Shop alarm going off at night

doolallygal · 2 August 2011 at 1:37PM

Hi,
Sorry if this is not the right place - unsure where to post.

Just wanted a bit of advice from folks.

We have a supermarket 200 yards (ish) from our house and recently the alarm has been going off at night.
A month ago it went of at around 10am and continued for over an hour, after half an hour I did call the local police and they said they would send someone over.

Last night it went off at 5am for over an hour - in this heat we are sleeping with windows open and so woke both me and my husband up.
My husband went into the shop today and said that the alarm had been disturbing us. He was told that the alarm is linked to a company that would call him and he would then come out. The problem is that he live quite a distance away and so takes a long time to get there. My husband enquired as to whether anyone else who lived closed would be able to repond and was told that it had to be him, as he was the manager.

I don't want to get into a dispute if it can be avoided, but we have a small baby at home and sleep is at a premium and this does not help.

Am I best just to keep calling the police when this happens again, or is there another avenue we could go down?

Also our house is on the market, and so don't want to get into any disputes with folks now!

Any info gratefully receieved

Thanks

DCFC79 · 2 August 2011 at 2:08PM

Id maybe write to area manager about it, not sure what the police could do except maybe get onto the alarm firm. Area manager is best as its 1 of his stores so if something is bothering the residents surely its for him to sort out.

antrobus · 2 August 2011 at 3:31PM

Contact your local council.

I'm fairly certain that there are some legal requirements regarding burglar alarms, as in they're supposed to have automatic cutoffs so they stop after 20 minutes etc. But it's certainly the kind of 'nuisance' that environmental health depts deal with.

Nilrem · 2 August 2011 at 4:07PM

antrobus wrote: »

Contact your local council.

I'm fairly certain that there are some legal requirements regarding burglar alarms, as in they're supposed to have automatic cutoffs so they stop after 20 minutes etc. But it's certainly the kind of 'nuisance' that environmental health depts deal with.

Aye, IIRC the alarm should not keep going off for more than a few minutes at a time, and there should be a contact available at all times who can disable the alarm when notified*.

It sounds like it's a faulty/badly fitted alarm and will likely keep going off, if the op contacts the local council they should be able to raise the issue with the relevant people.

*I know for a fact our local council wants to be informed of every house alarm, and to have at least two local non householder contacts who can reset it.

Darksun · 2 August 2011 at 7:56PM

antrobus wrote: »

Contact your local council.

I'm fairly certain that there are some legal requirements regarding burglar alarms, as in they're supposed to have automatic cutoffs so they stop after 20 minutes etc. But it's certainly the kind of 'nuisance' that environmental health depts deal with.

Older alarms don't always have this feature, and it's not a requirement on older alarms (just new installs). However, the owners still have a duty to avoid causing noise nuisance, and if they're failing in this responsibility then the council have powers to take action.

p.s. please tell me it's not a Sainsbury's

texranger · 2 August 2011 at 9:09PM

had a similar issue alarm going off 3 hrs solid, called the police and was told "can you see anyone around, can you see anything suspicious, if you cant then we dont have the manpower to send someone, call the council" so called the council emergency number and was tolds its an alarm call the police.
called the police again and this time they send someone out who did not seem to happy to be called out their response was " we will try and contact the store owner" and then he went. this alarm problem was every other night, so police were called everytime, store owner seemed not to be bothered until the police started to bill him for every callout.

Jariya · 2 August 2011 at 9:55PM

We kept having a problem with an alarm at a business nearby - it would go off all weekend and n one would come out.

Environmental health sorted it out.
The alarm was hyper sensitive.

Occasionally it pipes up but they come out quicker now so it's only maybe an hour rather than 72 hrs.

Forwandert · 2 August 2011 at 10:02PM

How frequently is the alarm actually going off? You mention twice in your first post but how long have you lived there and how often would you say in that amount of time? It shouldn't really be going off for too long, once the alarm recieving company has made the phone call to the keyholder theres no actual reason to keep the alarm going at all and they should be notified within minutes of whatever zone is activated, if its going off more frequently it's usually something really stupid like a cobweb over a alarm sensor or some sort of signage hanging from the roof spinning and reflecting off a emergency exit light or even cars turning round in the carpark reflecting off a sensor, the store manager should be able to get alarm serviced though and tested to see what's causing the problems i can't see why he's not already done it unless he likes getting up at night and driving around for a couple of hours.

Esqui · 2 August 2011 at 10:41PM

How big is the supermarket? Our store has about 25 people in, and there are 5 keyholders, all of whom have to be contactable at any hour, and it's done in order of who can get there quickest. I'm quite surprised that there's only one person who can respond to the alarm there, and who lives a long way away - imagine how much thieves could get away with in that time!

So, if you want to rob a supermarket, just go to the one near the OP!

browneyedbazzi · 2 August 2011 at 10:57PM

If this is something that is happening on a regular basis then contact the council's environmental health team - they won't be able to take action straight away but may informally ask the supermarket to sort out the issue. If it isn't resolved they will probably give you a log sheet to fill in for a little while to evidence the nuisance - that can then be used to get an abatement notice issued against the store which will force them to sort it out or face fines for each time it causes a nuisance. If they get an abatement notice it'll make financial sense for them to upgrade the alarm system to one that can be silenced remotely once a keyholder has been contacted or that has an auto cut off.

pmduk · 2 August 2011 at 11:22PM

It's probably a good idea to start keeping a diary. This will help the council if you do approach them and may help them to deal with the matter more quickly