Part of my business is doing electrical repairs for property management firms. Often, between tenants, minor repairs are necessary.

Several years ago, I found that someone had added a light to a small closet under the stairs:





As you can see, a cord was run from a receptacle, through a hole in the stair riser:





On a recent return, I found that the light I had removed had been replaced:





Rather than a light, they mounted a receptacle. The black wire you see is stereo wire; the lighter wire is the 6' pigtail feeding the receptacle:





(Sorry for the poor resolution) Also, please note that the pigtail plugs into a power strip mounted on the stairs:

Is the receptacle above the stairs the only one in the vicinity? If so, it isn't surprising that tenants are finding creative ways to get power elsewhere in the room. Can you convince the property management firm to add a few new receptacles? Maybe that would keep "creative wiring" such as this from reappearing in the future.

"But the man at Home Depot told me he was giving me everything that I needed".

It's absolutely amazing that this would happen in rental property.

Brian, the other receptacle in this basement is located just about where I stood while taking the picture.

The receptacle in the stairwell is fed from the next room, where someone added several -surface mounted romex, concealed by pegboard- over a workbench that they built.
(I have let these remain).

[This message has been edited by renosteinke (edited 02-14-2007).]

Being devils advocate, at least they didn't hardwire it. If you run fast enough before the stairs burn, you could pull the plug while running out!

Still not enough. (I'm assuming this is residential property.) What will a tenant have in this basement room? TV? Stereo? Computer? Mini-fridge? Extra lamps? I wonder how many extension cords are typically used here.

This seems typical of rentals, though. The landlords don't want to spend money on upgrades (unless they can raise the rent), and tenants aren't going to pay for any needed updates, as they consider that to be the responsibility of the landlords.

How will the basement be used? That's the big question.

This place is well over 50 years old. In many areas, it does not comply with current codes. There's a ceiling, a coat of plaster on the walls, and a vinyl tile floor, so I suppose that makes it a 'finished basement,' therefore 'habitable,' so the 'six foot rule' ought to apply.

Oddly enough, the owner has another interest in keeping the basement simple. For a variety of other code reasons .... egress, stairway design, zoning, etc .... the room has been left alone, as a way to discourage its' being used as a bedroom. Indeed, that was the exact reason for the eviction of the prior tenants; they had turned the place into a dope/den, flop house for all their friends.

A note about the owners: they are in their 60's, and have done well in life. This, and a few other homes in the neighborhood, were their childhood homes. While they live in newer homes in town, they have lots of happy memories in this house.