Do Not DIY the DB Board
Do Not DIY the DB Board
The distribution board is where circuits are gathered behind a cover. It is not a student project, a TikTok, or a way to save a call-out fee. ManjeProp’s public form, knowledge base and staff notes all say the same sentence: tenants do not open the DB board.
This article exists because people still try.
Why the cover stays closed
Behind it are live parts. A board that “looks off” can still kill you. A breaker you push because a housemate once did can energise a wet circuit. Informal work on a rental is how fires start and how insurers ask who opened the cover.
A registered electrician is the person who opens it. You are the person who describes the rooms and stays in the dry.
What you do instead
If an appliance failed and it is safe: switch it off at the wall, unplug with dry hands, check prepaid credit from the outside of the meter if you can see it, tell us which rooms or plugs are dead.
If the whole house is dark: look at the street. If the street is dark, you are in an outage. If the street is live, report a house fault without removing any cover.
If there is smell, heat, smoke, spark or shock: leave if you need to, phone emergency services if people are at risk, then +27 60 313 6961, and mark Report a fault Emergency. Photograph fittings from a distance. Not the inside of the board.
If water is near the board, do not stand in it. Do not reach for the cover “to trip it.” Get people away.
What staff must never write
Do not put a knowledge-base step that says reset this breaker, remove this cover, tighten this wire. Do not ask a tenant to open the board before the electrician arrives. Do not send a photo request for the inside of a live board.
If a contractor needs the board photographed, they take that photo after they have made it safe enough for their own procedure. That file sits on the repair.
A housemate who “does electrical on the side” is not a contractor we will send. Informal work can also become damage on an outgoing inspection.
Gate motors, geysers, stoves
The same rule applies to their covers. A wall isolator you can switch with a dry finger is not a cover. A sheet-metal lid with screws is a cover. Leave it.
After-hours temptation
Night is when people decide to try. Night is when a mistake is harder to undo. If it is not an emergency, send a High or Urgent ticket and wait for light. If it is an emergency, phone — do not DIY.
A cold house is uncomfortable. A burnt hand is a hospital.
Listings and honesty
Do not advertise “rewired” unless the work was done and certified as your process requires. Do not show an open board as a marketing photo. Parents do not need to see copper. They need a gate that works and a socket that is not brown.
If a cover is already off
Say so on the ticket in the first line. Keep people away. Treat it as more serious than the original dead lamp. We will send the registered person faster for an open board than for a theory.
Do not put the cover back if you cannot do it without touching parts. Stay away.
What the ticket should carry
Property, unit, which rooms are dark or which fitting is hot, whether the street has power, whether prepaid still shows credit, whether water is involved, and whether a cover is already off. Photographs of the damaged fitting from the dry, not of copper. Your number.
That pack is how a registered electrician arrives with the right expectation. If two housemates already “had a look,” write that so the cover is not a surprise.
After the visit
The repair log should show who attended, what was replaced or made safe, and a photo the contractor took. Close the ticket only then. A tenant text that says “power is back” is not a close if nobody knows whether a scorched socket is still in the wall.
Do not thank the unofficial cousin in the notes. If informal work happened, say so so the next person does not trust a fitting that was never certified.
The board is closed because the alternative is worse than a wait. Report the symptom. Leave the screws where they are.
Report a fault · +27 60 313 6961 · 10111 if people are in danger. Room enquiries: properties.