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Supply to a pair of cottages

Harry Macdonald
My sister owns a cottage, one of two converted in 1987 from a row of 4 farmworkers cottages in Scotland.

The electrical supply comes in near the middle of the row, i.e. at the end of her cottage that is nearest her neighbour. Her neighbour has been complaining of supply problems and Scottish Power have sent an engineer who reportedly has said that the supply comes into my sisters property then is looped by cable under the floor into the neighbours property. This cable is said to be very old (1987?) and need to be replaced by a new cable that would run up her wall into the loft then into the neighbours property down the wall to the meter.

It seems odd that a supply cable could be looped internally between two otherwise independent properties. Can anyone advise what are the rules covering this?

It also seems very odd that a problem with the cable on the supply side could be causing problems in one property but not in the other, or indeed the whole area.
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    Looped supplies were very common - I've seen them in everything from 1940s semis to 1980s detached (looped from the detached house next door) - usually identifiable by two cables into the cut-out. I think DNOs don't like to do it that way any more, although I think they still do "under eaves" wiring where the supply to neighbours can run across your building, but the connection is tee'd off outside rather than at your cutout.


    1987 is comparatively young for a supply cable, if that's when it was installed (although I guess there's a possibility it could be older - i.e. what was left when the removed the supplies to the original 4 properties).


    Supply problems usually involve excessive voltage drop (e.g. lights in one property flickering/dimming when large appliances switched on in the other) - or possibly just a grumbling fault (e.g. loose connection) on the looped cable, so the symptoms only affect the downstream neighbour, but access is needed next door to replace it.


      - Andy.
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  • 0
    Looped supplies were very common - I've seen them in everything from 1940s semis to 1980s detached (looped from the detached house next door) - usually identifiable by two cables into the cut-out. I think DNOs don't like to do it that way any more, although I think they still do "under eaves" wiring where the supply to neighbours can run across your building, but the connection is tee'd off outside rather than at your cutout.


    1987 is comparatively young for a supply cable, if that's when it was installed (although I guess there's a possibility it could be older - i.e. what was left when the removed the supplies to the original 4 properties).


    Supply problems usually involve excessive voltage drop (e.g. lights in one property flickering/dimming when large appliances switched on in the other) - or possibly just a grumbling fault (e.g. loose connection) on the looped cable, so the symptoms only affect the downstream neighbour, but access is needed next door to replace it.


      - Andy.
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