ADT Alarm Subscription

millie

My son has just purchased a house with an ADT alarm. The alarm is monitered by Redcare and if it is activated the police attend. He was told by the previous occupant that he was cancelling the service. The first night he set it the day he moved in, activated it by mistake and just put the correct pin number in and re-set it, but the police arrived at the house. They were ok about it when he explained what had happened they just came into the house to check he was telling the truth and went. He has since contacted ADT who have told him he has to pay £25 a month for the service which he does not want. He was told they don't do a bell only service, as this alarm was put in all the houses where he lives when they were built he does not know what happens if he refuses to pay.

chuckles1066

millie wrote: »

My son has just purchased a house with an ADT alarm. The alarm is monitered by Redcare and if it is activated the police attend. He was told by the previous occupant that he was cancelling the service. The first night he set it the day he moved in, activated it by mistake and just put the correct pin number in and re-set it, but the police arrived at the house. They were ok about it when he explained what had happened they just came into the house to check he was telling the truth and went. He has since contacted ADT who have told him he has to pay £25 a month for the service which he does not want. He was told they don't do a bell only service, as this alarm was put in all the houses where he lives when they were built he does not know what happens if he refuses to pay.

He should tell them to whistle for their money; they can't force him to enter into a contract which he doesn't want to.

millie

chuckles1066 wrote: »

He should tell them to whistle for their money; they can't force him to enter into a contract which he doesn't want to.

But who does the actual alarm belong to? and can they come and remove the alarm itself? the house is 7 years old.

chuckles1066

millie wrote: »

But who does the actual alarm belong to? and can they come and remove the alarm itself? the house is 7 years old.

Well it could be a leased alarm but that's unlikely for domestic premises.

The alarm will most likely be hard-wired into the phone system; a zone breach triggers the software into dialling Redcare and they notify Plod.

It's fairly simple to deactivate the dialler so that he has a standalone bell-only system. ADT won't like it (that's where they make their money, after all) but that isn't your son's problem :beer:

millie

He has now taken the telephone connection out from the alarm and it is flashing telecom failure, but apparently if the alarm is activated he has to phone ADT for a re-set code before it will work again, so he has to get around this problem if it should happen. He can't set it off to test if it will still ask for the code, just in case it won't reset without it.

baldelectrician

Get an alarm company in to reset the panel and install a bell box.

The redcare line will be causing him line rental. Make sure he ceases the line- the alarm line will be in addition to any domnestic telephone line.

millie

Should he cancel the phone line it is not in his name, so I can't see how he can be charged for it, he has not signed a contract with anyone for this service so my feeling is they can't ask him to pay, but we are not sure. The previous occupiers had their telephone line with NTL and he has had to pay BT £125 to install a line because he did not want NTL. Presumably the alarm line would have been through NTL too. We are not sure what to do because he wants an alarm but does not want to be subscribed to anyone. He was under the impression the alarm will be removed if the contract is cancelled.

gossfam1

It sounds like the alarm equipment is RENTED...this is not uncommon for domestic alarms, as this is what we used to do.
If the contract is cancelled, or unpaid, then rightly the company will want their equipment back, or least render it un-usable by the owner. This may involve just recoving the alarm control panel and leaving the wiring and sensors.
The owner should contact ADT and ask about a purchase figure, to buy the equipment from them to use as a stand-alone alarm.
It seems that it was the fault of the previous owner not to inform ADT of the owner change. You are right the contract was with the previous owner, but unstandably, the new owner can't get something for nothing!!

littlesos

We used to have an ADT alarm in our old house. The money you pay to ADT is for the alarm monitoring. You can cancel the contract (three months notice) and that's that, everything is left in place, however the alarm will not be serviced, and the police will not come in the event of a trigger. There is no outside "bell-box" with ADT, the alarm sounds very loudly inside the house, the exterior box is just a box/warning.

It's odd that the police actually turned up though, as once the alarm is triggered, ADT call the owner or if they are unavailable one of the nominated keyholders (there are two) to check it out before sending the police out.

When we sold our house we cancelled the contract and ADT sent out a letter to the new homeowner telling them how to set things up if they wanted to have the contract.

There is one thing though, when we signed up to ADT it was a 3 year contract, so it may be that the old owner is unable to cancel it without paying out if it was installed less than 3 years ago.

I liked having the monitored alarm, we got insurance discounts, and they are the only type of alarms that the police will respond to now.

If I were your son, I'd try and find out who the nominated key-holders were as they may still have keys to your house and the pass-codes for your alarm. If ADT can't help then the police will have the details and may be able to contact them.

littlesos

millie wrote: »

He has now taken the telephone connection out from the alarm and it is flashing telecom failure, but apparently if the alarm is activated he has to phone ADT for a re-set code before it will work again, so he has to get around this problem if it should happen. He can't set it off to test if it will still ask for the code, just in case it won't reset without it.

Sorry this doesn't make sense. In your first post you said your son triggered the alarm and re-set, so why now does he need to phone for a reset code????

millie

littlesos wrote: »

Sorry this doesn't make sense. In your first post you said your son triggered the alarm and re-set, so why now does he need to phone for a reset code????

He is worried that if the alarm goes off again accidently or otherwise he will not be able to set it again without a code from ADT. I have been told by someone else that ADT install these alarms in new houses on a 3 year contract, and after that time the monitering can be cancelled, don't know if this is true though. As far as he is concerned he bought the house and the alarm was included as it was not mentioned by the solicitor, and the prevous owner said he was cancelling it. Perhaps he will get a letter from ADT in due course.