====== Power cuts & technical danger in your residence ======

Use the same order for electricity, water and heating: protect people from immediate danger, report urgent building damage locally and document an ordinary fault in the tenant portal.

===== Electrical danger =====

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**Smoke, a burning smell, sparks or an injured person**

Keep your distance and do not touch the person or equipment while there may be an electrical danger. Isolate a known circuit only if it is clearly safe to do so. Call **112** in immediate danger.
</WRAP>

Do not open a fuse box, distribution board or fixed installation. Check a clearly tripped, accessible circuit breaker only in accordance with local instructions and only where there is no sign of a fault, damp, heat or fire. If it trips again, do not keep trying.

===== Ordinary power cut =====

  - Check safely whether only your appliance, your room or a wider area is affected.
  - Disconnect an obviously defective appliance of your own if it is safe to do so.
  - Check current local fault information.
  - Use the local contact for an urgent outage; otherwise use the tenant portal.

Daisy-chained power strips, damaged cables and unauthorised high-power equipment can overload a circuit. Use only undamaged, suitable equipment and follow your agreement and local rules.

===== Water =====

Report dripping taps, leaking pipes and unusual pressure loss early. For a major water leak, use the local on-call or contractor contact. Close a known stopcock only if it is safe, and do not open any installation.

===== Heating =====

Heating systems and controls differ between residences. A complete failure during the heating season, leaking water or a dangerous fault may be urgent. Ordinary radiator problems belong in the portal.

Regular thorough ventilation and unobstructed radiators can reduce damp and wasted energy. The [[https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/umwelttipps-fuer-den-alltag/richtiges-heizen-schuetzt-das-klima-den-geldbeutel|German Environment Agency explains correct heating and ventilation]]. Damp or mould can also have structural causes; document and report visible signs.

===== Costs & agreement =====

Electricity and other service charges form part of the gross rent under the standard agreement; your own agreement may differ. External call-outs incur costs. For a genuine technical emergency within the landlord's responsibility, the landlord bears the call-out costs; there is no blanket promise for a false alarm or damage you caused yourself. ((Studierendenwerk Hamburg: standard tenancy agreement for permanent residents, February 2026, https://www.stwhh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Wohnen/Bewerbungsinformationen/Konditionen/Standard_Mietvertrag_Stand_Februar_2026.pdf))

<WRAP ww-related>
===== Related pages =====

  * [[en:technik:schaeden_melden|Assess damage or a technical emergency]]
  * [[en:technik:sicherheit|Emergencies and safety]]
  * [[en:alltag:zimmer|Damp and mould in your room]]
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