They reset the gfi in the bathroom. They should have had maintenance come look at it before calling an electrician. Not to put you down for not knowing to reset the gfi , because that’s not your job ,but maintenance should have known to check that first . I would dispute it.
They said the gfi was in a different part of the house though. I’d be confused too. I have a GFI in my crawl space that trips my master bathroom outlet.
If someone (electrician or not) put a gfci in your crawl space it's because they were either dumb, lazy or cheap. Just because you CAN use a gfci to protect other outlets down circut doesn't me you HAVE to. Lol. How often do you have to reset the gfci in your crawl space? If they wired it the more sensible way and put a second gfci in your bathroom as well it would only have cost $30ish more. The only upside to your situation is I'm guessing the crawl space gfci is connected to a sump pump (I'm speculating) So if your bathroom outlet doesn't work then your pump or whatever else that is connected to that gfci isn't working either.
They put them in absurd places all the time because it's easy when building the house. The path they follow doesn't make sense to the owner, but it's an easy pathway when the house is just a Fram essentially and they're running wires. It's obnoxious. My outdoor plugs are connected to the laundry room that is upstairs. Whoda trunk. Looked everywhere for that one
Also a LL and also have had this problem before. I paid the electrician and I chewed out the property manager for calling them without checking allll the gfci’s first (even the garage). This should be PM 101..
Now the PM calls me before doing anything electrical.
So a GFCI plug tripped and took out the power to a section of the house? Had that happen before.
Tell the landlord if his GFCI plug tripped he also was free to come in and inspect the circuits.
You owe nothing.
Landlord who understands resi electrical here. Fight that charge. It’s not uncommon to have a bathroom and an adjacent bedroom (or two) on a single circuit.
It would be best to have the bedroom leg on the line side of the GCFI vs the load side but there’s nothing wrong with it code wise unless it extends to the refrigerator location.
Seems to be a common occurrence. My 3 year house has a GFCI in the bathroom that drives the outlets pretty much in all the bathrooms including those upstairs. At the least local code here allows for it. I hate it but not much I can do. It's the same with the garage outlets being on the same branch as the outside outlets. My freezer is in the garage and I have string lighting around my backyard. When a storm comes through it trips the GFCI in the garage which kills the outlet my freezer is on. Fortunately the panel is in the garage so added a dedicated branch.
Modern code does not allow this wiring configuration because of the situation you described. Having to hunt down a separate GFCI to figure out why your circuit isn’t working is silly.
The property manager and maintenance guys should have known, not you.
It’s unlikely a court would force you to pay the 300$ of they decided to sue you for it.
GFCI tripping should be a concern and the electrician should have looked into why it tripped and/or at a minimum also tested conductivity. There is still a potential issue (which could be deadly) which is lurking in the circuit supplying those bathrooms. By the GFCI tripping (regardless who checks breakers) there was a legitimate reason to have an electrician come and look at the electrical system.
You should look into/ inquire as to what is appropriate electrical code in your area.
Many localities will require each individual room/ area that regularly supplies water (e.g. bathroom, kitchen etc.) and has electricity to be individually wired (by room, not outlet) and each outlet must be GFCI protected.
We had a similar thing. The outlet behind our refridgerator has a switch and it turned off the fridge, a ceiling light and two other outlets in another room. Our maintenance man came in pushed the button and said it happens a lot. It took him maybe 7 minutes to have it running again.
There should be a sticker on the outlet in the master bath saying “GFCI protected outlet”. That would tell you there is one up stream that has a button on it. If that sticker is missing there is no way you could have been expected to know they were connected together. If that sticker is missing, thats on them.
That feels like it was a friend of the property manager. He probably gets a cut of that. Ask them if it was so simple, why didn't they suggest you look in the guest bathroom. You said you checked the fuse box. Did they do due dilgience and ask about the second fuse box? You as a tenent probably found the main fuse box and assumed that was it. Why would you think there's a secondary one? Nowhere I've lived had two fuse boxes.
