Council try to charge me £209 for silencing alarm!

audioblackout

Hi everyone...

I went on holiday when the floods happened and our cellar got flooded. For some reason the alarm went off and the council were called out. A note was put through our door saying they had to take steps to silencing it and we would receive a bill.

Now, from what I can see they did absolutely nothing! No sign of entry to the house and the alarm battery was flat, meaning it had silenced itself.

The bill they are trying to put on us is £200!

Does anyone have any ideas what I should do? Should I dispute it? And how should I go about it? Any help we be soooooo much appreciated. The stress of the flood was bad enough but I can't help feeling I'm being walked over here by the council.

Thanks in advance!

Badger_Lady

Blimey, that's a bit steep! Surely it's obvious to anyone that these were exceptional circumstances..?

Have they provided contact details so you find out exactly what they supposedly did to silence your alarm?

Rikki

If the battery is flat or nearly flat an alarm will continue to sound.

This will continue until either the system is disabled or the battery is replaced.



EDIT: This happened to me and the alarm engineer had to disable the system until he could get a replacement battery.


No help I know but it might explain why someone had to come out.

rjm2k1

speak to your insurance company? They should be able to offer legal advice and parhaps even cover the fine.

audioblackout

ok, i've contacted the council and i'm going got get a full breakdown of what happened.

Rikki wrote: »

If the battery is flat or nearly flat an alarm will continue to sound.

This will continue until either the system is disabled or the battery is replaced.


EDIT: This happened to me and the alarm engineer had to disable the system until he could get a replacement battery.


No help I know but it might explain why someone had to come out.

the electric actually went off cause of the flooding. so i pressume the battery went dead and then the alarm stopped itself...

ok i'll lety you all know what the council say!

Rikki

audioblackout wrote: »

ok, i've contacted the council and i'm going got get a full breakdown of what happened.



the electric actually went off cause of the flooding. so i pressume the battery went dead and then the alarm stopped itself...

ok i'll lety you all know what the council say!

If the power goes off the battery takes over. If the battery is low the alarm will sound. It will continue to sound even when the power comes back on as it detects the low battery status.

Is the alarm working now and have you replaced the battery?

richyrichuk

saw an alarm the other day with solar panels which thought was good. so just stores the power and no need for batteries.

rjm2k1

richyrichuk wrote: »

saw an alarm the other day with solar panels which thought was good. so just stores the power and no need for batteries.

Stores the power in what?

richyrichuk

a battery which is kept charged by the sun.

YorkshireBoy

Rikki wrote: »

If the battery is flat or nearly flat an alarm will continue to sound.

This will continue until either the system is disabled or the battery is replaced.

...or until the second (smaller capacity) battery in the SAB unit is exhausted (assuming mains power has been lost [possible with the flooding] and the control panel battery is faulty/exhausted).

Isn't it a requirement (just BS 4737 or maybe legal/environmental?) that the bell be automatically silenced after a maximum of 15 minutes ringing? Maybe OP needs to get his alarm serviced/upgraded?

OP, when you go away, do you not leave friends/family emergency contact details with your neighbours?

audioblackout

ok i got in touch with the environmental health people. she told me the 200 pounds covers:

a) their own call out charge to verify the alarm is going off.
b) an admin charge for the paperwork
c) the call out charge of an alarm engineer.

apparently the alarm engineer disconnected the sound in the box outside the house so it now doesnt work (would have been nice if they'd have told me eh?!).

i have been given the name of the environment project manager and have been told to write to him to see what he can do about the bill. should i use the above strategy of 'exceptional circumstances' and try to make him feel sorry for us? or just tell him the cost is ridiculous and perhaps include my own quotes for an alarm company to do this, petrol to our house from their office and a few quid for the paperwork???

also does anyone recommend any good sites for letter templates like this? i want it to sound really professional if i can...