House insurance and burglar alarms

[charles]

didn't have one, then.

[ARW]

:-) see my other post to the thread.

[Roger Mills]

Since you maintain it yourself, set up your own maintenance company, and sell yourself a contract!

[SteveW]

I think that it is probably the other way around. A decent alarm, that doesn't regularly give false alarms, is likely to be checked by the neighbours, whereas one that's always going off will be ignored.

Our next-door neighbours' alarm never normally goes off. On the one occassion that it has recently, I checked for signs of entry. Before they moved in, I just ignored it, because the property was unoccupied, the alarm was faulty, yet the estate agent kept setting it! Similarly, I always ignore the alarm on the opposite side of the road, but would investigate any others going off.

SteveW

[Mathew Newton]

On Friday, February 15, 2013 7:01:05 PM UTC, [e-mail] wro te:

What, those provided by security companies? ;-)

I thought this made interesting reading:

Summary:

'The good news is that while homes with no basic home security had a 5.8 pe r cent chance of being burgled in 2009-10, those with enhanced security had a 0.6 per cent chance ? an odds ratio of one to ten.

However, the bad news is that homes with basic home security ? defined as window locks and double deadlocks - had a 0.9 per cent chance of having be en burgled. This suggests that most of the benefit comes from basic securit y. By fitting and maintaining an alarm, at enormous expense, a householder will typically avoid one burglary roughly every 300 years.'

[Toby Sleigh]

A cunning plan indeed, but insurance companies are notorious for weasling out on the slightest excuse, so my original question still remains unanswered. Are there any companies that will maintain a diy fitted burglar alarm.

[Mathew Newton]

I've not heard of one, for understandable reasons.

I think you'd be better off telling your insurance company you don't have/use an alarm and pay the rise in premium. You'll still be quids given the money you've saved not having to pay for a maintenance contract.

Mathew

[Peter Parry]

Only "statistics" produced by alarm sellers (in all senses of the word). There is no appreciable difference in likelihood of break ins to properties with alarms and those without. Most burglaries are simple smash and grabs for more drug money. The scrotes know full well there will be either no response or at worst they have some time to clean out the obvious pickings.

It is invariably better to spend the money you would have wasted on alarms on better perimeter security including sound doors and locks.

[Peter Parry]

Not that I have ever come across, and it would take a very silly company to chose to do so.

As has already been pointed out it is usually a very bad idea to say you have an alarm for insurance purposes unless it is a proper monitored Redcare type, not the noddy ADT type auto diallers which are very simple to disable.

The problem with having an alarm declared to insurers is that insurers, in the event of a break in will often want proof the alarm activated to prove the "break in" was not done by someone resident in the house. In most cases it is impossible with a bells only alarm to provide such proof.

In any event the discount they offer is far lower than the cost of any maintenance contract.

Also bear in mind police forces do not, as a matter of policy, react to bells only alarm as over 99% are false alarms. If a neighbour phones the police and reports an alarm activation they will be referred to the local council noise abetment unit. Only if they phone and say the alarm has gone off and they can see someone loading your belongings into a van might someone turn up, eventually.

[Cash]

Mat,

We were burgled some years ago with a fair bit of cash, goods and a car lifted whilst we were asleep upstairs. When both the police and insurance assessor turn up (at different times) both stated that there was a high possibility of the thieving scrotes returning for another bite of the cherry and they advised that we have a *professionally* fitted and maintained alarm as a deterrent.

We did that within a week at a cost of around 600 (ALL external doors and windows, garage and workshop) with a mix of vibration, motion, internal sounder and door sensors, and lo and behold, within a fortnight the scrotes did return and the alarm did its job and they got no further than attempting to force a side door - and we've had several other attempts since with the last about six months ago.

We also have a yearly maintenance contract with the local company that fitted it - and in fact when it was last 'serviced' in January, I was told that if parts now became unavailable for the main control board, they would fit a new entire system free of charge.

Was it worth having the alarm fitted? In my opinion yes, just for the fact that it made SWMBO feel a lot safer with the fact there would at least some warning if they tried again (she'd had her engagement and eternity rings lifted by the thieving bastards which really upset her) and it took a long time for her to get over that incident and even now she still hides her handbag and rings well out of sight every night - some 20 years after that incident.

Even now, at my age and state of health, if I could find them, I'd do some severe personal injury to the bastards before calling the law just for the upset it caused SWMBO.

Cash

[Huge]

Tell your insurance company you don't have an alarm.

[geoff]

In message , charles writes

At the rear of my house, I have a sufficient number to sound bombs (sixteen quads) to make anyone just want to be somewhere else

[charles]

But my insurance co INSIST on an alarm.

[charles]

Redcare monitoring cost a small fortune, and won't work if the phone line is cut.

both my home installed and my pro one have logs which show what caused the activation.

When our theatre was broken into, the police got there, called by a neighbour, before I ddi.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

All the ones which go off regularly round here without an intruder are pro installed on maintenance contracts. Which doesn't surprise me given the very poor wiring installation standards of many of these - cables run down the side of carpets, etc. Just asking to be damaged when a new carpet is fitted.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Very difficult to protect a window from a determined attack - unless you're happy with bars or gates.

I'm always amused to see houses round here with multiple expensive locks on the front door but original sash windows...

[Jethro_uk]

Change insurers ?

[Jethro_uk]

My old boss, and ex copper once told me that you shouldn't tell the police that you can see people in the house ... they'll take ages to turn up. As he said "Why would anyone turn up if there's a chance of getting hurt." ?

[CJ]

Having read the thread I would like to add the following for the groups discussion. I agree with all who say change your insurance carrier as the discount is far less the cost of an alarm contract. However an alarm in a domestic property can be justified if it gives piece of mind to the occupier and alerts neighbours to an alarm or frightens off the robbers. An alarm will never stop you being robbed if the thief want to take your things they will find a way. On a technical front, PIR detectors can last over 15yrs but deteriorate with age becoming hyper-sensitive causing false alarms. Dual tec devices start to fail mainly because the microwave antenna corrodes (especially in damp or cold locations like garages) this causes the device to go out of tune giving false alarms. Modern analytical vibration sensors (if setup correctly) will detect forced entry on uPVC windows before the glass is broken. Mine did and still do. The Redcare system is a BT dedicated telephone line which is monitored 24/7 so the monitoring station will know if the line is cut before you do. Modern dual-com monitoring systems use both the mobile phone network and landline together so unless you jam the mobile signal and cut the phone line at the same time a line fault will be sent to the monitoring station. By law external bells must stop after a predetermined time (usually 20mins) but this is set by local authorities.This said if the alarm is programmed to auto reset as most are the bell will stop for 10secs then start again. Monitoring stations will call the police but most forces and stations operate a 3 strikes and you're out system. ie. Within a set timeframe ;1st false call a warning 2nd a fine ,3rd a bigger fine and no more monitoring (NB you will still have to pay for the duration of the contract.) From the above it becomes clear that to guarantee everything works a company must regularly check the system and would not normally take on a DIY install. We all know this is not always the case but hopefully you can see why nobody will touch a DIY system.

HTH CJ

"Toby Sleigh" wrote in message news:Rf-dnXAL8M [e-mail]...

Hope someone can help.....

[harry]

A good dog is better than any of the above. Alarm and attack system in one cheap/free package.

I wonder how this new law about dogs attacking people on private property will affect dog attacks burglar scenario?

My last dog would have ripped a burglars throat out.