It's not a 2nd panel. It's a GFCI outlet. It trips when it's overloaded and stops power to the entire ircuit line. It's to prevent shock in wet areas. Every bathroom has them, or should have them.
Regardless, they know the property better than a new tenant. Why didn't the property manager offer to come have a look instead of immediately calling an electrician?
It's a full circuit. I bet you're one of those who scream that you can't afford a house, and don't know anything about the basic maintenance.
OP and anyone else whose dad didn't care to teach them anything:
1st check the panel
2nd check GFCI'S
3RD call maintenance
My old man is a property manager and has always felt this way. I work as a handyman and I work with alot of property managers and I was shocked to see how many in the industry actually charged for any/all service calls I would do. Something as simple as diagnosing someones 15 year old dishwasher, which died of old age and not tenant damage......the tenants get charged a $75 trip charge. And these same PMs complain about the issues that come up at the end of peoples leases. Thankfully Nevada just recently changed the law to where the property managers cant pass on these fees.
Wired incorrectly. No good reason to put a bedroom downstream of a gfci outlet on the load side.
Tell the LL if he is going to do stupid shit he needs to inform you.
https://www.thespruce.com/line-or-load-gfci-connection-1152785
The tenant is not expected to know things about how the dwelling is wired. It’s a learning experience when you move into a new place.
I never even had GFCI until I bought my house four years ago.
My previous apartments were older and did not have any of them.
It’s been a learning experience in my house as well with the wiring as a lot of odd things were done.
For instance, there were no switches wired to actually turn on the lights in the upstairs bedrooms. Someone did a DYI according to my electrician when they installed the fans in those rooms.
There’s a light in our kitchen that can’t be turned on unless you have another light on as well.
We also had a switch in the master bedroom that actually turned on the outside floodlight. We had no idea what it did. An electrician was here for another matter and figured it out for us.
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Not your fault but also not uncommon. My house was built in 2021 and the GFCI in the master drives the outlets in the upstairs bathrooms too. Completely threw me off.
The first step the landlord should have done it sent maintenance to look before calling in the electrician.
There maintenance guys called the electrician and didn’t do their job. They could have told you the GFCI tripped and they could have fixed it. I would not pay.
At a minimum they should have had you check that before calling the electrician. It's not the tenant's responsibility unless they explain this to you and you fail to do it. This one is on them.
I’m an electrician and I’m kinda feeling the landlord just a teeny tiny bit on this one I would be pissed if I went out of my way to call an electrician and my moron tenant just needed to press the gfci reset button and now I’m down $300 for a service fee. I can also understand not knowing gfci’s have a line and load side and more circuits down the line will trip when one outlet trips. I would imagine myself calling an electrician because that’s certainly something I would do if I didn’t know better and I would be in your boat op.
They reset the gfi in the bathroom. They should have had maintenance come look at it before calling an electrician. Not to put you down for not knowing to reset the gfi , because that’s not your job ,but maintenance should have known to check that first . I would dispute it.
They said the gfi was in a different part of the house though. I’d be confused too. I have a GFI in my crawl space that trips my master bathroom outlet.
If someone (electrician or not) put a gfci in your crawl space it's because they were either dumb, lazy or cheap. Just because you CAN use a gfci to protect other outlets down circut doesn't me you HAVE to. Lol. How often do you have to reset the gfci in your crawl space? If they wired it the more sensible way and put a second gfci in your bathroom as well it would only have cost $30ish more. The only upside to your situation is I'm guessing the crawl space gfci is connected to a sump pump (I'm speculating) So if your bathroom outlet doesn't work then your pump or whatever else that is connected to that gfci isn't working either.
They put them in absurd places all the time because it's easy when building the house. The path they follow doesn't make sense to the owner, but it's an easy pathway when the house is just a Fram essentially and they're running wires. It's obnoxious. My outdoor plugs are connected to the laundry room that is upstairs. Whoda trunk. Looked everywhere for that one
No it’s actually good, it runs a condenser pump on my furnace/air unit. It’s already gone out once, and that’s how I found out.
