Anyone else ever dealt with a rental that felt live?

That 122V reading on your meter isn't a mystery to solve, it's a lethal hazard. I remember chasing a similar tingle at my cousin's place with my old Fluke 117 and finding out a DIYer had swapped hot and neutral on a circuit. You are literally the bridge between a live circuit and a perfect ground. If your skin was wet or you had a better connection to that water, you might not be around to post this. Don't waste another second trying to find the source. Whether it's a nicked wire behind the vanity or a bootleg ground gone wrong, it’s the host’s liability. I’ve seen people try to find the fault by tightening outlet screws only to have the whole metal box spark out. Pack your things, call the host, and get a refund. This isn't just a maintenance issue; it's a massive safety risk that needs a licensed pro with a proper circuit tracer immediatly.

Hold on, before you bolt, consider if you’re seeing ghost voltage. If you're using a standard digital multimeter like a Klein or a base model Extech, those high-impedance meters pick up stray induction from adjacent wires that isn't actually carrying any current. I’ve seen 110V on a "dead" wire plenty of times that wouldn't even light a neon bulb.

Instead of just running, try using a simple plug-in circuit tester or even better, a LoZ (Low Impedance) meter if you have one. If that 122V reading drops to zero with a load, you've likely just got a floating ground or some inductive coupling. I had this happen at a cabin once; the ground wire had snapped off the rod outside. It felt like a tingle because of the capacitive coupling in the Romex, but it wasn't a hard short. It’s still a bonding issue the owner needs to fix, but it's often more of a nuisance than an immediate death trap. Check the GFCIs too—if they trip when you hit the test button, you have at least some level of protection.

Forget the ghost voltage theory. If you're feeling a 'tingle,' you've got actual milliamps moving through you. A high-impedance DMM will lie to you, but a Knopp K-60 or an old-school Ideal Vol-Con won't. Those solenoid testers pull enugh current to wash out any induction.

If that 122V holds up on a Wiggy, you've likely got a hot-to-chassis short in a nearby appliance or a nicked 12/2 wire touching the drain. If the plumbing isn't bonded to the GEC per NEC 250.104, that pipe stays hot untill someone completes the circuit. Get out of there before you become the path of least resistance.

Have you ruled out the phone charger block itself? I’ve seen a lot of those cheap, ungrounded USB bricks leak a surprising amount of current onto the phone’s frame. If you're holding the phone while it's plugged in and touching the faucet, you're just completing the circuit. Before you call a licensed sparky or demand a refund, check if you still get that 122V reading between the outlet's cover screw and the faucet without the phone or charger in the mix. It might just be a faulty $5 accessory rather than a house wiring disaster.

I'd be looking beyond the immediate branch circuit becasue a full 122V potential between the faucet and the outlet’s grounded enclosure—assuming the outlet is actualy grounded—frequently points toward a compromised service neutral where the metallic water piping is inadvertently serving as the primary return path for the building's entire unbalanced load. If there is a failure in the main bonding jumper or a severed neutral at the weatherhead, you’re essentially seeing the voltage drop across the grounding electrode system, wich is an incredibly dangerous scenario that can cause the entire plumbing stack to become energized if a heavy load like a space heater or dryer kicks on elsewhere in the house.