contractor dug my drive up???

wellused

This morning a contractor knocked on my door and asked if they could dig a section of my drive up as he was fitting a new "smart metre" to the electricity supply of my next door neighbour. Due to the way the houses were built back in the 60's we shared a main cable which runs down my drive and into my house and then from my house into next door, to do the job the contractor had to dig down and joint the cable outside my property. He was very professional and polite and in the process he fitted a new main fuse in my property as well. Reading up on "smart metres" we will all be getting one before 2019. I asked him who was responsible for the cable connection under my drive in the eventuality of it failing for any reason in the future considering that the water pipe under my drive is my responsibility I didn't want to be lumbered with a bill for repair in the future for work that I hadn't ask to be done, he assured me that the electrical company owned the cable and that it was their responsibility. The slight worry that I have is that if for some reason in the future the repair that they do to my drive sinks who's responsibility is it to repair? I have nothing in writing to say that the company was coming to do the work and in two or three years time will they accept that they have done the work.

macman

The supply cable is the responsibiliity of the DNO up to the service fuse.

bobthedambuilder

It sounds like he was replacing a cable which was already under your drive, which supplied both houses, so he wasn't just replacing your neighbour's supply, but yours as well.

I'm surprised that if the houses were built at the about the same time, the electricity company didn't replace your meter as well. But I don't know how these things are administered - perhaps in this era of different suppliers, they can all choose to do this at whatever time they want.

Can you find out who the contractor was working for? - I'd guess probably your local default supplier. I know in my region Scottish Power (previously MANWEB) do all the distribution work although I can have a supply contract with any of the usual suspects. They should be responsible for any work done by them (or contracted out by them), if you were to have a problem with settlement etc.

Edit: just seen macman's post, confirms my thoughts. DNO stands for Distribution Network Operator (I had to Google it:o). It is SP for my area.

wellused

The guy made a good job of replacing the block paving and if I didn't know I would be hard pressed to see the disturbance, of course what happens to the repair in the future is another thing although he assures me that they haven't had any problems before. If I had wanted to be awkward I presume that I could have refused them permission and that they would have had to split the cable under the road and lay a new cable under my neighbours drive. I had a new metre fitted a couple of years back which is a "Multi rate watt hour metre" I don't know if that is the same thing?

cosworth_monkey

Only certain companies are fitting smart meters as there is no recognised standard set by the government, so those who are having smart meters fitted now run the risk of them not complying in 2015. Obviously unless you have paid to upgrade a standard meter it won't cost you anything, just the supplier.