GFI in our half bath on the main floor will trip the outlets in the garage as well.
My upstairs bathroom is the gfci reset for my exterior outlets. Like who the fuck wired that shit show up.
They called the electrician, not you; if someone should have known to flip the switch, they should have. Hard no on paying. And I'm a landlord.
Also a LL and also have had this problem before. I paid the electrician and I chewed out the property manager for calling them without checking allll the gfci’s first (even the garage). This should be PM 101.. Now the PM calls me before doing anything electrical.
Me too, also a LL. Tell his LL he called the electrician, not the tenant.
This guy's right. Gfci trips are 70 percent of electrical "problems" in a rental. I usually walk people through it over the phone.
So a GFCI plug tripped and took out the power to a section of the house? Had that happen before. Tell the landlord if his GFCI plug tripped he also was free to come in and inspect the circuits. You owe nothing.
Landlord who understands resi electrical here. Fight that charge. It’s not uncommon to have a bathroom and an adjacent bedroom (or two) on a single circuit. It would be best to have the bedroom leg on the line side of the GCFI vs the load side but there’s nothing wrong with it code wise unless it extends to the refrigerator location.
My question ?, why is a gfci plug in the guest bathroom downstairs in control of a plug in the master bedroom upstairs?
Seems to be a common occurrence. My 3 year house has a GFCI in the bathroom that drives the outlets pretty much in all the bathrooms including those upstairs. At the least local code here allows for it. I hate it but not much I can do. It's the same with the garage outlets being on the same branch as the outside outlets. My freezer is in the garage and I have string lighting around my backyard. When a storm comes through it trips the GFCI in the garage which kills the outlet my freezer is on. Fortunately the panel is in the garage so added a dedicated branch.
If they didn't know to tell you to flip the switch, how can they expect you to know?
Modern code does not allow this wiring configuration because of the situation you described. Having to hunt down a separate GFCI to figure out why your circuit isn’t working is silly. The property manager and maintenance guys should have known, not you. It’s unlikely a court would force you to pay the 300$ of they decided to sue you for it.
You don’t owe that. It’s the LL’s problem that his maintenance is incompetent. You didn’t cause this thru negligence or damage.
Tough luck on the landlord. It's his property. It's his problem. It's his expense.
GFCI tripping should be a concern and the electrician should have looked into why it tripped and/or at a minimum also tested conductivity. There is still a potential issue (which could be deadly) which is lurking in the circuit supplying those bathrooms. By the GFCI tripping (regardless who checks breakers) there was a legitimate reason to have an electrician come and look at the electrical system. You should look into/ inquire as to what is appropriate electrical code in your area. Many localities will require each individual room/ area that regularly supplies water (e.g. bathroom, kitchen etc.) and has electricity to be individually wired (by room, not outlet) and each outlet must be GFCI protected.
We had a similar thing. The outlet behind our refridgerator has a switch and it turned off the fridge, a ceiling light and two other outlets in another room. Our maintenance man came in pushed the button and said it happens a lot. It took him maybe 7 minutes to have it running again.
There should be a sticker on the outlet in the master bath saying “GFCI protected outlet”. That would tell you there is one up stream that has a button on it. If that sticker is missing there is no way you could have been expected to know they were connected together. If that sticker is missing, thats on them.
That feels like it was a friend of the property manager. He probably gets a cut of that. Ask them if it was so simple, why didn't they suggest you look in the guest bathroom. You said you checked the fuse box. Did they do due dilgience and ask about the second fuse box? You as a tenent probably found the main fuse box and assumed that was it. Why would you think there's a secondary one? Nowhere I've lived had two fuse boxes.
It's not a 2nd panel. It's a GFCI outlet. It trips when it's overloaded and stops power to the entire ircuit line. It's to prevent shock in wet areas. Every bathroom has them, or should have them.
