Alarm system in house, how easy to get rid?

[Eddas]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help.

When we moved into our house a long while ago we inherited and alarm system, well I call it that but from what I can gather it's 2 sensors in the entire house, a code pad and box outside!!

We have never used the system as the old owners left the house and only provided one set of keys and no appliance manuals, alarm codes or any other useful peices of information.

What I want to know is if it's possible and simple to get rid of the alarm. It is connected somehow, presumably to the mains electricity as the sensors flash and the box outside has lights. We don't want to use it as (a) it's not really necessary in our area (b) the old owners installed it and frankly we don't want anything of theirs here!

Does anyone have a clue how I go about removing it? Is it simply to disconnect it fom the mains, we wouldn't do this ourselves but would get someone round with knowledge of electrics to do so!

I'm a bit worried we'll touch it and the thing will go off and we won't be able to stop it

It is very simple to disconnect an alarm system from the mains, if you dont want to do it yourself any electrician can do it for you, it will only take a couple of minutes.

does it really bother you that much? installing alarms is expensive and you never no you might want one one day particularly when you see how much it can reduce you house contents insurance

Thanks pannacotta

herhonesty, yes we really want it gone. Fair enough an alarm reduces house insurance but if we ever did decide to have a system we wouldn't use the existing one. The old owners were cowboys! I want anything they installed to be gone, it's happening slowly, the next stage is the kitchen/dining room where the code box and one of the sensors.

If you don't know the disarm code, be warned: some (many?) alarms have battery backup and will trigger if their mains supply is cut. Get the case off the alarm first and disconnect any battery you see (probably the big lead acid sort) before removing the mains. It's not directly connected to a mains-voltage part of the alarm circuit, thank goodness, but still be careful.

Found this out the hard way with a power cut!

Is it wired or wirefree one?

Thanks for the warning, i'd think any battery(if it was there) would be long dead as we've been in our house 4 years and have not touched the alarm!

Not sure whether it's wired/wireless, I presume wired as there are wires connecting the sensors

my dh disarmed ours at 3am once. With a hammer. It never worked again.

dh calls his hammer a 'technical adjuster' maybe I should let him loose on the alarm!

It runs on mains most of the time so any battery will not have expired. However, if you have had a power cut in the time you've lived there and it didn't go off, you're probably ok.

"technical adjuster": I like it!