Welcome to the world of leasehold /freehold and the building network operator ;-) 

The DNO will tell you their responsibility stops after the main fuses or at the input terminals to the meters.

The meters will belong to each of the suppliers that each flat owner or leaseholder or possibly even a tenant, has a contract with.

The part of the tails and the consumer unit inside each flat will be the responsibility of the flat owner or leaseholder but used by any tenant.

The bit in between that passes though the common areas of the building will be under the control of the freeholder, who actually owns the building and charges the leaseholders a ground rent for the privilige, and who authorizes (and may charge for permission) any work taking place in the common areas, probably via a management agent. It is evebn worse if there is metering in the flats either instead or as well, and then is should be managed as a building network.

It is not in the flat owners or leaseholders gift to request or permit building work in the common areas.

It does not affect you but there are similar divisions of responsibility with things like drains, where ownership of the pipe changes when it gets through the lease-holders plaster and into the freeholders brick.

This leads to junction boxes and switches in odd places so that one part can be worked on without touching the other.

Now, who wants to do what?  because in installations of that quality, it is sometimes easier to be forgiven (just do the right thing) than it is to get all the  permissions first.

Some Freeholders and management companies are easy to contact and on the ball and keep their installations up to date, others can be frankly  slum quality and will try and claim it is not theirs and if the tenants or lease holders want something, they can pay twice, both for the work, and to the freeholder for the permission.

If you are not sure why this county needs leasehold reform, this sort of nonsense should convince you.

Mike.

To be clear the free holder owns the land under the building, and some of the building, usually the roof tiles, the external bricks and often is responsible for some of the common areas like hallways and stair wells though that may be subcontracted though a management company.

The leaseholders will have bought the flats from the freeholder, if the first purchaser, or more likely from a previous owner of the flat leasehold they 'own' the flat for 99 years if first owner or whatever the remaining lease duration if subsequent owner, and typically are responsible for everything inside the flat, and the floorboards inside the flat but not the joists and the plaster but not the walls that sort of thing...

There may then be a tenant in the flat who pays rent to the leaseholder (owner) of the flat. The leaseholders will get a bill each year from the freeholder for doing very little, and another  from the freeholder's management company for decorating and cleaning the common areas...

Mike.

Christ.  lol

Are there actually fuses in the main incoming white box at the bottom Mike.  This isn't the sort of set up i come across every day. I presume there must be as i can't see any anywhere else.  These are the only meters, none in the flat.  I thought i was going to have a nice cushy day today. I didn't even know it was a flat until i got there this morning  

Gary

Looks like an insulted version of a Bemco unit. Just out of curiosity, how close are bare live parts to the holes? IIRC the requirement is IP4X or IPXXD - the latter is somewhat more lax - as long as a 100mm long 1mm dia wire can't touch live parts, it could well comply technically.

   - Andy.

The terminals i could see were a fair way down.  Do these sort of things generally have fuses in ? or do i have a load of unfused meter tails

Unless there is an obvious service head somewhere else - cant see on this one,

There will be a row of 100A fuses that belong to the DNO in the white box, probably a few per phase. Does it have anti tamper seals and how is your attitude for risk....

I may be tempted to go a little  wild with a mastic gun and split some universal grommets, assuming the holes are a standard size and 32mm.

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GR32B.html

and then get out and not ask too many questions.

M.

Cheers Mike.   I can't get access again now without going through the estate agent. I'll just put it in the report and leave it to them to sort out if it needs it.  Thank you all for your help.  

Gary

AJJewsbury said:

as long as a 100mm long 1mm dia wire can't touch live parts

100 ± 0.2 mm long, 1 + 0.05 - 0.00 mm diameter  probe (specifically, Test Probe D in BS EN 60132), with a spherical limiter dimensioned according to the standard.

When fully inserted with a force of 1.0 ± 0.1 N, the the probe should not be within the relevant clearance distance of live parts (clearance distance varies with the product standard).

Some products standards vary the probe "delimeter" dimensions, tolerances and force applied (for very good reasons relevant to the product in question). Some product standards specify an insulation test or withstand test voltage to be applied for some of the access probe tests.

mapj1 said:

I may be tempted to go a little  wild with a mastic gun and split some universal grommets

As long as that's done in a way that can cope with the force of 1 N (or higher force if required by the product standard) on the 1 mm steel wire probe.

I won't be touching it. It can be somebody elses problem.

Gary