Ellen had just graduated from high school and was moving out of her home. So she packed up her computer, hair dryer, stereo, TV, DVD, microwave and fan to move into her new apartment.

Ellen had picked a beautiful, one-bedroom unit in a 1925 fourplex apartment building with many built-in cabinets so that she would not have to buy much furniture. The architecture was exquisite and surprisingly spacious. She moved in on a Sunday with her father designated to haul in all of the furniture. Once the bed, dining room table and couch were installed, the appliances came next. That's when it began to dawn on Ellen that she had made a mistake in renting this unit.

There were only two ungrounded plugs in every bedroom, and the apartment was wired to a fuse box with only 40 amps of service. She had enough power to keep the food in the refrigerator cold ... and nothing else. Her father looked around and said, "Either you cancel your lease or you ask the landlord to rewire … but first, let's figure out how much power you really need." They added it up and discovered that if used at the same time, all of the electronics used 110 amps of power.

Ellen called her landlord. He said he would look into the cost of rewiring her unit. He called his electrician and discovered that not only would he have to rewire the apartment, but he also would have to bring the whole building up to code. He was not happy about the news -- especially since the cost exceeded $10,000. He decided not to spend the money and to try to hold Ellen to her lease. She in turn, called an attorney. The landlord, in his wisdom, decided that the attorney's fees would cost more than it would to just let her leave.

This left Ellen out in the streets looking for a new place to live. She started shopping around. Though she still had a limited budget, she now knew she needed an apartment with at least 100 amps of power. In addition, she needed a property with either a wi-fi node, Cable or DSL access; otherwise, all of her electronic gizmos would be useless. She found that many older properties had not been rewired and need to be updated. She also discovered that there were not enough outlets in many of the apartments she viewed. In the end her father helped her find a place. This apartment was more expensive, but she could set up her computer, two printers, scanner, etc., and still use her hair dryer, Game-Boy and the stereo.

What can a landlord learn from this?

Published: January 21, 2004

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Clifford A. Hockley is the President of Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services, one of the larger brokerage and property management companies in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Hockley holds an MBA Willamette University and a B.S. in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College. He is a Certified Property Manager and Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services is an Accredited Management Organization (AMO) by the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM). Mr.Hockley serves as member at large on the Portland IREM board. He has twice been named Certified Property Manager of the Year (2001 and 2003) by the Institute of Real Estate Management and is a frequent contributor to industry newsletters.