House electricity supply - stupid question but I am worried, can anyone help?

[LeccyQuestion]

Our neighbours lost their power and an engineer came round yesterday. They need to repair something but in the meantime, to get the neighbours' supply back up, they've hooked up a wire to our house (they disconnected us for a few minutes to do this).

I've noticed the wire is going into our meter cabinet - please reassure me that this won't be coming off our meter! I didn't realise this till the engineers had gone and they won't be back till Monday, or else I'd go out and ask them.

I assume that they are using your power supply until they get it fixed on Monday. Did they ask your permission or explain any of it?

Yes that sounds dodgy as fuck and you will be paying for it. pics?

They asked permission, yes, and obviously I gave it because I wouldn't want the neighbours to be without electricity all weekend. They said a connection had blown and they'd need to dig up the neighbours' driveway to repair it, and they were going to reconnect one of the lines on a temporary basis. The line is attached to a grey box in the meter cabinet and then goes down our drive and back up to the neighbours' house.

Sorry to be more clear pic of how the cable is connected so we can see if its before or after your meter.

That sounds dodgy but I probably would have agreed too.

This is it - the wire is the one going through the hole.

Have you spoken to your neighbours about it?

Not since it was done - we had a conversation earlier in the day when they were checking whether anyone else's power was off.

I will ask the engineers when they come back on Monday - if it is running through our meter, I'm not sure what I could do about it as there'd be no way of knowing who had used what. I'd have to hope the neighbours don't use too much - they've got small children so I imagine there's a lot of washing/drying going on .

DH has just had a nose and the cable is going into the neighbours' meter cabinet, so hopefully that means it will be going through their meter!

Can you afford a few days paying for their electric? If I were them I'd offer you some money towards your bill at least.

Assuming it was just normal household use then I could afford it, yes. My payment goes out by direct debit for a fixed amount and just gets adjusted every now and then depending on use and if the tariff changes. It's my gas bill that's usually enormous - my electric bill is quite small!

That looks like it's spurred off tour main fuse which is before your meter.

Does it? Thank you Imnotaslimjim - your terminology there sounds like that of an expert!

Yes agree it looks like its taken before your meter so you should be fine :) Get them to confirm Monday.

I will, thank you LivingDeadGirl. I wish I'd asked more questions at the time but I was working from home and as soon as I heard the power would be going off I wanted to dash back to my computer to make sure I'd saved everything I was working on remotely, as my wi-fi would be knocked out.

Make them double check things when they disconnect your neighbours and reconnect you.

This happened with my neighbour when they were renovating and moving in and they had to be connected to my power supply over a weekend as well, however it wasnt connected back properly. I decided to have a bath that evening and thankfully I get in before I add water and I felt the shock, I got myself out and rang a friend who was an electrician. Half of my house had been left live.

If I had added the water, I most likely wouldn't be telling you this. As I lived alone so wouldn't have been found quickly.

We had this OP for about 2 weeks however when i clarified with engineeer he said it bypasses before it goes to our meter essentially. We also had huge cables running past our house.

There was no change in our bill either just to reassure you!

It’s not dodgy as some have said, we are in the north and it’s what Northern Power Grid did when our neighbours electricity went off. Some wiring has disintegrated under the road so it cut off the supply to their house, so northern power grid over the course of a few weeks dug up the road etc.
Not dodgy, totally above board.

That is a legitimate way to get people back on if there's a power fault. It's not "dodgy" at all.

Obviously just don't touch any of the equipment and it should be removed once the work is complete