How many house alarms a day do your neighbours inflict on your area?

T

TreeTiger

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Where I am I reckon it's about 5, the worst being an estate where about 3 alarms a day go off. I don't get why people think it's ok to have people living within half a mile of their house subjected to their noise again and again. A couple of times I've left in notes to houses whose alarms have been close to my house and gone off on an almost constant basis and that's helped in those particular cases.
I also can't understand why the close neighbours of people with faulty alarms don't complain to the culprits. Can anyone enlighten me?!
 
I was at home for the last two weeks and I would say at least two a day. Each for at least half an hour each time. I just don't see the point of them. No-one pays them any attention (apart fom the obvious annoyance). Why can't everyone just have silent alarms hooked up to eircom phonewatch or other similar services?
 
very aware of that problem, doesn't happen alot around here TG. I am away alot at weekends but have left number of keyholder to surrounding neighbours incase my alarm goes off. used to live in London and it happened all the time, very annoying.
 
I know someone who went up on a ladder and used a sledgehammer to take out a neighbours alarm that was constantly ringing.
 
csirl said:
I know someone who went up on a ladder and used a sledgehammer to take out a neighbours alarm that was constantly ringing.
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Did it work? I have an alarm in my house that I want rid of (it came with the house) as it sometimes likes to go off if the electricity goes. I was thinking of just taking a hammer to the sound emitting bit.
 
It did work - was an old style alarm with the horn in the red box on the outside wall.

Did it work? I have an alarm in my house that I want rid of (it came with the house) as it sometimes likes to go off if the electricity goes. I was thinking of just taking a hammer to the sound emitting bit.
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I had this problem also. Replaced the alarm with a Phonewatch one and the Phonewatch installer removed/dismantled the red box and placed their one in the same location. Didnt seem like a difficult job - I think he just disconnected it. Removed the internal control box myself later.
 
Thanks csirl, I think I'll just take the hammer to it so. Won't be getting a phonewatch one in or any sort of replacement as I don't see the point of alarms. My one went off recently and I wasn't there - it was (to my eternal shame!) going off for ages before Himself found the code and nobody paid a bit of notice to it (apart from being irritated by it I'm sure).
 
They drive me crazy - something should be done about them - legislation to say that they all have to switch themselves off within 5 mins or something. Serious noise pollution in big housing estates.
 
I can't understand the logic of these noise boxes. The default system design seems to be go off for half and hour, switch to internal, then return to blaring for another 20 minutes to half and hour. They can even do that more than once. I mean, what exactly is the point of any of that? What is the value? If they don't notify someone who can deal with the situation what service are they delivering?

If the noise hasn't done it's job within 5 minutes (i.e. scared off the intruder or alerted the authorities) it will do nothing except annoy and aggravate others.
Worse still an alarm that continues unabated for more than 5 minutes immediately says "EMPTY HOUSE" at full, irritating volume. Worse still since the vast majority of alarms are in response to something silly like a window being open as opposed to an intruder what they are also advertising is that there may be an easy access to the self-same house.

All the while they are wasting electricity blaring.

What smart idiot sat down and thought that was a brilliant idea? What insurance fool decided to agree and incentivise people to have these things?

I understand the Mr Gormley has it on his list of things to look at, I hope he comes up with a good slap on the wrist to the entire idiotic enterprise and regulates what seems like a cowboy industry of noise boxes built on fear.
 
I think its a shame that, because of the fact that alarms can be constantly ringing for no good reason that as a result we ignore them when they do go off for a good reason. (understandably, else we'd be reacting permanently...) f
I live in north Co Dublin and my house was broken into last week, alarm went off but was ignored by all. (BTW, my alarm very rarely goes off by itself, usually only if i open a window before switching it off but it is disarmed immediately then)
If someone had reacted, i wouldnt have returned home to a place where scumbags had walked through my home and rifled my things as if it was a free shop just for their convenience.
As a rule, i take a drive around a neighbours house if i hear the alarm going off but Im in a country area so dont have multiple alarms going off all the time so its easy for me to be vigilant.
shanegl says "Why can't everyone just have silent alarms hooked up to eircom phonewatch or other similar services?" Have you seen how much they cost? After my experience I've just paid over EUR2.5k to get Phonewatch installed for elderly parents and that was after a 20% discount. I cant afford to do it for myself as well and I imagine a lot of people might be in the same situation

According to the Gardai, house breakins are at epedemic proportions and chatting with people at work, nearly everyone has a break in story, either in their houses or parents/siblings houses. How ARE we to protect our homes?????
 
emmt said:
I think its a shame that, because of the fact that alarms can be constantly ringing for no good reason that as a result we ignore them when they do go off for a good reason. (understandably, else we'd be reacting permanently...)
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You've hit the nail on the head there. Up to a few years ago on my road, within a couple of minutes of an alarm going off there would be in excess of 3 people out to see if everything was all right. We mostly had the old style bell alarms. Then an estate was built behind us with siren alarms and over time some other houses in the area have "upgraded" their alarms to sirens, the louder the better.

