UK Landlord Forum / Life

I have dimmer LED lighting in a rental property.  I discovered that the person who installed them was not a qualified electrician, he put non dimmer bulbs in and the dimmers are for halogen lighting and not LED lighting.  The lights do not dim, and flicker when you try to dim them.

I will have to replace all of the lights and dimmers to make the system work correctly, which will be £800 or more in material and time.

The tenant has complained and I have told the tenant that they should just operate the lights on full and not dim them.  The tenant is maintaining that the lighting system is not correctly designed or installed, and that this defect existed before the tenant moved in.

As there is no safety issue, I have told the tenant that they have rented the flat as is, and fixing the lights is their issue.

Could there be any comeback on me ?

Personally, I think your approach is wrong here.

If a Tenant sees any kind of dimmer switches on the wall, then it's a fair expectation that there would be dimming lights. You might put forward the view that they should be tested by the Tenants before signing, but I would not. I would put forward the view that you should have explicitly drawn their attention to this deficiency before they signed-up to the tenancy.

Now, the challenge with that is simple... if you drew their attention to the fact that you (I accept it might not have been you as such, but the Landlord) has had electrical work done that is not up to par, then any sensible Tenant would start to wonder what else you have done which wasn't 100% right - and I would get cold feet. I'd be all like, what about the boiler? What about the other electrics? This guy seems dodgy, I'd be thinking.

I think things should work as they're expected to in a property being let.

I can see your point of view,it is hard not to think they are just being bolshie.That said,Hippogriff is right in saying that if these particular tenants were pleased to see dimmer switches installed when they viewed,they do have a right to expect them to work correctly.I have never had to deal with such an issue,but £800 sounds a bit steep. Is  every room in the house  affected-if so would they be happy just to have the main living areas corrected? Might be worth getting a few more quotes.Maybe some sparks reading your question could say if this sounds fair.   

Also, I do not really like the conclusion the OP has made about there being no safety issue.

I think it's a safe assumption, but not a certainty - and the OP has already acknowledged that the person who installed them was not a qualified Electrician. Now, we all know you don't need to be a qualified Electrician to work on bulbs and switches and things like that... but, still... the assertion is kinda based on an assumption with a positive outlook. Maybe the solution here is just to put all the halogens back in... LEDs and dimming is a bit different, and it certainly requires special dimmer switches (though £800s worth, I do think not!).

OPW?