AIBU re this odd request from neighbours?

What's it connected to at the other end?

Don't know. The cable disappears into a hole drilled into the kitchen wall into what's the cupboard housing the boiler.

We are approaching the outer limits of my technical abilities with changing a fuse and rewiring a plug

The case is plastic and it's definitely that kind of one you find indoors like this. That's a wall safe masquerading as a plug socket btw, but it looks like that.

I've built a little wooden hut with a pitched roof over it and drilled it into the wall - so I'm reasonably handy. I'm quite proud of it and would bore you with the picture but I can't download from my phone because my external hard drive has died and I need to get a new one from Argos.

Anyway, I think I need to get a man in.

Love that your other neighbour is on watch while you are at work - am imagining her hiding in the net curtains with binoculars

Good thing I never place mark. Ahem.

My DH goes to "talk to a man about a dog" Download is so much better, I shall be introducing that one from now on!

Arf at Mayaknew willing to bed her bicycle riding monkey on NDN's unfinished fence

Keep the autocorrects coming, people!

Alison brilliant! I will do this!!

Great thread. I like to be helpful to the neighbours as I never know when I may need a favour back.

However, our NDN's took the piss so we're helpful neighbours no longer.

We're on the end of a terrace and as such we have a side gate entrance to our back garden. NDN (mid terrace) recently had a conservatory built. They asked could the builders use the side of our house for access and take down a fence panel between our gardens for access. They said one week tops. It was mid winter and we were rarely using the garden so we agreed.

It took three weeks, weather was crap so not really their fault.

They were only supposed to be here monday - friday. They were here weekends too so we had a few early morning knocks to unlock our back gate.

They blocked our drive, often.

The builders trod such a heavy path our grass was wrecked.

The fence (ours) was damaged when they replaced it. Very obvious from both sides. It remained like that until dh went out and bought new slats and fixed it.

However, finally it was over. We waited and waited for NDN to come over and thank us for the use of our garden. Maybe even a bottle of wine for compensation for the inconvenience? THEY HAVE SAID NOTHING.

Never again.

Is it okay to leave as it is for now or is it still dangerous?

The socket itself is unlikely to be dangerous. Either the case is
plastic, or the case is metal and earthed. The wiring to it might
be a bit entertaining. What's it connected to at the other end?

Thanks metacentric. That looks easy enough. I'll get someone who knows in. Preferably in the next six weeks before it starts raining in earnest.

I don't plug anything in to it atm and the switches are off.

Is it okay to leave as it is for now or is it still dangerous?

I've just had one of those scam phone calls from "Windows Technical Support" telling me that they need to sort out the error messages coming from my computer (yeah, right)

I said
Weeping Bicycle Monkeys
Then hung up.

I wonder how that is going to be logged on their call activity sheet?

ltdperiod

www.screwfix.com/p/safetysure-13a-2-gang-rcd-unswitched-plug-socket-metal-clad/44648

Or if you're feeling flush and fancy:

www.screwfix.com/p/mk-2-gang-rcd-active-switched-plug-socket-metal-clad/51455

That way, you get RCD protection on anything that's plugged in. Get an electrician to wire it to the ring main properly.

this is just fab...other peoples NDN issues are always more fun than one's own!

OT metacentric but I have an outside power source in the garden put there by someone else.

I think it's dangerous - it's an indoor socket powered from an extension within the house - but I don't know what to do with it.

What do you suggest?

I flicked the switches from on to off with a stick while wearing rubber shoes - brave.

It's been there years. I've been in the garden countless times when it was wet.

It's lethal, isn't it? I should call an electrician on a dry day, shouldn't I?

can I ask folks to check that theirs is definitely covered by an RCD breaker. It's a device which will cut the power if a current appears on the earth circuit (e.g. you have just managed to run your lawnmower over the cable) and may very well save a life.

Trivia note: the whole point of RCDs ("residual current devices"), aka ELCBs ("earth leakage circuit breakers") is to deal with the case where current hasn't appeared on the earth conductor, but is instead leaking to earth through some unspecified other route, perhaps you. Indeed they provide protection for unearthed appliances, like many garden tools; most "double insulated" equipment sold in the UK uses a two-core flex, as they don't have earth bonding (nor do they need it).

An RCD measures the difference in current between the live and neutral (the "residual current"), and trips when the difference exceeds 300mA (the sort you might have on your house distribution unit) or 30mA (plug-top devices sold for use with garden tools). They don't look at the earth at all: if there is a leak to earth, the RCD detects it by the effect it has on the balance between the live and the neutral.

Simply having an RCD (aka ELCB) in the consumer unit isn't good enough; if your hands are wet or your heart is weak 100mA@230V is certainly enough to kill you ("it's the volts that jolt, but it's the mills that kill").

An RCD won't always save your life, and there are scenarios where you can get a potentially fatal shock without the balance of the conductors being disturbed. But those are rare situations, and a 30mA RCD on every garden tool is a massive safely win. Just don't rely on your house RCD to do it for you.

The cheeky fuckers NDN arrive home today

I actually can't wait for tomorrow's next update.

So they are going away and want to you to deal with their builders? I'd say no! Why have they just assumed you'll be in anyway?!! Cheeky! I had a fence put up recently. I did decide to pull down some shrubs and trees on my side because I needed more room in my garden but we didn't touch my neighbours. All the work was carried out in my garden so no damage or mess to neighbours plants or property.

What a great idea! I'm having my kitchen done in September, so I'll book two weeks leave and leave the neighbours at number 1 to deal with it all!

No YANBU

Londonrach - of course, Mners will be issued with premiere tickets!

Paula...let me know when the film is out...

What time is op back...(remembers the elderly korean thread..thanks queen...and pops over the classics)

Yorksha yadddddnbu, unless you stop updating, which would bu.

Limited your DH sounds truly lovely, They sound like scummy cunts who should be ashamed.

That said I am loving this thread! Would it be too much to adapt it into a film? Start with a montage of cheeky ndn going door to door asking neighbours for use of loo, electric, whatever - I am seeing op as Jennifer Aniston and maybe Jake Gyllenhaal as a hunky topless builder, I think this could work. Would need good special effects for the weeping bicycle monkeys though.

Why oh why is elderly Korean next door but one lady not a MNer? It's very unfair to have to wait until OP gets home before we get an update

(Place duly marked)

Are the neighbours due back today?

Mint they hid their shit in a store room in the basement . Just nasty.

The neighbour sounds like she'll give a full and thorough surveillance report. My mum would have said: 'done a toilet' too .

Since outdoor power points have seeped into discussion, at the risk of being boring, can I ask folks to check that theirs is definitely covered by an RCD breaker. It's a device which will cut the power if a current appears on the earth circuit (e.g. you have just managed to run your lawnmower over the cable) and may very well save a life.

Any equipment I use outdoors, is powered from an RCD-protected extension cable (available from all good DIY stores).