what in the world???

why wasn't the outlet moved into the recessed portion first???

yes, get an electrician out there. that looks ridiculous and could put undo strain on the wiring in that cord. no, do not hide it. see if a new outlet on it's own circuit can be installed behind the fridge

Yes! what @Beth H. :says!

This worries me for reasons in addition to the outlet. How is that refrig circulating air? My builtin had to have a foot of space above it for air circulation so it wouldn't burn up. You should have gotten an installation manual with the refrigerator. It specs out all the things for electrical outlet placement and air circulation. If you don't do it according to the installation manual, you void your warranty.

Yes it would be worth it. Well, depends what it costs and how much effort is involved and what resources you have...

If it's not feasible at this point to get an electrician in (and there are many reasons: too busy, too pandemicy, too expensive, electrician doesn't want to lift fridge out of hole, etc.), at least get a quality white extension cord. Route the cord down, then run along the baseboard, then go straight up to the hole, tucking any excess into the hole. Attach it to the wall with U staples (carefully) so it stays put.

Weird. one easy fix: get a white 3-prong extension cord with a flat plug. Run it neatly down the wall, along the baseboard, and tuck the rest behind the fridge. it will be less noticeable.

Then find a really large stretched canvas print or some other kind of flat wall hanging. That might not cover the whole area, but enough that the little bit of white cord sticking out will hardly be noticeable.

Yours would probably look better than this pic below since your wall is white. You can paint the staples white as well.

EDIT: there was one other comment suggesting to be sure the cord can handle the energy requirement -- I agree. you can still find ones like that with flat plugs, but they're a little harder to find.

If you didn't want to do large wall art, find a paintable cord cover. Look for the slimmest one possible (which can be found at most hardware stores).

Thanks all, we’ll get an electrician out to see if it’s in our budget/feasible to move the outlet. @tozmo1, I think the air circulates at the bottom but will definitely double check.

Usually if the air circulates at the bottom the fridge sits on a grill-type thing. Check your local code: usually the fridge needs to be on its own circuit. Outlets often share a circuit.

I see several people recommended an extension cord. Definitely not the best option, but if you decide to go that route, choose a heavy-duty cord that is capable of handling the refrigerator's energy requirements without compromising safety.

I would not move that outlet. Instead, get the electrician to put an outlet on a completely new circuit and leave that one for other use.

Wow, I have never seen a fridge raised up off the floor like that before. Curious what would be the purpose of that? Doesn’t it make it difficult to reach the top shelf?

It looks like the front feet are hanging off the ledge. Is that because the cord will not reach the plug if it is pushed back more?

Good you are going to have an electriction out to look at it. As was mentioned by latifolia, in our area the fridge needs to have it’s own dedicated circuit.

It looks like the receptacle into which your refrigerator is plugged is a GFCI one. I think it is a bad idea to plug a refrigerator into a GFCI because it might trip without your knowing it. A simple fix might to put in a second receptacle closer to the refrigerator opening on the same circuit as the existing one. And, if you do that, pay attention to the orientation of the plug - for the plug on this refrigerator, the receptacle should be mounted with the ground connection up.

Get it moved and I too wonder at the reason for it being raised at all.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting we wonder that as well! Not sure what the previous owner’s rational was.

Assuming that the ref will be pulled out while the electrician is there, I'd try to determine why the ref was raised (pipes for icemaker underneath?) and whether you can lower it to floor level. Seems like it would be a pain not to be able to pull it out for maintenance.

I can think of a lot of reasons the fridge is off the floor. The previous owners were really tall and wanted it higher. Or, they wanted it recessed but there is an HVAC duct running along the wall at the floor and couldn't cut into it so they built above it. Or, they didn't want to get into the extra work to break out the tile and figure out how to make it look okay. Or, the hole was already cut into the wall for a builtin cabinet and they said, "Hey! Let's put the refrig in there instead," which I actually think might be the case since there is no electrical in the space.

I've lived in a lot of houses and all of them have wild crazy stories of why people did what they did to them. I'm sure it all made sense to someone at the time it was done. Doesn't make it right, but there usually is an explanation.

I agree that it would be a royal pain to not be able to pull the fridge out whenever you need to. To clean under there for one. But if there's a water line, you need to be able to access it very quickly if there's a leak. Just some practicalities to consider.

Houses are weird. Isn't it fun discovering odd decisions the previous homeowner made?

Yet another reason to investigate: if you do not have enough space for air circulation, which it really does not look like you do, you can also get mold in that cavity.