Our upstairs showers draining straight into the kitchen, right above the fridge (the water looked to be coming out the socket!).
Landlords (typicaly useless response) is "put sign upstairs saying shower out of order and switch fridge back on - will take several days to get tradesman".
do I a) do as he says and bill him for my stuff when it all ends in a big fireball
b) leave it all switched off and bill him for all the ruined food
c) call out plumber, pay emergency rates, bill landlord
d) wee in his shoes
Have a look yourself? Is it the whole drain from the shower or just a leak from round the tray?
What does it say in your contract? Surely he has a responsibility to ensure the property is safe and it clearly may not be. YOu cannot realistially be expected to go near sockets that have had water runing through them nor live in a property without a shower (assuming there are no other washing facilities).
everything looks fine upstairs, something must be broke under the tray, presumably the drain as it only leaks during/after a shower.
there is a second shower downstairs so thats no too bad a problem.
my concern is with the switch for the fridge, currenlty surrounded by plaster doing a very good impression of a sponge.
I'd put the fridge on an extension lead to another socket for now
How many socket rings are there wired in the flat. If it's been done recently kitchen may be on a separate ring from the rest of the flat. Suggest you plug the extension lead into the second ring and switch the kitchen off until it's dried out.
Call CAB and see what options are open to you regarding housing with dangerous wiring then hit landlord with legal requirements. He's probably in breach of contract and you may be able to move with no notice if that's what is required.
ha, tried the legal argument before, just results in a pissy letter giving his "solicitors" address (a postbox somewhere as far as i could tell).
househunting at the end of the month methinks
In my experience you will find that the drain pipe from the shower tray has come adrift, its especially likely with cheap flexy composite shower trays that bend when you use them- you need to get underneath to investigate & fix, that said electricity and water is clearly a dangerous mix and really the landlord should fix it as quickly as reasonably possible, yours sounds like he shouldnt be a landlord. Dont take any chances - perhaps contact the letting agent who advertised the property (if there was one)- good luck
Tell him youve just been electrocuted after turning the fridge on, the hospital want to keep you in for the day due to a heart irregularity, and you expect it to be fixed in time for your return this evening. Then go out on the bike for the day 🙂
SirJohn, thats my thoughts, we had the same thing happen in our hosue at uni a few years back (didnt help that my housemate was banging his missus in there at the time)
spooky, genius!
This happened in a previous house I rented. It turned out to be a tiny pinhole in the sealant letting it through whenever the shower was used. As 4 people used it, it didn't take long to become apparent.
A maintenance guy put more sealant down but that didn't work, so I pulled up the old stuff & laid new and it was fine after that.
Tell him youve just been electrocuted
Think he might see through that, seeing as you called him.
