Discuss Mains electricity put in by electricity board 40yrs ago - who is responsible? in the Electrical Wiring, Theories and Regulations area at ElectriciansForums.net

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Jeanette1964

Hello, I don't know if anybody can give me some advice but if you could it would be very much appreciated! I am having an extension built on a house I bought last year. It has turned out that the electricity board about 40 years ago looped the mains electricity for my neighbour and a number of other house through my meter. I understand it is something they used to do to save money on wiring. Yesterday my builder accidentally cut through the mains wire with the digger as he was working on the drains and had no idea the wire was there. It turned out that the wire had been buried only about 100mil below ground level, in fact it was immediately below the concrete. The day before my builder had been removing the concrete with a hand digger, so he is currently feeling very lucky to still be here. I will no doubt get a bill from the electricity board as they had to come out to reconnect all my neighbours to the mains (didn't bother to reconnect me of course, so had to get my own electrician in). I just wondered whether anybody knows whether I would be able to hold the electricity mains supplier responsible for the dangerous laying of the wiring - I know it is definitely outside of building regs? Could I insist that they come and remove the loop from my mains electricity so I don't have my neighbours electricity coming through my house? I couldn't get any sensible answers from the electrician that came out as he was remarkably unhelpful! Any advice very much appreciated!
 
Why and how did your electrician reconnect you ?
Not sure why the cable was so shallow unless it was moled under the concrete and it came a bit close to the surface. If you get a bill I would contest it if it was genuinely 100mm deep and you had a CAT and service plans on site at the time of the strike (most services arent shown on utility plans). Cable should now be 450mm Deep but 40 years ago who knows? but then it wouldnt have been moled 40 years ago.
 
Builder is at fault partly as he should have asked for drawings from all the utility companies for location of their services before he started blundering around with a digger.

He should then have scanned the area for any cables or other services to make sure off their locations.
 
Sympathy with the builder but as above if he was using an excavator he should have Cat scanned.

Your neighbours and the electricty board have an established right across your land to run the electricity service, if it's in your way unfortunately you will have to pay if there are any charges.

The cable was most likely laid in place by the developer and only connected up by the electricity board at the time.
 
You will receive the bill from the supplier and you will have to charge the builder.

This happened to one of my neighbours and despite the cable being only 150mm down under the grass!
 
My dad had the same problem except he hit a gas pipe with the digger. The gas supplier sent him a bill but he contested it by post as the pipe was too close to the surface (approx. 200mm) and we never heard anything back. I wouldn't just pay it, i'd try and argue it out, but then again, im a very awkward indiviual
 
He may well receive a bill, doesn't mean you will have to pay it!! At just only 100mm depth , he has more than enough grounds to throw that bill straight back at the DNO. And to insist, that the existing non conforming cables, be made to comply with the DNO's published min burial depths...

To be honest, the homeowner/OP should think himself bloody lucky it wasn't him breaking up the concrete path/drive/patio area with a club hammer and chisel....
 
Came to dig a hole for a small shrub late one Sunday afternoon outside my 1996 built house. It was right up against a boundary wall, where the dog used to cock his leg. Once I was past the turf, the ground was just builder's fill, so I was using a mattock with a fibreglass handle.

About 200mm down, maybe less, I hit the main feed which had been looped out of next door, around the end of the wall and then along the wall to my meter box. The end of my mattock now has a small part of the blade missing where the arc blew it away.

I called the Electrickery Board. Within an hour they had arrived, repaired it (live, big white plastic gloves in next door's box) and re-buried it. Job & done, apparently. Never got a bill.
 
When my brother was building an extension we found the DNO cable less than a garden forks depth laid across the garden he was thinking of turning over as the service head and meter position was being moved as part of the build we got them to re lay it at the proper depth for safety with no charge
 

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