fuse trips in the tenancy property

[Winny]

Hi

I'd like to get some suggestions from all of you.

The property is rented out by a family including a couple with two children and a grandma. The couple and children live upstairs and the Grandma lives downstairs. There is only an oven in the upstairs kitchen and none in the kitchenette downstairs. I regard them as a whole family, not expecting them to have one oven downstairs.

Recently they always complained about the fuse trips. The electrician came to have an inspection and talked with the tenant. The tenant said the fuse trips always happened when they used the ovens or microwaves both upstairs and downstairs. Meanwhile, the electrician found that certain wiring had been routed to a single fuse. This is very common for the old house. The only way to sort out the problem is to reallocate the fuses inside the power switchboard. The cost of the job will be around $4,000. The tenant surely hopes to sort this out. But my questions are 1) Do I have to spend the money to allocate the fuses? 2) Can I increase the rent more than the market rental next time because the power upgrade is requested by the tenant?

I am looking forward to any ideas.

Regards

Winny

[Perry]

That's an exorbitant price. To justify that cost, there must be more than what you're being told. Perhaps it requires a make-over of an old switchboard, including installing RCD breakers?

If not and there's room on the board for another breaker, the job cost should be in the low hundreds - not thousands. Get a second sparky opinion.

[Winny]

Hi Perry

The following is what the electrician will do:

Organize new metering and inspection

*Organize Vector to isolate power

*Install new main earthing system

*Replace black asbestos panel with new PVC panel

*Install new main switch and wiring for meter

*Install new distribution board (weather-proof IP rated) complete with circuit breakers and RCD breakers to comply

[Perry]

That scope of work does seem more fitting with with the price.

There may be alternatives.

I wonder about insurance. How old is the existing board and wiring, etc?

[John the builder]

he is doing more than just split a circuit you dont have to involve the mains and vector for this work It must be upgrade? you do say "old house"
unless he is introducing a second meter for downstairs? You dont want that?

[McDuck]

You might need to do a current calculation on the two ovens.
The fuse is popping to prevent a fire or stop the cables in the wall from melting down.
Assuming all the wires go back to the switchboard, it will be a small job to add another fuse or RCD and separate off that wire.
Unfortunately, many old houses saved money by tagging on to the end of an existing wire and not gong all the way back to the switchboard.
So that means another wire. Then there's the problem that new electrical regulations are much stricter than old ones. So any sparky will not be able to do the work to the old standard, and will be compelled to upgrade you the the latest standard.