# House alarm constantly ringing



## shopgirl (18 Nov 2011)

There is a house alarm which has been ringing since yesterday afternoon- I thought there was recent legislation regarding this however I am having difficulty finding out who actually implements this or does anything about it.  I have phoned Gardai, they told me to phone the Dept of Environment, the lady who answered the phone said "what's a house alarm?" she then directed me to phone someone else etc etc, I have made several calls but have made no progress & the alarm is still ringing...


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## Sue Ellen (18 Nov 2011)

There's nothing more annoying as I hate noise.  Have you tried ringing your local Council to see if they can give you any advice?

 previous threads might give some advice.


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## Leper (19 Nov 2011)

Here we are screaming for numbers to be reduced in the Public Service.  Then somebody's home alarm keeps ringing and we contact the Gardaí and the local council both of whom have nothing to do with the problem.

Talk to the owner of the property, for God's sake.


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## micmclo (20 Nov 2011)

Tbh, having your alarm blaring for hours is just a sign saying ROB ME. Anyone passing by knows there is nobody inside and nobody paying attention.
Alarms go off so often nobody pays attention, pretty useless. Boy who cried wolf and all that

The Green party were talking about a twenty minute rule and all alarms had to be programmed for this.
I don't know if that was ever officially done but our management company apply the twenty minute rule and if there are complaints about you, they force you to call out a serviceman to reprogram it.




Leper said:


> Talk to the owner of the property, for God's sake.



The owner isn't there, it's been going since yesterday afternoon


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## Leper (20 Nov 2011)

Well if you haven't the owners mobile number or any knowledge where he/she is, both of you must be some neighbours.

A continuous ringing alarm can be the beginning of neighbourly contact.


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## IsleOfMan (20 Nov 2011)

Leper said:


> Well if you haven't the owners mobile number or any knowledge where he/she is, both of you must be some neighbours.
> 
> A continuous ringing alarm can be the beginning of neighbourly contact.


 
A bit harsh. I have houses all around me and I only know about half of the people who live in them and I would only have my immediate neighbours phone numbers.  The other half wouldn't even look at you as you passed them on the street because they have no interest in me.


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## horusd (20 Nov 2011)

I've has two days of my next door neighbours smoke alarm going off. Battery must need changing, and he's not there. No phone no for him either.  Went to bed with earplugs in last night.


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## Complainer (20 Nov 2011)

I've heard of cases where somebody might open the external fuse box and disconnect the main switch. The alarm will continue to sound until its internal battery runs out. The contents of their freezer will be on the kitchen floor when they return.


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## shopgirl (20 Nov 2011)

Leper said:


> Well if you haven't the owners mobile number or any knowledge where he/she is, both of you must be some neighbours.


 
To reassure Leper, I am a good neighbour, who knows I may even have called to his house during the bad weather to check if he was okay though unlikely as there are no ivory towers in my area....

Thanks for all the comments. I will post if I actually establish if there is legislation & who is responsible for implementing it.


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## Leo (21 Nov 2011)

shopgirl said:


> I will post if I actually establish if there is legislation & who is responsible for implementing it.


 
Noise pollution falls within the Dept. of the Environment's responsibility. Here's a PDF guide to the regulations.
Leo


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## liaconn (21 Nov 2011)

Leper said:


> Well if you haven't the owners mobile number or any knowledge where he/she is, both of you must be some neighbours.
> 
> A continuous ringing alarm can be the beginning of neighbourly contact.


 

Why would someone necessarily have contact details for everyone on their road?  I know where I live a lot of houses are rented out and most people are out at work all day and barely know each other. Not ideal, but that's modern society (unfortunately).


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## gianni (21 Nov 2011)

liaconn said:


> Why would someone necessarily have contact details for everyone on their road? I know where I live a lot of houses are rented out and most people are out at work all day and barely know each other. Not ideal, but that's modern society (unfortunately).


 
Do you need to own your house to have contact with neighbours ?


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## micmclo (21 Nov 2011)

They are "only" renters
They don't matter


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## liaconn (21 Nov 2011)

gianni said:


> Do you need to own your house to have contact with neighbours ?


 
No, but a lot of people renting are 'just passing through' and don't have a huge interest in putting down roots in the area and getting to know people. If a lot of houses in a particular area are rented you will rarely get the same community feel as in an older, more settled place.


