University block fines

michael137

Some idiot set off the fire alarm in our block, and now the entire block is being fined (no, not just damages) for it. This seems to me not only unfair but in contravention of the law. Whist I know universities can levy fines, surely there has to be some action on the part of the individual, as is the case with fixed penalties. Surely they can't do this, it seems to violate the prinicple of rule of law.
Whilst I can understand fines against individuals for specific behaviour, I can't understand this. Surely it also comes under the same common law principle that civil cases can't incur penalties, only damages .

System

Maybe it's not a fine. Fire services tend to levy a charge against businesses (a uni is a business) for false alarms.
6 years ago for our fire service it used to be £200. Maybe they are just trying to recoup their losses.

There must be a joint duty of care for all accupants to ensure that things like this don't happen.

minerva_windsong

!!!!!! wrote: »

Maybe it's not a fine. Fire services tend to levy a charge against businesses (a uni is a business) for false alarms.
6 years ago for our fire service it used to be £200. Maybe they are just trying to recoup their losses.

There must be a joint duty of care for all accupants to ensure that things like this don't happen.

That's definitely rocketed massively - the warning we used to get when I was at uni three years ago was that it cost £800 for every false alarm as they automatically sent two fire engines out to the uni, and that whoever set it off would be paying for it. And the fire alarms in some older blocks were notorious for going off a lot, I can remember when the one in my halls went off about three times in two days.

At the end of the day unis don't have infinite funds and it probably seems fairer to them to ask a whole floor to fork out £50 each rather than wait for someone to fess up and get nothing back.

Pssst

Perhaps the "idiot" should be located and reported to the relevant authority?

I must admit,i have never felt the urge to set off fire alarms.

Maybe the person likes to see firemen and fire engines?

Jakg

Holy Christ.

When I was in halls (for all of a week...) we had 4 fire alarm, the year before they had 72 in a year...

I cannot see how they can charge everyone and would refuse to pay - you didn't do anything...

Pssst

Jakg wrote: »

Holy Christ.

When I was in halls (for all of a week...) we had 4 fire alarm, the year before they had 72 in a year...

I cannot see how they can charge everyone and would refuse to pay - you didn't do anything...

And were they legit or just kids messing around..?

Jakg

Mix of dodgy alarms and accidental setting off with the odd real one.

esuhl

I have to say that I've no idea about the legality of such fines, but I would refuse to pay regardless. If you have done nothing wrong, why should you be fined?

If anything, I would play the Uni at their own game and pass the fine to the university administration with a letter saying that if it is anyone's responsibility for ensuring that false alarms do not happen, it is theirs. If they refuse to accept responsibility because it's nothing to do with them, you can say that they will understand why you too won't take responsibility for the same reasons.

cardiffforthefacup

I was forced to stay in Portsmouth 'Bateson halls' with a 4 yr old and the alarm went off 3 times one night in the middle of winter and standing outside in nightwear with an upset child for 20-30 minutes while the firemen check each block is no fun. There was a fire alarm going off at least twice every week usually fridays, sometimes sundays. Only one was real where a drunk student fell asleep while burning some food. The point is each call out cost £800 to the university and only one culprit was caught and he got chastised and kicked out of halls in front of about 300 of us and although I felt sorry for him I was by then totally fed up of having to get up between 2 and 5am on a regular basis. There was going to be a new rule that if the fire service was called for no reason the block in which it was set off would be responsible for the cost, so I expect that rule has been implemented and also what needs to be considered is that while they are there wasting time someone in real need might not be able to access the services. The rules are stated before you sign up for the halls and if someone doesn't abide by them it is your loss. Are you sure you are being individually charged £800 or is it being shared between the block and you have to make a contribution, in which case I would do a bit of a 'Sherlock Holmes' and fish out the culprit and make him/her responsible for there idiocy!!!

esuhl

cardiffforthefacup wrote: »

I was forced to stay in Portsmouth 'Bateson halls' with a 4 yr old and the alarm went off 3 times one night in the middle of winter and standing outside in nightwear with an upset child for 20-30 minutes while the firemen check each block is no fun... There was going to be a new rule that if the fire service was called for no reason the block in which it was set off would be responsible for the cost... The rules are stated before you sign up for the halls and if someone doesn't abide by them it is your loss...

I'm surprised to hear that, after being continually woken up in the early hours, you would also be happy to pay a fine!

MissPop

I hear the fire alarms go off in the other blocks here quite often, but luckily ours has only gone off once (and they knew it was the flat on the floor above us!).

Sometimes fire alarms are just ridiculously sensitive - some can be set off by spraying deodorant or hairspray in the room, for example. But indeed, there are just some f!!!wits who think it's funny *facepalm*