Fuse Boards for Gites

Hi All,

Does anyone know, if a property is split into an owner having the top floor of a house but the downstairs is rented out to holiday makers, do you need separate fuse boards or is it acceptable to have one board covering both sections?

TIA

No idea but from a practical point of view, if the disjoncteurs are in their part of the property would your guests be happy with you wandering in at any time of the day or night if you happened to trip a fuse? If it’s in your part of the property what would they do if they tripped a fuse while you were out?

Hi Anna, it is actually a new house we manage, but the only one where it is split between owner and guests in the same building. The board is in the guests apartment. The owners rarely come to the property at the same time as guests but your point is taken. I can see a number of problems, one being that we weren’t told they were on the same board until today when the owners turned up to find their freezer was off. Also, stupidly, they won’t have us do security visits when the property is unoccupied and nor will they let us have a key for their apartment, so it is a bit of a disaster waiting to happen. We may not be keeping them on our books for very long!

1 Like

There are no regulations that I am aware of that demand separate fuse boards. And we have frequently used gîtes with no access to a fuse board at all (in locked cupboard for example).

But this situation sounds like a problem waiting to happen. If owners don’t trust you with keys to their apartment then that is not a good sign. Do you need this contract?

Hi Jane. No, we don’t need them. I suspect that we are going to be parting ways soon. It’s not the first problem we have had with them. They have never had a rental property before and they have unrealistic expectations and don’t take advice very well. We shall see.