Electricity Surging

[BeachBoy]

I have a new tenant moving into one of our rental mobile homes. He called tonight and said that the electricity was surging. He said that the lights would go dim and then brighten. Also if one end of the house was bright, the other end is dim.

The previous tenants did not complain of the lights. I am thinking it is a ground problem. I believe the 20-something former tenants had added a new light to the porch and done some other things (he worked in HVAC). What are your suggestions.

[Robert]

Call an electrician to inspect and advise on.

It is not DIY w/o electrical troubleshooting experience, especially since previous tenant did some modifications.


Take care and best wishes,
Robert

[SpongeBob]

Hi, as Robert says it really is best to call the electrician. Also, remember that a tenant should NEVER be allowed to do any electrical work unless that tenant is a licensed electrician and you have hired them.
-Bob

[BeachBoy]

Unfortunately, the 20-something tenants did not have permission to perform any repairs. I am not certain that they did. I am hopeful to have an electrician there either today or tomorrow.

[garrett_reukauf]

Have the electrician double check the rest of the electrical system in the rest of the home, just to make sure it is properly up to code and any "improvement" work has been done correctly. I say this because, if there is a fire in the home and it is found to be an elcectrical fire, and it is further found that ANY of that electrical was not up to code or was repaired by a person NOT properly qualified, your insurance company could deny claim or coverage for the damage. I have seen it happen before. I worked with a guy a few years back that had bought an old house that still had the screw in fuses, well his insurance comp would not cover the house until the electric was brought up to code, he had lived in it thru that winter and there were some elec baseboard heaters on the 2nd floor that previous owners had installed themselves. Well my friend called the electrician to come out and bring everything up to par. The night before the electrician was suppose to show up the wiring for the heaters shorted out and burnt the whole house to the ground. What a bummer huh? What was even worse was that he was still making house payments on the thing, but since the elec was not up to par, the insurance comp did not cover the fire damages.