House insurance and burglar alarms

In message , Bill writes

Exactly

Reply to
geoff
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In message , charles writes

A neighbour of mine watched as 2 guys loaded £15,000:00 of aluminium onto a flat bed truck that they had parked in my drive one weekday afternoon. He said something to the effect that they seemed to be good, fast workers. Yes, I bet they were!! He is a local councillor and supposedly intelligent.

At another property a very elderly neighbour, lovely old girl, said that the guy who had attempted to break in was a nice guy, apparently he had waved and said hello to her as he walked down the garden path to the back of the house. Nice guy, but a naff burglar, he couldn't even force open a 1930s vintage wooden patio door!

Reply to
Bill

Aha, a student from the dennis school of deductive reasoning

Reply to
geoff

I have tried a number of them...

Focus Dual-tec: 7 out of 8 failed within 3 months and returned. The one remaining one is still working fine 12 years later.

Pyronix Equinox Dual-tec: No failures in 12 years, but have had to increase sensitivity on one in a cold location.

Guardall Astra Micra dual-tec: No failures in 12 years.

Pyronix Octopus 360 degree PIR-only: They all lasted about 5 years before starting to generate false alarms.

Scantronic 460 dual-tec: too soon to say, but no problems in 6 months.

AEI 360 degree PIR-only (CPC): too soon to say, but no problems in 6 months.

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or even a system installed by another alarm company, unless they're doing a bulk take-over of all their business.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I have tried a number of them...

Focus Dual-tec: 7 out of 8 failed within 3 months and returned. The one remaining one is still working fine 12 years later.

Pyronix Equinox Dual-tec: No failures in 12 years, but have had to increase sensitivity on one in a cold location.

Guardall Astra Micra dual-tec: No failures in 12 years.

Pyronix Octopus 360 degree PIR-only: They all lasted about 5 years before starting to generate false alarms.

Scantronic 460 dual-tec: too soon to say, but no problems in 6 months.

AEI 360 degree PIR-only (CPC): too soon to say, but no problems in 6 months.

[...]

or even a system installed by another alarm company, unless they're doing a bulk take-over of all their business.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Might stop the real cameras getting vandalised.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Snipped

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 sufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth spending 500-1000 on (in addition to insurance!!) Matt

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So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in to your house downstairs ?

Reply to
Dave West

If you have neighbours who come and check when the alarm goes off (and pleased to say we all do here), you really want to make sure you don't generate false alarms, as the goodwill very quickly evaporates. After one false alarm, expect much slower response (if any), and none after a second one. It will probably at least 2 years without false alarms to recover.

Given that new alarm systems tend to generate false alarms in the first few months, I generally suggest you wait for a few months with no false alarms before you enable an external sounder, and that includes having identified and fixed all causes for false alarms. That way, you don't blow all the neighbourly goodwill in the initial teething problems.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

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Reply to
Special Care

The discounts that insurers give for having a alarm with maintenance contract are minimal so unless you live in an area where insurance is difficult to obtain you may find that by moving insurers you will get a new customer discount of 30%.

Reply to
alan

Unless you have previously admitted to having one.

Reply to
alan

Hide under the blankets

Reply to
Graham

Kill them.

Reply to
Mentalguy2k8

Sounds fairynuff to me!

Reply to
Ophelia

I fitted out a block of flats and made sure that each internal camera covered the other one on the same floor. One of the inmates, residents, came in with his hoody up and spray painted both cameras in the lobby. one camera caught him, the other was obviously blacked out. His disguise was very good, totally unrecognisable, just a pity that he wore the same closes, minus the hood up when he first came in earlier and later when he left again, some people are idiots...

We also had a phone call from one of the druggies complaining that we were infringing his civil liberties by fitting the cameras, did this bother us? No.

It was an interesting block of flats, some very friendly people there, one girl made sure that we were kept well fed and watered, tea all and biscuits day long, another one was offering a bit more, but this was of course turned down :-)

Reply to
Bill

Me? Grab the fire-axe by the door and go down swinging. Fuck the law, f*ck the thieves, they're not having any of my kit.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Send the wife down.

Reply to
Martin

Reply to
Ophelia

just a hundred or so can get you an alarm system. I figure every bit of extra difficulty/visible deterrent help to make the burglars think twice. If you are in you can know instantly if someone is in the house that shouldn't be. Internal sounders are a must too, the disorienting effect couple with the loss of hearing makes someone that shouldn't be there get out quick. I would have an alarm system before house insurance, but after decent locks.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Your kit is more important than your liberty?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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