Tenants' electrical renovations?
I have a recently purchased two family brownstone in Stuyvesant Heights. The previous owner upgraded the electrical service to 220, but did not rewire the house – just routed bx cable in the basement from the old fuse box to two different circuit breaker boxes – woth two meters, one for the owner’s duplex and…
I have a recently purchased two family brownstone in Stuyvesant Heights.
The previous owner upgraded the electrical service to 220, but did not rewire the house – just routed bx cable in the basement from the old fuse box to two different circuit breaker boxes – woth two meters, one for the owner’s duplex and one for the tenant’s top floor apt.
Or so I thought. In fact, the circuit breakers fo rthe tenant’s service have no correlation to their electricity, outlets etc.
So – I’m about to rent this apartment for the first time, and have the choie to either include electricity – at a higher rent, or, to rewire the tenant’s apartment, and put a circuit breake rbox in their apartment and upgrade everything very well – for about $4000.
What would you all recommend???
Yes, it looks like that’s what we’re going to do. Run a main conduit to the basement, and haave a circuit breaker box in the tenants’ unit, as well as upgrading the outlets, adding wall switches etc.
We’ll also add two dedicated circuits for airconditioners in the front and back – something that wasn’t there before.
At least then the job will have been done right.
I am surprised at the disparity in the quotes I got for the work.
One local fellow who does good work quoted $4300 for the job.
Paul at WCK ( recommended contractor from the forum) is extimating $2500. I had a good impression from both fellows, and am going to go with the cheaper price. I hope I don’t regret it.
I had the same situation and decided to put the box in the tenant’s apartment just in case they tripped it they didn’t have to get into my home to reset it.
Regarding wiring, if you chose to do it – is this top floor apt the configuration you want in the future. If you are thinking of relocating the rental unit you probably don”t want to rewire the apartment
You can probably pass the electric costs through, more or less: the only problem is that, without metering, there’s no financial incentive to conserve for the tenant, so you may end up paying for space heaters in the winter, freezing A/C in the summer, and lightbulbs all year long. But even if that ends up costing you an extra $33/month, it will take 10 years to pay off $4K. Personally, I wouldn’t bother, unless there’s other marginal value to the rewiring.
Is it possible that some substantial fraction of the tenant’s power is on tenant-only circuits? If so, you might be able to just reroute those circuits to their own circuit box and meter in the basement. This should be much cheaper. Even if a few lights and sockets in their apartment are on your service, you’ll reduce your exposure to extra cost. In particular, you should be able to move the dedicated circuits for the A/C plugs to their box.
I’m all for doing it correctly up front. You can charge higher prices for rent if the apartment is
tip top. Then you won’t have to worry about it
anymore. It’s done. If you don’t have the time or $ now, then wait it out until you do.
Basically if you charge them for electricity (@ $60 a month) you come out even. While if you make the investment you are just out money. Unless you continue to charge higher rent (under theory of improved wiring?) you aren’t going to recoup that until you sell the property.