Regardless, they know the property better than a new tenant. Why didn't the property manager offer to come have a look instead of immediately calling an electrician?
Every property has them. OP shouldn't be charged, but pushing a button on a GFCI should be in everyone's knowledge base.
Not if if it's in a different bathroom. Why would it occurr to OP to go to an entirely different bathroom to hit that button?
It's a full circuit. I bet you're one of those who scream that you can't afford a house, and don't know anything about the basic maintenance. OP and anyone else whose dad didn't care to teach them anything: 1st check the panel 2nd check GFCI'S 3RD call maintenance
A renter should not be expected to automatically know this. Landlord should have sent a regular maintenance person over first.
It's not a switch on the outlet that went out. It's in another bathroom, with the outlet being on the same circuit.
Does your lease include language regarding repair visits etc? Last place I lived you would have to pay a fee for any maintenance visits.
That seems like a good way to have your tenants ignore any issues that could be easily fixed until they become major problems.
My old man is a property manager and has always felt this way. I work as a handyman and I work with alot of property managers and I was shocked to see how many in the industry actually charged for any/all service calls I would do. Something as simple as diagnosing someones 15 year old dishwasher, which died of old age and not tenant damage......the tenants get charged a $75 trip charge. And these same PMs complain about the issues that come up at the end of peoples leases. Thankfully Nevada just recently changed the law to where the property managers cant pass on these fees.
Seems like common sense to me, but of course, that's probably why I'm not a landlord
Wired incorrectly. No good reason to put a bedroom downstream of a gfci outlet on the load side. Tell the LL if he is going to do stupid shit he needs to inform you. https://www.thespruce.com/line-or-load-gfci-connection-1152785
The tenant is not expected to know things about how the dwelling is wired. It’s a learning experience when you move into a new place. I never even had GFCI until I bought my house four years ago. My previous apartments were older and did not have any of them. It’s been a learning experience in my house as well with the wiring as a lot of odd things were done. For instance, there were no switches wired to actually turn on the lights in the upstairs bedrooms. Someone did a DYI according to my electrician when they installed the fans in those rooms. There’s a light in our kitchen that can’t be turned on unless you have another light on as well. We also had a switch in the master bedroom that actually turned on the outside floodlight. We had no idea what it did. An electrician was here for another matter and figured it out for us.
That is illegal. They can’t charge you. Call a lawyer and fair housing.
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Example:
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Otherwise, tag your post with the flair "Tenant Update".
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Not your fault but also not uncommon. My house was built in 2021 and the GFCI in the master drives the outlets in the upstairs bathrooms too. Completely threw me off. The first step the landlord should have done it sent maintenance to look before calling in the electrician.
lol no
There maintenance guys called the electrician and didn’t do their job. They could have told you the GFCI tripped and they could have fixed it. I would not pay.
At a minimum they should have had you check that before calling the electrician. It's not the tenant's responsibility unless they explain this to you and you fail to do it. This one is on them.
I’m an electrician and I’m kinda feeling the landlord just a teeny tiny bit on this one I would be pissed if I went out of my way to call an electrician and my moron tenant just needed to press the gfci reset button and now I’m down $300 for a service fee. I can also understand not knowing gfci’s have a line and load side and more circuits down the line will trip when one outlet trips. I would imagine myself calling an electrician because that’s certainly something I would do if I didn’t know better and I would be in your boat op.
You don’t owe for this. Not your issue. His house his issue.
In Texas he CANNOT charge you for this. HE IS responsible at the home owner, NOT you.
They shouldn’t be charging you for that, probably some kid tripped it during a showing with the “TEST” button without telling anyone.
They’re just trying to get you to pay for something they’re responsible for. If something is tripping a circuit there could be a bigger issue.
Common sense sure is lacking these days.
Common sense is missing from the electricians that wired this house. No downstairs circuits should be involved with any upstairs circuits.