Fined for Car alarm?!

System

arcon5 wrote: »

It's a ridiculous bill

Tell that to all the neighbours who had their entire night disturbed.

AdrianC

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

How can the council disconnect the battery without breaking in themselves?

It's rarely hard to open the bonnet from outside.

Also alarms often have their own battery backup so that wouldn't have necessarily silenced the alarm immediately.

Sure, but that battery-backed sounder has a very finite capacity.

Aretnap

wgl2014 wrote: »

Do the council say under what legislation they are requiring payment?

I believe it's the Environmental Protection Act 1990, as amended by the Noise and Statutory Nuisance Act 1993. Which basically gives councils the power to deal with noise emanating from a car which is causing a nuisance (which would certainly include a car alarm going off in the jmiddle of the night repeatedly or for a long period) and gives them the right to recover the costs incurred from the vehicle owner. There doesn't appear to be any requirement for the vehicle owner to be directly to blame for the alarm going off.

Agree that it's worth looking into whether your insurance will cover this as an expense resulting from vandalism or attempted theft, though if the amount is fairly small and/or you have a large excess it may be better not to involve youe insurers.

m0bov

Disconnecting the battery would have caused the alarm to sound anyway, they have a built in battery. Have they damaged the car?

Manxman_in_exile

cjdavies wrote: »

Did you leave the car key with anyone for situations like this when anyway?

It would never occur to me to do this. Is it recommended?

Quentin

Of course. Just like you should leave someone a house key and the code to silence the house alarm.

Otherwise expect the neighborhood to get the council to silence the noise and send you a bill

facade

Quentin wrote: »

Of course. Just like you should leave someone a house key and the code to silence the house alarm.

Otherwise expect the neighborhood to get the council to silence the noise and send you a bill

House alarms made since 2002 stop sounding after 20 minutes of being ignored, and just forlornly flash the light to tell you that you have likely been burgled and no-one cared. The relevant standards are BS4737 and DD 243.

If the alarm causes a statutory nuisance, councils can apply for a Warrant from the Duty Magistrate to enter the premises to silence it, and charge the householder. I do believe that the Police have to be satisfied that there isn't an intruder first, so that could take between a few hours to a few days :rotfl:


A car alarm should only reset itself a couple of times before giving up, depends on the make. If it keeps on sounding, there is something wrong with the alarm (usually it is a Vauxhall in my experience )

Marvel1

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

It would never occur to me to do this. Is it recommended?

Going by what happened to OP you would think so.