To become increasingly livid at the neighbours leaving the communal hall lights on overnight?

[Jodiewa]

Seriously! This Irritates me every single morning when I leave my flat and see he’s left the hall lights on for twelve hours plus. He rents and I am a leaseholder so in my mad mind he doesn’t have to pay whilst I do! I don’t want to be this person. AIBU? Thanks.

I'm a stickler for turning off unused lights, but inthinknid want a communal hallway lit. Perhaps motion sensors would help, but it would take a long time to her payback if cost is the main concern.

An energy saving bulb costs £0.001 (one tenth of a penny) per hour to run.

I’m sure if they rent their landlord or council fully charge them the maintenance costs which will included the lighting. So no you will not be paying the bill and they aren’t.

Out of interest why must hallway lighting be on for a safety feature? Not trying to be goady just interested. I don't have lighting on overnight in the hallways of our three storey house?

Because it’s only your family in your home you are not sharing that space with dozens other families. Who may have visitors or pizza or parcel deliveries who can’t see in the dark. I’m event of emergency it be your 3-4-5 members of family getting out not dozens of families tripping over each other.

Plus lighting helps stop crime if it’s pitch black anyone can be hanging around you don’t have the same security as you would in your own private home

Yanbu OP, it’s a waste of money, electricity and if there are windows in the hallway then it’s causing light pollution. I don’t see how it is necessary for safety to have a light on all the time. Timer switches are a good idea and something that I’ve had in previous flats.

Yabu. Safety first, especially in a season of significantly reduced daylight hours as someone else pointed out.

In my old flat the communal lights were motion detected. I did rip the pins out the timer for the trade button as that was pissing us all off with people using that and knocking which we wouldnt hear instead of buzzing the individual flats and using the intercom.

I lived in a mixed use building with offices below and residential above, the lights were always on in the lobby and on the stairs both so that you could get out safely in an emergency and so that no-one could lurk about in the dark. The bright light did make me feel safer and it was handy when laden with shopping to not have to switch on a light until I was actually back inside my flat.

I have a three storey house now and my smoke alarms have safety lights with motion sensors so they light up in the dark when I walk underneath, I like being able to see where I'm going even if I've forgotten to switch the light on.

Timer switch is the best option.

@TulipsTwoLips

Out of interest why must hallway lighting be on for a safety feature? Not trying to be goady just interested. I don't have lighting on overnight in the hallways of our three storey house?

But only you and your family live there. There's more than 100 of us in the building I live in.

Interesting thread OP. There's so many issues living in a big block but also some major advantages. We were looking to move but now I think about it, lighting is a potential con on the list for sure.

One poster mentioned light pollution, we're in london and I think every block on this street has the lights on all night.

The flats I live at have timed lights that only come on at night you could see about getting them

@TulipsTwoLips

Out of interest why must hallway lighting be on for a safety feature? Not trying to be goady just interested. I don't have lighting on overnight in the hallways of our three storey house?

Because many flats (especially tenement flats) have no natural lighting in the stairwells, halls and communal entranceways. So lights are needed 24 hours a day.

Where there is natural light, it needs to be on after sunset, otherwise people cannot see to put keys in locks, safely navigate stairs etc.

Your house will have light switches in your halls to put on the lights, unlike in a block of flats.

There is only you and your family living there, not several different households. If one person falls going down a dark stair, then the following 20 people could tumble over them and in the resulting chaos, lives could be lost

But if you think it isn’t a problem, then why not take all the bulbs out of your hall light?

Re light pollution - the amount given out by domestic lighting in flat stairs is tiny compared to electric billboards, shop frontages, shop signs and shops keeping all their lights on all night.

We should be moving to ban all of these.

When it comes to light pollution versus safety though, safety wins every single time. That’s why traffic lights are on 24 hours a day.

Timer switches are a pain. I lived in the third floor, so many times I was halfway up the stairs and I’d be plunged into complete darkness as there was no other light source. Even Usain Bolt would have struggled. It was really bad if I had bags as I couldn’t use my phone light. I’d rather the lights were on continually.

I mean even Usain Biltvwould trigger to get up the stairs before the timer went off. I complained many times to the factor but they couldn’t change it to give more time apparently.

Our lights are permenantly on at night in our flats for safety reasons.
Stops people switching on and off , CCTV picks up properly, prevents burglary.

Replace the bulb with a 1w LED bulb

@TulipsTwoLips

Out of interest why must hallway lighting be on for a safety feature? Not trying to be goady just interested. I don't have lighting on overnight in the hallways of our three storey house?

That’s not a public stairway? The lights in my communal close stay on all the time, in all the blocks of flats I have lived in there have always been lights left on for safety. I’d rather be able to see if there was anyone else in the close and also not fall on the stairs. I don’t see the issue, it’s normal surely.

@girlmom21 yes I am well aware thanks! But as I say pointless just speak to the person!

@TulipsTwoLips

Out of interest why must hallway lighting be on for a safety feature? Not trying to be goady just interested. I don't have lighting on overnight in the hallways of our three storey house?

Does your house have windows in the hallway/stairwell? Do you have around 80 people using that area? Do you have around 80 people potentially needing to evacuate quickly due to fire etc?

Communal hall lights should be left on at night for safety reasons. You're being ridiculous.

Probably depends on the building. I lived on the 8th floor of a big block (former east German prefab) and we had timers and it was fine.
And if the flat is a converted house, they usually only have 3-6ish flats. So there wouldn’t be lots of people coming and going and no need for the light to be on all the time.

We have motion sensor ones which are great, they come on as soon as any door is opened. Lots of natural light too

Who does he rent from? Presumably the person who owns his flat pays for their share maintenance of the communal areas?

It's likely to be a legal requirement to have a lit exit.

Switch the bulbs to LED and don't worry about it.