As people had their ears assaulted more frequently by these screaming alarms they just don't look any more when yet another one goes off. I have keys for 3 of my neighbours just in case - they have the old bell alarms - and I will go outside if I hear a bell, but not if I hear a siren! And as Socrates pointed out the whole cycle of repetition of an alarm is nonsense, why not just put a sign outside saying "House unoccupied, please break in"?

My next door neighbours once went away for a week leaving their siren alarm activated, having organised someone to come in daily to feed their cat who was left in the house. Every night, sometimes more than once, the cat set off the alarm. The siren is about 15 feet from the vent over my bed. My neighbours on the other side had a key so they had to get up in the middle of the night to stop the siren. A horrific few nights for my family, but cat owning neighbour never breathed a word of apology. People don't care.

I think if people were fined for their alarm falsely activating regularly everyone's life would be a lot more peaceful. But at the moment there are no consequences for inflicting hours of this misery on one's neighbours, and therefore no incentive to reduce incidences of false alarms.
 
I'm reading this thread with interest as I'm about to get my first burglar alarm installed.

I'm lucky to have great neighbours who are vigilant anyway and would investigate if an alarm went off - all the more reason not to annoy them with nuisance alarms. I've been subjected to these over the years with several occasions where they went off continuously for days on end - aaargh!

What kind of timeout would people find acceptable? Are there any measures I can take to minimise false alarms?

Thanks,

g
 
But at the moment there are no consequences for inflicting hours of this misery on one's neighbours, and therefore no incentive to reduce incidences of false alarms.
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You would think that the fact that everyone is subjected to it would be enough incentive for everyone to reduce the incidences. I have to say that considering how many houses there is where I live it's amazing there isn't more of them going off. Some kind of legislation is the only answer.
 
gnubbit said:
What kind of timeout would people find acceptable? Are there any measures I can take to minimise false alarms?
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If you are looking at simply installing what I unlovingly call a noise box, then you need to consider the effect you want to achieve. First deterrent, presence of box. Second deterrent, god-awful noise. I would suggest no more than 15 minutes, if the alarm hasn't scared the intruder when it first goes off, then it won't do so as it continues to blare. How and ever, as you probably want it to alert the key-holding neighbour you need to give it time enough to be deemed unoccupied. Better still, invest in the expensive solution that means a proper response will occur.

Part of the problem with those things is who to call. Do you ring the gardaí to what is unlikely to be an actual break in? Do you check first and see if there is a genuine alarm yourself? If you do, what happens? What if someone goes in to switch off the alarm thinking it to be innocent or trivial only to find they have stumbled into the burglars? Is it wise or right to put good samaritan neighbours in the way of such a danger? Alternatively, do they ring the gardaí and tell them about the alarm and then wait patiently for the gardaí to arrive (while the alarm blares away) so as to let them check these things out, then to find that someone just left a window open?
The advantage of the monitored alarm system is not just that it is constantly monitored but that the response is specific, planned and structured.

emmt, sorry to hear you were the victim of a burglary but to be honest I think that the criminal class have little regard for these noise boxes because the only thing they may now stop the burglar doing is taking their time in your premises as the noise has to be as annoying to them as to others!
 
TreeTiger said:
I think if people were fined for their alarm falsely activating regularly everyone's life would be a lot more peaceful. But at the moment there are no consequences for inflicting hours of this misery on one's neighbours, and therefore no incentive to reduce incidences of false alarms.
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Hmm, I wonder would this be workable in a privately managed development perhaps? I wonder if anyone has tried that approach? Installation of alarms allowed. Multiple false alarms will be punished by imposition of a fine.... although given the difficulty management companies have extracting the management fees I doubt they would have any more luck getting the fine!
 
Thanks for the reply So-crates.

15 minutes was what I was thinking of. I know my current next door neighbour's goes off for 20 mins which I don't mind as at least I can be sure it will stop! The apartment below me has one which doesn't time out and has driven me demented on more than one occasion!

The response will also include one of those diallers to contact me, the hubby and then keyholders if there is no answer from us. And I think it gives details of what sensors/PIRs etc have been activated so hopefully will give an idea of whether we need to call the Gardai or not.

I hope we never need it!
 
Not sure if it's a default, or only applies to certain brands, but at least one alarm I know of is set to "go off" for something like 2 years if not deactivated!
 
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