Burglar Alarm on selling house - Scottish law

jem16

Currently selling Dad’s house as executor. House has a burglar alarm but this was disable a few years ago due to my elderly parents getting in a panic when it went off during the night even though not set. 

We’re not removing it but do I need to get it connected again?

Flugelhorn

Not sure about Scotland but I sold a house in England  where the burglar alarm had been disconnected, just stated it as such and if the buyers wanted to get it reconnected then it was up to them

ccluedo

jem16 said:

Currently selling Dad’s house as executor. House has a burglar alarm but this was disable a few years ago due to my elderly parents getting in a panic when it went off during the night even though not set. 

We’re not removing it but do I need to get it connected again?

I sold in Scotland and ensured it was listed as disconnected. 

flaneurs_lobster

If I were buying a house (in Scotland or anywhere else) that was listed as having an alarm system then I would want to see evidence that it was under a current maintenance (and possibly monitoring) contract. 

I wouldn't mention it at all when listing for sale if this was not the case.

jem16

ccluedo said:

jem16 said:

Currently selling Dad’s house as executor. House has a burglar alarm but this was disable a few years ago due to my elderly parents getting in a panic when it went off during the night even though not set. 

We’re not removing it but do I need to get it connected again?

I sold in Scotland and ensured it was listed as disconnected. 

I’m not sure it was listed as either there or not in the first place. I’ll need to check. 

Brie

Wherever you are if a potential buyer sees an alarm they may well assume it is working if there's nothing to say otherwise in the ad.  So I'd advise that it's disconnected. 

theartfullodger

What does your solicitor advise?

user1977

There's no relevant "law", just common practice in what the contract will say. But in general it's normal for executor sales to exclude the usual warranty about appliances etc being in working order, whether that's alarms, boilers or anything else.

I assume that by "selling" you haven't yet reached the stage of going through a successful offer with your solicitor, but you can chat about it then.

jem16

user1977 said:

There's no relevant "law", just common practice in what the contract will say. But in general it's normal for executor sales to exclude the usual warranty about appliances etc being in working order, whether that's alarms, boilers or anything else.

I assume that by "selling" you haven't yet reached the stage of going through a successful offer with your solicitor, but you can chat about it then.

We have accepted an offer and it’s now sold subject to concluding missives. We did go over the usual Scottish Clauses and yes the boiler has to be working for at least 5 days. Anything else, white goods for example, are not guaranteed working. 

At that point I’d forgotten about the alarm so it wasn’t mentioned. I will be checking with her on Monday but I’d rather not have to go to the bother of getting it reconnected if we don’t need to. 

jem16

theartfullodger said:

What does your solicitor advise?

I’ll be checking with her on Monday but just wanted an idea first. 

Olenna

As long as it wasn't advertised with an alarm system - working or otherwise - there shouldn't be a problem but just ask your solicitor to include it in the missives that it's included in sale but without any warranty.

Until the missives are concluded, it's really still under offer anyway.