ADT Alarm Subscription

millie

littlesos wrote: »

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.

The police probably did call the house number before coming out to the alarm but the previous owners had taken the telephone with them and my son had not plugged his into the phone line because he thought it was disconnected. He tried it the next day and the phone line was still working. He has the user instuctions for the alarm and has changed the pass codes.

littlesos

millie wrote: »

The police probably did call the house number before coming out to the alarm but the previous owners had taken the telephone with them and my son had not plugged his into the phone line because he thought it was disconnected. He tried it the next day and the phone line was still working. He has the user instuctions for the alarm and has changed the pass codes.

If it's like our old alarm each of the key-holders has there own pass-code, I'm not sure how you cancel them. As far as I remember changing the main passcode doesn't stop the others from working as well.

merit_mark_2

I have recently disconnected my ADT alarm system which I had for 17 years! Got fed up with paying them each month and getting false alarms caused by lodgers and cats. It is hard to cancel an ADT contract - their offices will not call you back and letters do not get answered when there is a whiff of cancellation in the air. I just cancelled my direct debit and waited ... even then they tried to bill me for overdue amounts etc.

And of course there is nothing useful available on their web site - in particular no way of contacting them online. Eventually I was given this e-mail address - adtuk.natretdeptATtycoint.com - to send my notification of contract termination! It worked - but I never got any kind of acknowledgement for 17 years of business with them!

As to the alarm - I put on ear defenders and took a screwdriver to it myself. And yes, I did own this particular system. Have now installed my own DIY system customised to my own needs - ie: lodger and cat compatible .... this cost about the same as getting a local alarm company to 'take over' my old system. And it dials my mobile direct, saving on monitoring costs too!

Good luck with giving up ADT!

millie

Our argument is that this was not my sons contract to cancel in the first place. The house sale documents say the alarm is included no mention of an outstanding contract, but when he spoke to ADT they said it was a leased alarm.

Mutton_Geoff

Although the alarm may be physically fitted to the house, the contract was with the previous people. If the alarm is not covered specifically in the contract of sale with the house, then it now belongs to your son as it can be assumed to be fixtures and fittings (at least that's the angle I'd be taking). There is no reason for your son to communicate with ADT, just have a local firm disconnect or do whatever he needs to the alarm.

Send any ADT mail back "not known at this address" or forward to old owners. Not his problem.

darrenstone

Hi,
This relates in a way to this particular thread, I have an ADT alarm that I stopped paying for a year ago. Now the battery is almost dead and it keeps sounding the alarm which I can turn off with the code. Does anyone know the best way to disable the whole thing i.e. can i just cut the power to the control box (after turning off the power to the house!)?
Any help gratefully received.

Regards,

Darren

welshblob

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

Although the alarm may be physically fitted to the house, the contract was with the previous people. If the alarm is not covered specifically in the contract of sale with the house, then it now belongs to your son as it can be assumed to be fixtures and fittings (at least that's the angle I'd be taking). There is no reason for your son to communicate with ADT, just have a local firm disconnect or do whatever he needs to the alarm.

Send any ADT mail back "not known at this address" or forward to old owners. Not his problem.

Although I agree he doesn't have complete admin access to the system so it's pretty much useless.

Rob