ᐅ Stairwell Lighting in Multi-Family Buildings: Is a General Electricity Meter Mandatory for Safety Reasons?

In a multi-family building with two units and an attic apartment, the following problem has persisted for weeks:

• The stairwell lighting is controlled by the tenant in the middle unit.
• The lighting of other shared areas is managed by the other tenant.
• The new tenant has been turning off the light switch in their apartment every evening for weeks.

This raises the following questions:

• Is there a requirement to install a general electricity meter?
• The tenant in the lower unit has mobility impairments, and the repeated switching off of the lighting increases the risk of accidents.

You should really read your text again critically and check whether it is even possible to understand who is doing what.

Maybe it was the first glass of red wine? I see it quite clearly.
The stairwell light is controlled by a tenant from their apartment and turned off at night. Of course, this must not happen, although I wonder how it worked until now.
Was the light on all night?

Stairwells obviously need to be illuminated; stair accidents are among the most serious that can occur in a typical home or office environment...

Today, an official letter will be sent to the landlord.
The daughter (in-house counsel) has been aware of the situation for some time.

Meanwhile, the stairwell lighting has been permanently switched off.
The basement lights are still controlled by us. Everything is still running there.

Of course, no lights were left on continuously.

The stairwell lighting is irrelevant in any case, and there are plenty of solutions to restore it.

Jodimaster2k schrieb:

• Is there a legal requirement to install a general electricity meter?
• The tenant downstairs has mobility issues, which increases the risk of accidents due to the repeated switching off of the lighting.

The landlord has a duty of care that must be fulfilled.
The general electricity supply must be metered separately, which includes the stairwell lighting.
The cost of the general electricity can be proportionally charged to the tenants.

The building was likely not originally designed as a multi-unit dwelling, and/or is quite old. The electrical infrastructure does not seem adapted to current use. This setup works as long as everyone cooperates, but that no longer appears to be the case.
As a landlord, I would have the electrical system modernized accordingly and moderately increase the rents at the next opportunity to recover the investment over time.

We will likely be responsible for:
basement staircase,
laundry room,
basement corridor, where our cable connection is also located, which we installed ourselves.
Each area has one light.

Carport motion sensor
But we installed this ourselves many years ago.

The house was built in 1969, using very simple and economical methods at that time.