If you have a burglar alarm, do you have it serviced annually?

[Epictantrum]

We have had a maintenance contract for our burglar alarm but the cost keeps going up and I'm wondering about cancelling it. My home insurance premiums won't be affected, and to be honest we rarely use the alarm.
My only worry is if there is a fault and we can't stop the alarm from going off. This happened once about 10 years ago and that is the only time we have had a call out.
Is it easy to get someone to come out if you don't have a contract? Can most electricians do it or do you have to get a specialist?
Thanks!

Funnily enough ours (which wasn’t set) went off at 5am the other morning. I couldn’t reset it so just turned it off at the fuse box and went back to sleep, but it’s on the same spur as the downstairs lights. When I turned the fuse back on it was fine, if it hadn’t been I’d have lit the downstairs using plug in lamps until I’d figured out who to call to fix it!
We never set the alarm at all and I would love to have it deactivated for just the reason I’m nervous of it going off if we are away one weekend and it annoying the neighbours.
In the two house I’ve lived in with alarms -total of 14 years- they have each gone off once. The first one was because the back up battery needed changing or something. Never had either serviced.
Anyhow, loitering to see what answers you get.

Deactivating it would be another option; it has its own fuse on the fuse box but if I flick that switch it just changes to the battery and presumably once that runs out all hell will break loose? I suppose eventually it would stop but would annoy the entire street. And it could happen in the middle of the night.

I have mine serviced once a year, best to, especially if you declare on your home insurance that you do.
With batteries being changed on sensors every 18 months, it's about £100 every year but they keep a check on it which gives peace of mind. Alarm is on every night.

Yes serviced every year - and call them out if there is a problem (rare). Believe/understand that if it was not serviced annually it would not count for insurance purposes. We do use the alarm when we go out and at night.

My ADT alarm is serviced annually, I think it's a requirement of my home insurance tbf. I use it both at night and every time we leave the house. The only problem I've ever had with mine is when we switched from a landline to a (faulty) GSM module which kept triggering the tamper feature. They came out and replaced it and it's been fine ever since.

Yes, serviced annually, and the cost also includes one free call out for any issues. £120 +VAT for the year.

For me the alarm is peace of mind and worth the annual cost. And is declared on my insurance as working and serviced.

Yes we service ours every year
we use it when we go out for a long time and also when we travel.

Yes, but we ditched ADT for a local company a few years ago.

We had a problem with the phone line and ADT took over a month to contact us to see if we were ok.

They were working out to be very expensive with monthly charges plus premium rate phone checks every night, which clearly were not reviewed.

The current monitoring has been pretty efficient recently ( Had a lot of power outages for various reasons)

I am always interested in where people have an alarm, but don't bother to have it serviced.

I'm undertaking a survey (at my own cost) on where these properties with a dodgy alarm exactly are.

You can help my survey by giving me your postcode and house number.
Note: I am especially interested in @Mumof3girlsandaboy and their travel plans.

Thanking you all in advance.

Yep serviced each year, incs all parts & callouts, very good value.

@BurglarAndSwag mine were in the houses I moved in to. I wouldn’t choose to have one. Nobody reacts to them in the slightest, so they aren’t a deterrent anyway.

Yes we get the alarm and gate serviced by the same company. I think it invalidates your house insurance if you don't, as a PP mentioned!