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The lad on the phone said that it would be classed as breaking and entering if they (the electricity company) opened the box without my permission, said box being on the outside of my property. I suppose that I cannot be classed as breaking and entering their box in that their card through the door saying sorry we couldn't read your meter specifically asks me to read the meter and call them, and in fact they supplied me with the key to open the box. Basically they employ a third party to read the meters and said meer reader wasn't bright/bothered enough to see the meter box.