House insurance and burglar alarms

[Toby Sleigh]

Hope someone can help..... We have a Friedland SA5 6 zone wireless alarm system that I installed approx five years ago, and have maintained since. This unit is very similar to Yale wireless alarms so one or othe is probably a rebadged version. Anyway we've recently changed house building & contents insurer. Our new insurer is insisting that there is a maintenance contract in place. I've been phoning round & consistently failing to find a company who will take on a diy installed system.

Are there security companies out there who will maintain diy installed alarms? or will I have to give up & get an equivalent approved system installed at vast unnecessary expense. Location is Ealing, West London.

[Jethro_uk]

IME any discount gained by having a burglar alarm is minimal. Best say you haven't got one. Especially since if you have got one, but had a break in when it was off (e.g. you were at home) they may not pay up.

[Nightjar]

Many won't take on one installed by another security company, let alone a DIY set-up. It is also of an age when detectors may start to fail, which they won't want to risk.

Colin Bignell

[larkim]

I've often wondered whether there was any correlation between having / not having an alarm and being burgled. Certainly isn't something I'd ever both er to have fitted, unless there was a very compelling financial case which saved me more than enough money on the fitting cost compared to the discoun ts on the insurance (which I doubt is an equation which works in practice).

Much as I'd hate to imagine either arriving home with the possessions gone, or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still consider it suf ficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth spending £500-£1000 on ( in addition to insurance!!)

Matt

[Jethro_uk]

Simple question: when was the last time *you* did anything about a burglar alarm ?

The muppets across the road from me managed to forget to turn their alarm off a couple of years ago, on Saturday evening. They got home, tripped it, and spent the next 2 hours completely unaware it was sounding. I only went over because after the 2 hours, when no-one else had done anything, I looked out the window and saw people moving about, with their car on the drive and them moving about inside. When they answered the door, they started by insisting it was their neighbours alarm ....

To be honest the loss of stuff would be upsetting, but it's more the damage that burglars can do that would hurt.

I once heard a policeman giving tips, and a punter was pressing him with all sorts of increasingly unlikely scenarios. Eventually he just said "that's what insurance is for."

[Richard Russell]

We changed our house insurer in part because the old policy implied, as you say, that if the alarm was not working *for any reason* (whether forgetting to set it, or a hardware failure for example) they might not pay up. That struck us as utterly ridiculous. Our new insurer gives a discount for having an alarm (so long as it is professionally maintained) but quite specifically states that if for any reason it isn't working the most we would be liable for is a small excess.

Richard.

[charles]

Havimg been burgled more than oncve - the first time we lost a video recorder, we have an alarm. As advised by the police "The alarm is to alarm burglars" we have an internal sounder - very loud. My insurance company insist on it.

[harry]

t having an alarm and being burgled.  Certainly isn't something I'd ever bother to have fitted, unless there was a very compelling financial case wh ich saved me more than enough money on the fitting cost compared to the dis counts on the insurance (which I doubt is an equation which works in practi ce).

e, or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still consider it s ufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth spending £500-£1000 on (in addition to insurance!!)

Just put up a fake alarm enclosure/fake TV camera. You can get them quite cheap with a few LEDS powered by a mini solar panel.

[harry]

Best to find a really good hidey hole for valuable stuff.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Eh? I've not had to replace a PIR sensor at all on this home installed system which is more like 15 years old. What fails in them?

[Nightjar]

On 15/02/2013 16:51, harry wrote: ...

But don't expect any serious thief to be fooled by them. When ADT took over another company, there was a spate of thefts from properties that had not had the enclosure updated. The thieves kept abreast of all the latest developments and they knew that anybody with the older enclosure was not on a contract and would not be remotely monitored. They were not worried about a simple alarm, knowing that they usually get ignored.

Colin Bignell

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd certainly never pay for a pro install with maintenance contract. It can be DIY'd for a lot less than that, although cabled sensors etc (which I prefer) are quite a bit of work to install neatly. There's the chance a prospective burglar will see the alarm and decide to move on to somewhere without one. Not sure if this is actually the case, though. Mine also dials my mobile. And I have decent neighbours who wouldn't just ignore it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Only time I was successfully burgled was many years ago. (a couple of attempts since then but they didn't get in) And all that was taken was the VCR. Hardly the sort of thing you could lock up securely when you went out.

In some ways it might be better to leave a reasonable sum of money easily found. (not on view, obviously) Rather than have the thief do lots of damage looking for valuables. Most burglaries in cities are simply junkies looking for enough money for a fix - as soon as they get that or goods which they can sell, they're off.

[alan]

The insurance companies will only give you a fiver discount if you have a professionally installed alarm with a maintenance contract costing hundreds per annum.

You would have been better off not to have admitted to having an alarm in the first place.

[Nightjar]

BIIK I just know that when I had industrial units with professionally installed systems, we started getting failures in a very small number of sensors at around five years old. It may be relevant that they were combined PIR and microwave sensors, rather than simple PIRs.

Colin Bignell

[stuart noble]

+1

With Upvc it's the damage they do getting in that costs the money. I think those little impact sensors are worth having because they make a noise before the door/window actually opens. A system that only works when the damage has already been done is of limited use. The best thing about an alarm is that when you arrive home it's a warning that someone has been in, and maybe still there

[ARW]

And that is the key to a good alarm. I have fitted several alarms on my street - both nextdoor neighbours and the neighbours opposite would respond if my alarm went off just as I would if theirs went off. I always tell them when I am working away and they do keep an eye on my house.

[ARW]

About 10 times more likely to be burgled without an alarm according to some stats.

9/10 alarms that I fit (other than new builds) are fitted the week after the house was burgled.

[charles]

You can have good neighbours and idiot neighbours. When we were burgled for the first time, our next door neighbour (who was local secretary for Neighbourhood Watch) heard the breaking glass and breaking wood (a window was jemmied open) and decided - without investigating - that it was me cutting a tree down. This, despite the fact it was 4pm on a working day and both of us worked normal hours.

[ARW]

Did the alarm go off?