Home Alarm maintenance contract

[jtr63]

We have a home alarm system that is about 10 years old. It is maintained by the installer, including a yearly check, but as this amounts to little more than changing some batteries I consider it to be poor value for money. Where do I stand in looking for an "independent" company to provide the same service ? Does anyone have good or bad experiences in addressing the same problem ?

TIA
John

[3george]

I found that I could change the battery myself for less than £15.00, in addition to this I found that the discount I got from my home insurer for having a
' maintained ' alarm was peanuts compared to the annual cost the maintainer was charging me.

Suffice to say I now don't pay it and ' maintain ' myself - if it goes wrong them I can choose to have a single ' fix ' call out from any number of local maintainers.

[AF62]

Does anyone have good or bad experiences in addressing the same problem ?

My solution was to take the battery out and stop using it.

I came to the conclusion that alarms on houses are no longer useful as nobody pays any attention to them, so what was the point.

[supremetwo]

Does anyone have good or bad experiences in addressing the same problem ?

My solution was to take the battery out and stop using it.

I came to the conclusion that alarms on houses are no longer useful as nobody pays any attention to them, so what was the point.

A decent alarm will have a dialler or other means of notifying you that an intruder has activated it.

[richlist]

Does anyone have good or bad experiences in addressing the same problem ?

My solution was to take the battery out and stop using it.

I came to the conclusion that alarms on houses are no longer useful as nobody pays any attention to them, so what was the point.

That's where good neighbours come into play. When an alarm sounds in our street one of more neighbours will take a look and one of them will be a keyholder or have contact details of the owners & or the keyholders.

[quelquod]

Do it yourself.
All home alarm instructions cover how to do a ‘walk test’ to verify that things are working.
If it’s a traditional ‘wired’ system checking the battery properly requires a special test set but if you replace it every say 3 years you will be fine. (Mine lasts about 6-7 usually). Most maintainers just ignore the battery in a wired bell. Wireless ones need lots of regular replacements. Wireless bells can be a pain though if you’ve one of those.
Failures are very very rare and you’ll save more than the cost of a once-in-a-lifetime call out.
Just check that your home insurance doesn’t require ‘professional’ maintenance. Change it if it does.

If you’re shopping around there are numerous companies. They’ll want to do an initial check of the system before quoting. Around here (Southern Scotland urban) it costs about £60-£70pa depending on the system for a common house alarm.

[stewamax]

Just check that your home insurance doesn’t require ‘professional’ maintenance

I have a high-end system (Electronics Line Infinite Prime) that I installed myself many years ago and have maintained myself since then.
But when getting quotes for my contents insurance each year, it has become progressively more difficult to find anyone who will insure unless the system is "professionally maintained".
My system sends me an SMS text message when the alarm is triggered and I can arm or disarm the system remotely from the phone. I keep a list of immediate neighbours' phone numbers on my phone and would ring them rather than the police asking them to check (but to do so without endangering themselves!)

[quelquod]

it has become progressively more difficult to find anyone who will insure unless the system is "professionally maintained".

Likely depends on the level of insurance cover needed and any particularly desirable items, or maybe the locale. I’ve found in the last few years that declaring a burglar alarm, far less a maintained one, often made little difference to the cost, so now I don’t declare it just in case there’s a nitpick if I have a claim.

[Maroochydore]

But when getting quotes for my contents insurance each year, it has become progressively more difficult to find anyone who will insure unless the system is "professionally maintained".
My system sends me an SMS text message when the alarm is triggered and I can arm or disarm the system remotely from the phone. I keep a list of immediate neighbours' phone numbers on my phone and would ring them rather than the police asking them to check (but to do so without endangering themselves!)

From what you say it seems the system isn't a monitored one (police or alarm company call centre).

My insurer didn't want to know about our alarm (i.e. no discount for having one) unless it was monitored.

For the OP: our annual maintenance charge is £48. Take over of the system by a new company (initial charge including first service) was about £72.

[stewamax]

From what you say it seems the system isn't a monitored one (police or alarm company call centre). My insurer didn't want to know about our alarm (i.e. no discount for having one) unless it was monitored.

For whatever reason my problem is slightly different: when I search online for insurance I find it difficult to get any cover at all unless I have an alarm AND that alarm is professionally maintained. And I am not in a high crime-rate area. I declare to my present insurer that I don't have an alarm - which in itself is technically wrong. It seems I can't win!

As far as the efficacy of monitoring is concerned, the police are not be interested unless there is is independent corroboration of a break-in (e.g. a neighbour also rings them having seen something suspicious). And alarm monitoring services will simply contact me or the police.
So I short-circuit the process.

[AF62]

Does anyone have good or bad experiences in addressing the same problem ?

My solution was to take the battery out and stop using it.

I came to the conclusion that alarms on houses are no longer useful as nobody pays any attention to them, so what was the point.

A decent alarm will have a dialler or other means of notifying you that an intruder has activated it.

Mine didn't. It just made a noise.

However a couple of smart-home sensors for would do the same for a fraction of the cost.

That's where good neighbours come into play. When an alarm sounds in our street one of more neighbours will take a look and one of them will be a keyholder or have contact details of the owners & or the keyholders.

Obviously lots of bad neighbours here!

Last summer a neighbour's alarm kept going off over several nights at ungodly hours. Nobody did anything until they eventually came back from holiday where people told them to turn the damn thing off.

This morning walked past a car with its alarm going off whilst several people were fiddling around inside - everyone ignored them.

So sorry but no, I still think alarms are pointless and the easiest fix is to turn it off.