Who is responsible in a failure between meter and RCD?

Question

I appreciate that @aligarjon had already posed a question about the responsibility boundaries at cut-out and meter. 
 But I have a friend who recently suffered a small (fortunately contained) fire caused by a meter tail pulling out of the RCD on the feed side (downstream from the meter). The RCD had been installed by his solar PV installers and a couple of years later his meter was changed by EON, along with the meter tails to the RCD. The feed side terminals of the RCD are enclosed and not accessible by the consumer, as are the terminals to the meter and cut-out. 
 Notwithstanding the parallel problem of the energy company removing the incoming earth connection to the property when they changed a pole-mounted transformer without confirming that there was a local earth, which resulted in some interesting potential levels when the fault occurred, who is responsible for ensuring that the installation is in good order and is to a sound standard, if the consumer is not permitted access to inspect everything? 
 So far he is getting the expected runaround from the energy company, the supply company and OFGEM, possibly in the hope that he will go away and sort it all out for himself, but unfortunately this is not a guy who goes away quietly when he senses an injustice or wrongdoing, but he's also an engineer with a problem-solving mindset, so doesn't accept administrative brush-off. 
 I'd appreciate some guidance, thank you.

AJJewsbury · Accepted Answer

if the consumer is not permitted access to inspect everything? 
 
 I'm not sure that's quite the case. There's nothing (legally) stopping an owner picking up a screwdriver and opening up the enclosures. Even if sensibly it would be recommended that if the owner didn't possess suitable electrical skills, that the actual doing of it should delegated to to someone who does. DNO/supplier stuff would normally be sealed to (legally) prevent access by anyone else, but consumer owned equipment shouldn't be. 
 On the other hand, if the problem was caused by the supplier's meter change causing the cables to be moved (or re-terminated) - so causing a loose connection in the consumer's equipment, I would have thought that the supplier would have failed in their general duty of care. This after all is a well known problem in the industry - some consumer unit manufacturers now include extra cable clamps to mitigate that very risk, so it would be reasonable for the supplier to take precautions to mitigate the risk - e.g. checking the tightness of consumer side terminals or even formally informing the domestic customer of the risk and recommending they engage an electrician to check the installation (like they sometimes do when they spot inadequate earthing). 
 The problem of course would be proving that the meter swap was the root cause of problem and it wasn't the result of something else - e.g. a latent fault in the RCD itself, causing overheating, which then loosened the terminal; or even later tampering (by person or persons unknown). That's the sort of thing lawyers make their money out of. 
 
 live and neutral were "inverted" 
 
 That's a common enough condition. It can be seen even when the supply earth is perfectly good, if one of the lines gets connected to true Earth. The typical cause is a L-PE fault in a TT installation with a faulty RCD. In effect both LV conductors are connected to Earth (rather than just the N) so the potential to true Earth is then a tug of war between them with N (and hence supply PE) ending up being a long way from true Earth, with large step voltages around the both means of earthing. 
 - Andy.

Keir Stitt · Answer

Ideally these days the supplier will provide an isolator after the meter - then the demarcation is simple. 
 
 The tails leaving the meter are your suppliers and everything before the meter is your DNOs. 
 
 If you can see missing insulation then telephone your supplier. If your supplier is being awkward then mention the ESQCR regulations because ultimately its their equipment and they are obliged to maintain it in a safe condition. 
 
 In my experience once you tell them that uninsulated conductors are on show then you can expect the MOP to be visiting typically within 24 hours. So no point trying to DIY this or even paying an electrician to. The supplier is responsible, let them do it.

Peter Francis · Answer

Andy 
 Thanks for that. 
 I do think that this long after the meter was replaced, it's going to be challenging to prove that the installation was at fault. 
 I've suggested to the guy to gather as much evidence and information that he possibly can, along with the reviews from his electrcian and responses from the ministry (he never aims particularly low!) and presents the case as best he can, otherwise it's all down to him, and most organisations now seem to take the view that the buyer or consumer is the ultimate responsible party unless proven otherwise! 
 Peter

Who is responsible in a failure between meter and RCD?

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