerns, and seek a mutual lease-termination agreement if/when this fails. Pay your rent! If you don't and this goes to court, then It'll just end up looking like the you wanted out all along and used the safety issues as an excuse. If the inspector condemns the place, and you are forced to move, then you can stop paying your rent.