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Hello,
I live in the top floor rental of a turn-of-the century brownstone. Recently (after permission from our landlord) I removed the very outdated light fixture in our bedroom, only to hear a slight hissing sound and smell the room start to fill with gas. I immediately put the fixture back in place and called our landlord who didn’t think much of it and suggested we have her handyman install the new light fixture if we didn’t feel comfortable doing it ourselves.

Sure enough the handyman was just as skeptical as we were. It is unclear whether the gas line is 100% closed off and there is also old, scrambled electrical wiring running adjacent.

With this knowledge, our landlord is still unconcerned. The handyman closed off the fixture which appears to also act as a cap to the gas line. Now we are left wondering whether this is potentially a very serious safety issue. We are about to sign a new lease and want to make sure the building is safe. What is the best way to find out whether the current set-up is dangerous?

Thanks.