Would you keep pushing if your landlord said burning smell outlets are 'just old wiring'?

I dealt with something very similar a few years ago in my unit in Chicago. It wasn't a smell, but I had this constant little buzzing coming from the wall near my old bookcase outlet, and it only happened when I was running the window unit in the living room. My landlord kept telling me to just 'ignore the buzz' because it was old building. I actually got really worried because I was running a heavy, 1500-watt unit off that same circuit. I knew I couldn't trust the maintenance crew to take it seriously.

My approach was to immediately pay for an independent licensed electrician to come out and check the circuit integrity. I spent around 200 dollars on the inspection, and he showed me the actual connection points were corroded and the grounding was poor. It wasn't just the outlet itself that needed swapping; the wire run in the wall needed a serious tightening and probably some replacement. I did this before I called the city inspector because I wanted the immediate risk removed and I didn't want to wait weeks for a government bureaucratic process. If you are comfortable paying for the peace of mind, I strongly suggest going private first. Getting a professional assessment before escalating usually gives you the necessary data and proof of the danger. It's often faster and less frustrating than trying to convince someone else that your life is at risk.

When my landlord initially brushed off my worries about faulty wiring in my kitchen, I didn't jump straight to the city inspector. My experience was different; I had a specific concern about a receptacle drawing way too much amperage near my washing machine hookup, and he said it was just old infrastructure. I decided against arguing over who was right or wrong. Instead, I immediatly brought in a licensed local electrician to assess the situation.

I made sure this professional documented everything with photos of the internal corrosion and provided a formal report detailing the risk of fire. This document was the key. I didn't just hand it to the landlord; I sent a copy of the full report to the property management group and CC'd my renter's insurance agent. The idea is to shift the concern from 'your complaint' to 'potential liability and property damage.' That made all the difference in getting the repair scheduled quickly, even if it took a bit of negotiation. You need that professional paperwork to make it stick.

Lurker here, first time posting so hope this makes sense. My situation was a bathroom GFCI that kept tripping, not a smell, and I made the mistake of just letting maintenance pull the old one without a word. Once it was gone I had zero proof anything was ever wrong, and the whole conversation turned into my word against theirs. If I coud redo it I'd take dated photos of the outlet and scorch marks and send a short written request before anyone touches anything. Paper trail seems to be half the battle with landlords. Did yours at least admit the scorching when they saw it, or go quiet?

I had something kind of like this with a lamp that kept flickering whenever the heater was on in the same room. I never smelled burning, but the plug got weirdly warm to the touch, so I just stopped using that outlet and figured the problem was solved. Now I'm reading that the actual trouble can be inside the wall where the wires connect, not just at the little slot part you plug into.

My question is, if the smell comes back even when nothing is plugged in, does that mean the bad spot is somewhere behind the outlet and swapping it doesn't really fix anything? Because that would change what I'd do next time.

The written request thing worked for me. After my landlord brushed off a warm hallway outlet I sent a short email that same night describing when I noticed it and what I'd plugged in. She had someone out within days once it was on paper. Also worth grabbing a cheap plug-in tester with the little lights and checking every outlet on that circuit. I found two more loose ones in my place that way, both wired with the push-in backs instead of the screws. Swapped them myself, breaker off first, ten minute job each.

Something folks miss after the swap is that the damage rarely stops at the outlet face. I do appliance repair and I've pulled receptacles where the copper conductor was heat-brittle and discolored a good couple inches back from the screw terminal, and the wire nut behind it was the actual loose point. If the replacement outlet scorched up that fast, maintenance shold be opening that box and checking the connections and the insulation on the conductors themselves. An outlet swap on its own can leave the real problem sitting in the wall, energized, waiting for kettle season.