Help - emergency meter change

[Myotherhusbandisgaryoldman]

Electricity went off at 10 am this morning.
Emergency engineer has just left, having to fit a new meter - I was being fobbed off all day by the new electric supplier, insisting there was nothing wrong when in reality they should have come to change the meter.
I'm a renter. I've been here about 3 weeks, and while the engineer was changing the meter, it occurred to me that I should have got permission?
But it was 10 pm at night and I'd had no power at all in the house for 12 hours.
I had told the letting agents that I had been waiting in all day.
Am I in trouble?

The meter does not belong to you, nor to your landlord. It belongs to an electricity company, who has the right (and the duty) to replace it if faulty, or if very old.

The landlord might grumble if it was changed from, say, a credit to a prepayment type.

No you don't need permission.