Reply To: Power play – who’s responsible for electrics in my flat?

Jimmy-T wrote:

Fair Trading’s much-quoted “Who’s responsible …?” document is ambiguous on this as it says that wiring in a ceiling is common property but wiring in a wall that services only one unit isn’t. Complicating the issue is that many apartments have false or dropped ceilings which, according to my block’s lawyers, are technically a wall.

So I would say that if the wiring is embedded in a concrete ceiling, then it is common property but if it is above a dropped ceiling and only serves that unit, then it is lot property. Make sense?

I believe the “Who’s responsible …?” document says that wiring in *internal* walls isn’t common property; wiring in *common* walls is common property. A common wall is one that abuts another unit or common property, and this includes ceilings (which abut one or the other).

A dropped ceiling isn’t a common wall; it’s internal to the unit.

The wiring the OC has declined to repair is in a metal conduit embedded in a concrete ceiling (which is also the floor of the unit above, I think).