alarm going off at night

Chrysalis

Whats the point of alarms on shops etc.

Basically since they have a reputation for going off when they not supposed to noone takes notice. Unless they linked to automatic callouts.

Generally the police do not come out when called citing lack of manpower not policy etc.

So they only seem to serve as a nuisance, or maybe something to keep insurance companies happy.

I live on a road thats houses one side, shops the other.

All the shops have alarms, one goes off at 10pm when he shuts his doors and its off briefly for a minute when he sets it. Next door to him has occasional problems once a month or so, although usually at times like 6pm rather than during night.

Now for the last 2 weeks in a row every day the alarm is going of at he local coop, this one by far the worst as the others are all tolerable. the first 3 days in a row the fire brigade came out, on the 2nd of these 3 days I also walked up to it to confirm its the coop and rang the police, we never got to the point on the call if the polie were going to attend because the fire brigade arrived and the police told me to talk to the fire brigade, the fire brigade said it was a fire alarm and asked me if I seen smoke, I said no and asked what was going on as they came previous day also, they said no idea and just said thanks I not needed anymore.

I assume now they have opted out of the auto callout as obvoiusly its not viable for them to show up every night for false alarms.

I plan to visit the shop tommorow and speak to the manager about it but if they not cooperative with me is there anything legally backing me to get them to fix it. I suspect they will be telling me they cannot leave it turned off. I am 20 doors away so if i can hear it clearly I expect many more can also who are closer to it.

fluffnutter

Same with car alarms really. Let us know what the manager says. If there's no resolution, you could also contact your noise abatement officer at the local council.

browneyedbazzi

As fluffnutter says, if the alarm is going off at night and disturbs the 'quiet enjoyment' of your home, then it may be a statutory nuisance. Keep a log of the times it goes off, how long for and any impact on you (ie were you woken up/prevented from sleeping/couldn't hear a conversation or the programme you were watching on tv?). Get in touch with the environmental health team and then with your evidence they can contact the shop and get them to sort it out - usually in the first instance they'll try talking to them and telling them to sort it. If that doesn't work then they can issue a noise abatement order that forces them to fix it or face fines every time the alarm goes off and causes a nuisance.

bod1467

Chrysalis wrote: »

I plan to visit the shop tommorow and speak to the manager about it but if they not cooperative with me

Given the name of the store, I would hope they would be.

Chrysalis

They first said its already been fixed, I told them it happened last night as well and they just said thanks for letting us know, so I guess they will try and fix it again but seems they not sure what the problem is.

neilmcl

Is this a consumer rights issue?

Esqui

Probably a vent. But I have a similar problem round here every now and again. The worst one was when the alarm for Santander started going off at 5.30pm and was still going off at 1am.

If I want to rob a bank, I'll know which one to go for...

mttylad

If it goes off report it to the police.

They will soon get onto them for the false alarms.

You on the other hand are doing no wrong.

EA will also act when the police have had enough reports.