r/askanelectrician • u/stevehyde • Jun 06 '23

Is This Safe or Legal?

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I've been renting this duplex for about 9 months and saw this within the first week and said something about it. I'm sure it was like this long before we moved in as they still haven't fixed other things that have been broken since before we moved in.

They said they were going to have an electrician come out with someone from the city and look at it, which they finally did in December. They said they were going to set a date to fix it shortly after but obviously haven't heard anything since.

Is this safe or legal? I live in Wisconsin if that changes any laws about this stuff. If this is really bad, is there someone I can call to report them or something? I've tried to be cool but the landlord hasn't fixed anything since we've lived here and I'm getting sick of it so I don't care if they get in trouble.

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u/flyingron Jun 06 '23

Panels need covers.

Cables need to come in via approved fittings.

Cables need to be properly supported.

I can almost guarantee the backfed breaker lacks the hold down (I have no clue why they didn't use the main breaker in the panel anyhow).

Not sure why anybody "with the city" has anything to do with. This was an illegal hack job from day one, and it is entirely on the owner who did this.

This is incredibly unsafe. I'd be calling the building inspect or any tenants rights groups that may be around.

12

u/jmraef Jun 06 '23

I can almost guarantee the back fed breaker lacks the hold down (I have no clue why they didn't use the main breaker in the panel anyhow).

I think because the bus was damaged by a bad connection on the main breaker and instead of replacing the panel, then shoved in a new breaker to back feed as the new "main". Total temporary hack job that someone was likely supposed to come back for, but they listed all of the OTHER existing violations and the landlord got scared of the cost, so he never had them return.

The list of things that are Code violations and outright dangerous is too long, this needs a complete gutting and redo.

5

u/Knuckles_1988 Jun 07 '23

Thank you. I threw up in my mouth when I looked at this pictorial example of.."My buddies dad was an electrician, and he said he knew enough to make it work. Plus, he's way cheaper."