Hi can someone please help. I live in a flat with another flat above. Next to my fuse box is a very old looking box and some very dodgy looking textile wires going upstairs. I'm concerned being such old equipment it my cause fire. I'm trying to find out if anyone knows what that box is and who is responsible replacing it? Also can the wires into it be replaced by normal electrician or does it need supplier to do it? Thanks Susie
Best answer by DavidWSR
Updated on the 18/08/25 by Emmanuelle_OVO:
The box you have circled is the incoming electric supply terminal unit. This contains the electric company fuse to which the tails to your meter connect. In this case OVO would be responsibe for this connection. I am not sure about the yellow cable as this seems to as you say be going upstairs but there does not appear to be a seperate fused connection. It would be worth asking OVO to come out and have a look and maybe upgrade your meter too.
Updated on the 18/08/25 by Emmanuelle_OVO:
The box you have circled is the incoming electric supply terminal unit. This contains the electric company fuse to which the tails to your meter connect. In this case OVO would be responsibe for this connection. I am not sure about the yellow cable as this seems to as you say be going upstairs but there does not appear to be a seperate fused connection. It would be worth asking OVO to come out and have a look and maybe upgrade your meter too.
This link could answer your question. Simply saying, everything before the meter is not your/landlord’s responsibility, everything after the meter – is up to you/your landlord. The yellow wire going from the cut-out looks like “meter tails between cut-out to meter” which is the supplier's responsibility. So, I agree with
+5There are some things to note here
The device and casing you identify is the main fuse into the building and is the property of your DNO. You can discover who this is here.
The cables at the top appear reasonable and the yellow shroud on the other cable may well be an earth connection. OVO will not be able to do anything on this but might suggest changing the meter as it looks close to (or outside) certification.
To me it looks simply that they are 2 mains supply terminations, but only one of them with a main fuse fitted there.
One is for your meter, the red and black wires, and has a main fuse fitted.
The other is for the upstairs flat’s meter, probably also red and black wires but they have been wrapped in yellow tape as far as the conduit/pipe that then goes to the upstairs.
You can see the end of the yellow tape just as it goes into the conduit.
There isn’t a main fuse fitted there for the upstairs connection, it’s just in use as a terminal block, the main fuse for upstairs will be upstairs with their meter.
The other thing to note is that the meter there was installed in September 2009 and so is 15 years old.
As
That will have to be done by OVO (or whoever your current supplier is) and the engineer doing that will of course make sure that everything electrical in that area is safe to be used.
The new meter will be a smart meter, nobody makes those old meters anymore.
If I was you I would book an appointment now to have a new smart meter fitted:
https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/how-to-get-a-smart-meter
Thank you All for your help! I will be contacting Ovo first thing ... may be they can tidy things up with a new meter too 😉
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