Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To get irritated driving through the new housing and seeing houses with the electric cabinet door smashed off?

42 replies

ThePunnyPeachDuck · 26/04/2025 20:19

You can buy a key to unlock it for £2.97

It’s not just 1 or 2 houses there are loads of them, it’s some sort of epidemic

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
PyongyangKipperbang · 26/04/2025 21:44

ThePunnyPeachDuck · 26/04/2025 20:29

Perhaps they lost the key, I just think it makes the area look a bit shit tbh

We are thinking of selling but who wants to live in an area where people can’t manage their electric cabinets ?

Show quote history

Ok I can understand that you personally dont like the look of it, but if you really think that they will "bring down the tone" of a whole area, you are taking over think to a new level. Or just a snob.

finallyskinny · 26/04/2025 21:17

we lived in ours about 4 months, when a storm hit it ripped it right off, we replaced it and guess what got ripped off again

johnd2 · 26/04/2025 21:17

Yeah clearly your area is a hotbed of door smashers, maybe the local Facebook group has tips on how to make your house look run down?
To be honest the common factor is the batch of doors that was put in, maybe you should be ranting at the rubbish quality that the cabinet manufacturer put in which failed due to normal use.

JenniferBooth · 26/04/2025 20:57

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:28

I was surprised when we got a new cupboard for the meter and they didn't leave a key. Surely leaving a key would stop at least some people forcing them open.

Well i was told to get a key off Amazon.

BottleBlondeMachiavelli · 26/04/2025 20:54

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:40

The real issue is why you have to have this special key that anyone can get. It's not security because anyone can buy one, it's not safety because it's just to keep a door closed and prevent rain ingress. So why not a standard latch.

It’s the same with radar keys.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 26/04/2025 20:51

ThePunnyPeachDuck · 26/04/2025 20:34

No excuse really

would it be a bit ott if I printed this off and posted it through peoples doors?

That's nice, dear - a picture of the key that was sitting inside on top of the fuse box whilst the bloke from the electricity company smashed his way into the box to swap it over to a digital meter without my being informed (or even knocking on the door on the offchance I wasn't at work) it was going to happen. And then he went on to do every other new build on the street.

WearyAuldWumman · 26/04/2025 20:49

ThePunnyPeachDuck · 26/04/2025 20:27

It must just be round here then.

I see it for gas meter cabinets around here. I find it bewildering. When I misplaced our key, I got a next day replacement from Amazon.

ETA For some reason, all our electric meter are indoors.

scalt · 26/04/2025 20:47

Is this a stealth move to sell smart meters?

Without the cabinets, in the old days, the meter reading men would have to come into the house to read the meter; they might not be quick enough for the "please have your identification READY" sign at the door, they might not take their shoes off; and worse, they might ask to use the toilet! The horror! 😮

Mum2jenny · 26/04/2025 20:43

You must live in a really rough area. I’ve never seen this issue and I don’t live in a posh fancy area. Most meter cupboards are intact. Maybe my neighbours actually have keys to the meter cupboards and don’t need to leave them unlocked.

BottleBlondeMachiavelli · 26/04/2025 20:42

MereNoelle · 26/04/2025 20:20

Eh? I don’t know what an electric cabinet door is!

Meter cupboard.

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:40

The real issue is why you have to have this special key that anyone can get. It's not security because anyone can buy one, it's not safety because it's just to keep a door closed and prevent rain ingress. So why not a standard latch.

SmoothRoads · 26/04/2025 20:38

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:37

So they can be read without people having to be at home

I have a smart meter. They can be read from a distance.

Octavia64 · 26/04/2025 20:38

They come off. Especially in storms and of they’re already weakened.

i bought a key for one in the house I rented and discovered the locking mechanism was broken. The whole door came off in the next storm.

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:37

So they can be read without people having to be at home

SmoothRoads · 26/04/2025 20:36

TheNinthLock · 26/04/2025 20:24

These ones. Meter cupboards.

These are outside? Why don´t they place them inside the house? Much safer.

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:35

DarkHollowTree · 26/04/2025 20:32

When my new ones were installed I was given a flimsy plastic key for an extremely stiff lock. It snapped eventually and left me faffing about using tools to try and open it to reconnect my electricity supply when my credit ran out!
Can't imagine everyone would have the patience to do that. I left it open for the mean time. First knock at the door was someone to say it was open so they'd pushed it shut 😤 I bought a metal key asap 🤣

That's the issue then. If you have to click the main box to reset after a credit run out and you don't have a key at 4pm Sunday then you are not going to have no electricity until you get a key. You're going to force the door to reconnect the electricity.

Original poster
ThePunnyPeachDuck · 26/04/2025 20:34

No excuse really

would it be a bit ott if I printed this off and posted it through peoples doors?

To get irritated driving through the new housing and seeing houses with the electric cabinet door smashed off?
OP posts:
myplace · 26/04/2025 20:33

DM’s is broken. It’s not as easy as it should be to find out how to replace it.
A be meter box is expensive and you need someone to fit it. However, I think all you need is a meter door, which is quite cheap. I haven’t done it yet because I need to measure it.

DarkHollowTree · 26/04/2025 20:32

When my new ones were installed I was given a flimsy plastic key for an extremely stiff lock. It snapped eventually and left me faffing about using tools to try and open it to reconnect my electricity supply when my credit ran out!
Can't imagine everyone would have the patience to do that. I left it open for the mean time. First knock at the door was someone to say it was open so they'd pushed it shut 😤 I bought a metal key asap 🤣

MereNoelle · 26/04/2025 20:32

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:30

Do you not do self reading. We have to send a reading every 3 months.

Show quote history

Ours is a smart meter and I don’t have to send any readings.

100PercentFaithful · 26/04/2025 20:31

ThePunnyPeachDuck · 26/04/2025 20:29

Perhaps they lost the key, I just think it makes the area look a bit shit tbh

We are thinking of selling but who wants to live in an area where people can’t manage their electric cabinets ?

Show quote history

An electric cabinet?

ClareBlue · 26/04/2025 20:30

Amba1998 · 26/04/2025 20:29

Owned my home for 9 years. Never opened it. No one’s ever smashed it open. Never seen one smashed open.

Do you not do self reading. We have to send a reading every 3 months.

Amba1998 · 26/04/2025 20:29

Owned my home for 9 years. Never opened it. No one’s ever smashed it open. Never seen one smashed open.

TruJay · 26/04/2025 20:29

Mine is currently on the floor but it wasn’t ‘smashed off’ it got battered in that awful wind we had a while back and one hinge has completely snapped and taken a big bit of the plastic door front with it, no way to reattach. Even when I didn’t have a key to open it I just tediously got it open with my fingertips, never occurred to me to smash it open so unless you saw the people living there smashing their electric metre box open, it’s weird you went straight to them doing that just to gain access.

Original poster
ThePunnyPeachDuck · 26/04/2025 20:29

HeddaGarbled · 26/04/2025 20:26

Do you really have to buy your own meter cupboard key in a new-build?

Perhaps they lost the key, I just think it makes the area look a bit shit tbh

We are thinking of selling but who wants to live in an area where people can’t manage their electric cabinets ?

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread