Burglar Alarm

Clive_Woody

We recently moved and have never had a house with a burglar alarm before, but our new one does have one. The lady who lived there before us left us a copy of the receipt for the annual service of said alarm.

My question is, is this really neccessary?

I think she paid around £95 to have it serviced and a new battery put in, and it is now a year since it was done.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

skylight

Serviced and/or monitored alarms can reduce your house contents insurance.

Can help to reduce false alarms etc. Depends on whether you feel £95 is worthwhile.

cattie

If it's not a monitored alarm, but the owner has been paying for just a service, where the alarm is checked annually, then I don't see why you can't do this yourself if paying the £95 is an issue for you.

My house has a non monitored alarm & I check it out every now & again to make sure it's working as it should do. I've never had a problem with it in over 5yrs, so don't know if I've just been lucky or what.

alanobrien

If you have some DIY understanding you can do an annual check and service yourself
Details here;

http://www.thesecurityinstaller.co.uk/Content/diy_service_pt1.asp

burnsguitarman

I wouldn't bother with an annual service, do you know how old the system is? (not necessarily a problem but some newer alarms can be less obtrusive, and more functional) Is it causing you any problems? If not and it covers all the areas you need protection for, I'd leave it alone. I don't think it's very expensive to get a decent one fitted to your exsisting wiring should it ever go wrong, probably only the cost of a couple of annual services providing you use someone from your local paper!

Clive_Woody

The money isn't a big issue, but like anybody I can find better things to spend £95 on.

I was really just wondering if this was really neccessary. We've had no problems with it and having never had one before I wondered if it was worth the time and effort of getting somebody in to fiddle around with it then hand me a bill. I could take my computer and work from home while he comes, but as with so many things if it ain't broke don't try and fix it seems a prudent approach.

It's not as if there are exactly many moving parts to wear out or go wrong......he say's before heading home to discover that he should learn to keep his big mouth shut and not tempt fate....

Jonesya

Only problem we had with our alarm over the last 14 years has been the sealed lead acid battery in the control panel failing; easily changed, £15 for a replacement battery.