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## liaconn (21 Nov 2011)

micmclo said:


> They are "only" renters
> They don't matter


 
Where did I say they 'don't matter'??


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## TreeTiger (23 Nov 2011)

Leper, how many neighbours would your recommend people get contact numbers from? How far away from their homes should they attempt to acquire these details?

On a recent windy day, I listened 7 times to alarms going off in the estate behind me in the space of 2 hours, most of them for 20 minutes at a time.  Several of them were those really loud ones that you can hear for miles away. 

I actually debated with myself whether to write a letter to all these people asking them to leave keys with neighbours, but in the end I went out instead.  It's fairly commonplace for alarms to go off there, and I believe the management company has asked people to be considerate of their neighbours in relation to this issue, to little or no effect.

On my road there's an elderly couple who love to spend time in their garden but can't when one of these extra loud alarms is going off; there's also someone who often works nights.  Their peace is being destroyed by people who don't even live on the same road.

What really drives me crazy is the idiots whose alarms go off for 20 minutes, then stop only to start up again 5 minutes later.  Yet this isn't covered in any legislation I am aware of.

I would love 2 things to happen:
1. People to be fined heavily for regular false alarm activations, and
2. People with loud alarms to be required to give contact details to several neighbours, rather than the neighbours having to ask for this information.

P.S. I have keys for 3 houses near me in case of alarms going off or the homeowners locking themselves out.  These are the people whose alarms rarely go off.  In my experience it's the people who don't hand out keys or contact details who create the nuisance.


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## horusd (23 Nov 2011)

The 'funny' thing about house alarms is that :



 They are universally ignored. Defeating the purpose of having one.
Owners with faulty alarms seldom feel obliged to maintain them, or to be considerate of neighbours.
Alarms are universally despised for noise pollution.


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## Leo (23 Nov 2011)

horusd said:


> The 'funny' thing about house alarms is that :
> 
> 
> 
> They are universally ignored. Defeating the purpose of having one.




I'll bet you can't back that up with stats. Recently the only house on my street without an alarm was the one burglars chose to break into in the middle of a bright afternoon.

Insurers would not offer discounts for having an alarm if their figures didn't back up the fact that houses with alarms are statisticaly less likely to be broken into.
Leo


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## micmclo (23 Nov 2011)

If I were a burgler I'd come around and set off the alarm, maybe bang against the window or however you do it.

Just sit back and wait, if it's still going over twenty minutes later, in you go


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## truthseeker (23 Nov 2011)

micmclo said:


> Just sit back and wait, if it's still going over twenty minutes later, in you go


 
Why wait 20 minutes? If my alarm is accidently set off (usually by me opening a window in the morning before Ive unset it) I have it off within 30 seconds - my head would possibly explode otherwise.

I had a situation 2 christmases ago where an alarm was going off in an apartment in my block. The apartment was empty, the previous renter had moved out a few days beforehand. The alarm went off for 4 days solid, despite repeated calls to the management company, they could not get in touch with the owners. It was so loud that it actually hurt your head to stand outside. Eventually the management company were able to get hold of the owner, who had to drive from Carlow I think, to come and turn it off. 

He came at 11.30pm on the evening of the 4th consecutive day of it and switched it off. Thus silenced he drove off and 30 minutes later it started up again. Needless to say, as it was midnight at this stage and a Saturday night no one was able to contact the management company til the Monday to report it was still going strong. Unfortunately being a Saturday night the week before xmas, when he came to switch it off there werent that many people around so no one actually saw or spoke to him, and despite a note pinned to the door from us neighbours requesting that the owner leave his contact details with one of us, he had not done so. 

It continued throughout the Sunday and then when I came home on the Monday evening it was switched off for good. Its a dreadful nuisance.


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## micmclo (23 Nov 2011)

truthseeker said:


> Why wait 20 minutes?



Garda response times through that phonewatch 
If they're not there within twenty minutes unlikely they are coming at all

Also, they are supposed to be programmed to go off after twenty minutes or at least the Green Party were talking about that.
So any alarm going over that shows a clueless and careless owner


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## horusd (23 Nov 2011)

Leo your right, I can't back it up with stats, but in my experience I've never heard of anyone ringing the police coz an alarm went off, if they ring at all it because of the nuciance value. Owners with alarms should factor in some consideration of their neighbours, but again in my experience they don't.


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