It is a rhetorical question really. Of the dangerous things I expected to see in Australia, this wasn't one of them!

Power socket immediately beneath sink (for the dishwasher) surrounded by water & waste pipes. This really bothers me and I'd like it changed.

We are renting from a terrible estate agent. They do not have a reputation for being quick (or caring).

I will need to have some sort of legal proof or regulation to refer to when I ask them to address this.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

I agree. The plug for my dishwasher is in the cupboard next to it, away from under the sink. I'm not sure about the legality of this but it's common sense, water and electricity don't mix.

I think I'd be more worried about it being under the hose connection

We recently lost power because of this problem. We also had a power point under the sink, next to the dishwasher, and it got water leaked into it and threw the power throughout the house.

We got the power point blanked off by an electrician.

I wonder what might have happened had we not had a safety switch on the power board. Some houses still don't have a safety switch. Check yours does as that might be a regulation you could take to the agents... and they could blank off the under sink power point at the same time.

You could add a bit of stick by asking the agents to find out if the landlord has public liability insurance.

http://www.homehound.com.au/fact+she...sponsibilities

I doubt that this was wired by a sparky. If it was he should be shot - and lose his licence

Saying that, if an RCD is installed in the distribution board you will be safe

It is illegal to wire a plug but OK to have a socket under a water supply. Its ridiculous and needs to be moved.

It's apparently legal to put a power socket in the same cupboard as the sink U bend (that's where mine is). Not sure if its legal to have them so arranged, but I'd agree its not ideal.

The basic problem is to supposedly make things 'safe' they have very prescriptive rules, and only allow 'licensed' types to do it. However, when they don't have a rule against something, those types have zero common sense to deploy - and do the quickest, most bodgy job possible (you don't want to look inside the walls at how your house is held together).

You could easily fix things by having independent inspection (which would mean you could do any work needed too, provided it met spec). However, vested interests....

This is exactly how you get the 'pink batts'. It's not a government problem as such, it's a problem of tradies having less common sense than the average sponge.

I'd agree that the Australian attitude towards wiring is schizophrenic to say the least. I don't know how it still is in the UK but when I was boy scouts age one of the first things you learned was how to wire up a plug, because if you bought an electrical appliance it came with just a bare cord.

Favourite project for the annual holiday was to rewire the entire terraced house for Nanna.

I think that without this tradition, Aussies are basically ignorant of electricity .. Thank God for the RCD or the morgues would be full over here

Thanks all. I'd be surprised if this is considered legal over here, so a but more research is in order I think. I think I'll send that link (http://www.homehound.com.au/fact+she...sponsibilities) to them, along with a picture of the plug, and see what they come back with - which on past form, will be sweet FA.... until I report them to Fair Trading NSW which is what I had to do to get any action out of them last time.

Found this:

http://www.build.com.au/bathroom/bat...d-power-points

Seems to suggest to me that this power socket simply should not be there, full stop. What do you think?

This would seem to apply to the power socket that is right next to a bathroom sink too?

Final question: why the f*&^ did I move into this death trap?!!

I don't like sockets in the bathroom, but without a tape measure I'd guess that the socket is fine under Australian wiring rules. For a water container less than 45l, sockets are allowed if horizontally there are more than 0.15m away with the measurement taken from the lip of the container. Similarly, the area under a bath or sink is outside of the zones - http://www.build.com.au/bathroom/bat...d-power-points

You're out of hand wash and toothpaste

Its NOT illegal: & if its also on a safety switch theres no problem at all it may not be in the best location but as i say NOT illegal

arthur

Thats illegal, it should be a min of 500mm from the bottom of the power point to the edge of the sink, you can report this to energy safe of the state your living in

Arthur