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After refusing a $287 repair bill, Portland renter beats his landlord in court, wins $32K verdict (www.yahoo.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/antilandlords@lemmy.ca
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The clash began after Spring refused to pay a $287 electrician's bill that his landlord forwarded him for the repair of a burnt-out socket in his unit. Shortly after, the landlord notified Spring that his rent would increase by $100 per month.

The jury awarded Spring $16,000 — an amount that Oregon law doubles to $32,000 because of the nature of the violation. On top of that, Spring's attorneys also are entitled to ask a judge to order the landlord to pay all of Spring's legal fees, an amount that currently stands at $225,000.

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[–] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Truthfully I'm surprised they even hired out an electrician for that. General handyman can replace an outlet.

As a non-proffessional I've replaced outlets in my own house. It took me 20 minutes for the first one. Now it takes about 10, but that because I triple check everything and go slow

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Unless of course you live in Quebec, where all electrical work must be done by a licensed, unionized electrician.

    The odd thing is that it is still very difficult to even find an electrician. We have been waiting 10 months for someone to come and add a circuit with some outdoor lights.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    I recently bought a house built in 1942. All of the receptacles dated to that time, ungrounded and with the polarity backwards for good measure. Forget about GFCI. Each room had one receptacle, with the bottom outlet of each partially blocked by baseboard radiators (which had been retrofitted later). I'm glad I never got to see the viper's den of extension cords that prior tenants must have had going. I'm surprised that in 80 years nobody ever swapped in a modern receptacle since it's not that hard to do.

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