Alarm going off every night- can I keep telling the caretaker even though they can’t fix it?

[CatherineTheMediocre]

I live opposite a public building (think similar to a school but not). Every night for the last week, the alarm has been going off, several times a night. The first night a couple of neighbours and I had a look around and it looked secure so left it. The next night it went off again, same thing. On Friday, it went off again. Got a text from a neighbour saying a security team had turned up and looked around, found nothing and left. On Saturday I went to the building during the day, found the number for a care taker and contacted her. She responded to say she was shocked that it was still going off, and would sort it so it wouldn’t happen again. That night, the alarm went off again! I texted her again explaining it was going off and was told she would sort it the next day. Well guess what, it’s now Wednesday and it’s still going off every night, several times a night. I’ve contacted the care taker again tonight and explained (politely!) that it’s going off again. She has responded quite curtly to tell me that someone from the alarm company will be coming out some time next week and there’s nothing else she can do so I don’t need to tell her anymore. I know it must be annoying for her to keep getting messages, but it’s very bloody annoying for me to be disturbed every night, several times a night by this stupid alarm. Even more frustrating that it might be fixed some time next week, so possibly another week and a half of this? So-

Would I be unreasonable to message her every night to let her know it’s going off? Not every time, but once a night every night to make sure she is equally motivated to get it fixed?

You can make a complaint to the council (usually via a form), it will depend on your council though - so I can't link it.

Rather than texting, you're probably better off actually calling the caretaker. As soon as it happens. Every time it happens. Maybe even take turns with your neighbours? They ought to be able to at least switch off the alarm.entirely until it's fixed.

Don't text, call them.

Yep call her. She needs to feel the pain of being woken repeatedly without remedy.

Ok good! I was worried I was being unreasonable and sleep deprived but apparently not!

Actually if there's nothing more she can do to effect change all you're doing is taking your frustration out on someone who has done her best. She has no control over what the alarm company do or when they do it. She probably can't turn her phone off in case of a genuine emergency like a fire or a burglary. You don't want to get the police called on you for harassment.

Intruder alarm companies must respond within 4 hours of a fault being reported, so the caretaker is bullshitting you.

The person coordinating the fix from the alarm has no control over the alarm company?

Of course she has - she needs to tell them it is urgent and someone needs to fix it in the next 24 hours

Are you suggesting that the world is at the mercy of an unknown alarm compnay who may themselves been given duff info?

I think: stop thinking about the caretaker and contact whoever is actually in charge of the building as they are the people who can actually get resources assigned to sorting this. And the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

@WorkingItOutAsIGo this is as close to that as I can find. The building is open to the public but unmanned so there’s no one there to speak to.

What type of building is it??

Start keeping a noise diary- date, time it started/stopped, what happened, who you contacted etc etc. I too would be contact the council and lodging a noise complaint in addition to ringing the caretaker each time it goes off. She isn't living with be woken multiple times through the night and should be able to escalate things quicker.

Are the police just ignoring the alarm?

@xyz111 its a historical one? I was trying to not be too specific but I think it’s a bit silly at this point

@Ponderingwindow they either don’t respond or don’t know. I can’t see the entrance from my home and I’m not bothering looking anymore so they could be turning up and I don’t see? But I don’t think they are. I don’t think the security team is bothering to turn up either as none of the neighbours have mentioned it since

I'd message her every time. If it woke me, I'd wake her

You could be really crafty and put a post on facebook saying "such and such an alarm is going off and the door is wide open".

They'll come a bit quicker then

If it's a historical building, is there an email on the website for the curator or archive teams?

If It's a council premises, email your local councillor and ask for your email to be forwarded to the asset manager.

You could report it to the council but wait times are often ridiculous.
We have found that our local councillors get things sorted much quicker. I'd email them with ALL the dates and times you have been disturbed and the lack of action by the alarm company.

There's no point in having an alarm that doesn't work correctly.

Ring her every time it goes off, she needs to know how frequently it is going off so she can pass this on to the alarm company and get it sorted.

Report it to the council as a noise nuisance and also contact the department responsible for the building during the day.

I dealt with a similar issue and the police and council basically forced the building owner to stop using an audible alarm.

She's fobbing you off. Unless it's a home-made alarm (two wires and a bit of sticky-backed plastic) any alarm company worth their salt will have an agreement to attend within a specified time. Ring her every time, and your neighbours should do the same; get in touch with the council and email your local councillor. Do keep a record of dates/times/duration of disturbance + what the caretaker says when you ring - I know when you're sleep deprived this isn't what you want to do, but it could be useful ammunition if it keeps happening.

Don't put up with it. Local Facebook group and get it escalated via the council/management

I was in charge of the premises for a school that had this problem, we turned the alarm off rather than let it disturb our neighbours every night. I also contacted our insurers to check it wouldn't cause problems there, which it doesn't, before anyone tells me they can't.

I'd politely suggest that may be an option, speak to the head, or equivalent, if it's not well received. The head will be more concerned about relationships with neighbours and is probably currently unaware. If they won't do that, report the noise nusiance to the council.

Wrong.

If the customer has a service (maintenance )agreement with the Intruder Alarm Company and it's a monitored system, then they should respond within four hours. But this can also be agreed to be next business day, depends what the customer wants. Alarm companies are not expected to respond to calls from non-customers. They will respond to the police calling them.

I'd be more concerned as to why it's going off every night. Alarm systems have a record of what circuit has activated. If it's the same circuit/tamper every time then you replace the device (obviously checking it's not the cable). If it's a different circuit then you suspect the main panel.

Or it could be simply that they aren't setting it correctly. Some systems time out on exit, if there no final set button, and sound the alarm to alert the user. But of course, many users turn the alarm on and bugger off before checking it's properly set.

The problem with ours related to poorly fitting doors, which meant the contacts broke when it was windy. It took a really long time and a lot of battles to get it fixed, so it is entirely possible that the alarm can't be fixed quickly, but it can be turned off.

Wrong