Neighbour's alarm going off for 4 days

Laura1982

My Neighbor is on holiday and her alarm has been going off since monday night. We're going insane!!
I called the garda they cant help, town council cant help, noise pollution cant help, phonewatch cant help coz the neighbors owe money...
What if there away for 2 weeks more?

Any ideas on how to proceed?!

djimi

Ladder and a lump hammer? You cant live with that for the next fortnight.

I thought that there was an EU regulation that says that alarms are not allowed to ring for more than a few minutes at a time?

Maybe see if there are contact details for the installer on the alarm and give them a call?

Myrddin

djimi wrote: »

Ladder and a lump hammer? You cant live with that for the next fortnight.

Criminal Damage unfortunately. It happened me once, was an alarm going off from a Friday to Monday morning. Lord knows, at the time I considered a criminal record a fair deal for peace & quiet

Football Friend

There has been one going off intermittently in Rathmines this week too..driving me crazy! Not sure how you should proceed but I would have no qualms with smashing the alarm myself.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Any mates who work with intruder alarms?

moyners

If its a phonewatch alarm I'd concentrate your effort on them. Surely they have some responsibility since its their equipment? Maybe mention a solicitor and they might send a van round!

djimi

EnterNow wrote: »

Criminal Damage unfortunately. It happened me once, was an alarm going off from a Friday to Monday morning. Lord knows, at the time I considered a criminal record a fair deal for peace & quiet

True I suppose. I wonder would there be a way of disabling it without damaging it too severely; a power line or something that could be disconnected and reconnected easily enough?

Idle Passerby

Is there any way you could contact the neighbours and get their ok to do something about it?

Myrddin

djimi wrote: »

True I suppose. I wonder would there be a way of disabling it without damaging it too severely; a power line or something that could be disconnected and reconnected easily enough?

Probably not given its purpose, & if the house was later robbed & it was found out you'd tampered with the alarm...would you be leaving yourself open to trouble? Really a nightmare situation

As you mention above, I thought alarms had to have a limited activation time

Mrs OBumble

Laura1982 wrote: »

phonewatch cant don't want to help coz the neighbors owe money...

Fixed that for ya.


Firstly, what did the neighbours say when you called them? (I'll guarantee they've got their cellphone with them.)

Second ... you need to find a way to make the installer / provider help. Don't stop with the person who answer the phone .. your want their manager, and perhaps their manager's manager. And maybe a journalist or TD to help.

Laura1982

Didnt manage to speak to the neighbor no one in the neighborhood has heir number!

Phonewatch gave us the keyholser number although they werent supposed to from what i understand but aince they havent paid since 2007 they cant so anything. So you think that if i talk to a manager they should be able to do aomething? Coz i tried twice and they're not budging... Sigh...

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Fixed that for ya.


Firstly, what did the neighbours say when you called them? (I'll guarantee they've got their cellphone with them.)

Second ... you need to find a way to make the installer / provider help. Don't stop with the person who answer the phone .. your want their manager, and perhaps their manager's manager. And maybe a journalist or TD to help.

awec

djimi wrote: »

True I suppose. I wonder would there be a way of disabling it without damaging it too severely; a power line or something that could be disconnected and reconnected easily enough?

A house alarm wouldn't be much use if you could easily just pull a power cable out!

djimi

awec wrote: »

A house alarm wouldn't be much use if you could easily just pull a power cable out!

True! Would an installer be able to do something that your average joe wouldnt though?

Balmed Out

Presume you've asked around in case someone has their telephone number?
Have you tied ringing phonewatch constantly until they are really pissed off?

Do you like camping?

Scortho

djimi wrote: »

True! Would an installer be able to do something that your average joe wouldnt though?

They would alright. Thing is if they're owed money, they're not going to though.

Local authority are best bet under noise regulations to make a complaint to.

Evolution1

1) it's an eircom alarm so it's unlikely that there is an external sounder .

2) phone watch had no business discussing financial details with anyone other then the account holder

3) if they are willing to discuss financial details then you can more than likely get a key holders phone number off them .
Keep ringing them . If the alarm was installed properly this shouldn't be happening .

4) if the key holder has a code then they can ring the number the alarm dials out on and use their phone to turn it off .

username123

It happened once where I live. Both internal and external alarms screaming no end. The apartment was between tenants. It was going on for 4 days before the management company managed to track down the landlord and he came by at 11pm the saturday night before Christmas and switched it off. 15 minutes later it went off again and we couldnt contact the management company until Monday. Again, they were unable to contact the owner and an entire block faced Christmas with this unending screaming. We tried council, guards, alarm company etc...

Two neighbours (nearest to it) took matters into their own hands. They climbed over onto his balcony, found the back sliding door unlocked, went in and removed the speaker from the alarm boxes and then left. That was 6 years ago now and that apartment has had a number of tenants through and I have never once heard the alarm since. I dont know if anyone even knows the alarm has no speaker in it, the guys who removed it are long gone also.

listermint

I had this problem before, Got out a ladder and disconnected the power to the siren.

Didnt stop the internal alarm buzzing in the house, alas it made the overall noise minimal so there was some relief.

Bigcheeze

If it was me and I couldn't sleep I'd just get a ladder and the old American screwdriver.

I'd deal with the (unlikely) consequences later. If it was my alarm I'd be too embarrassed about the inconvenience caused to neighbours to make an issue of it.

Ray Palmer

awec wrote: »

A house alarm wouldn't be much use if you could easily just pull a power cable out!

True but actually it is that simple. They do have a battery also but the alarm on the outside just needs power to ring. Disconnect that and it works!

It is low voltage DC so you won't notice the power on a quick snip. Very easy to repair afterwards. Some connections can be just pulled out and reconnected by hand.

Chris_5339762

The guards could do something as well (disturbance of the peace) as could the council (noise pollution) but neither could be arsed by the sounds of it. Push them.

StillWaters

Don't know if it's anything to do with eirc

ted1

awec wrote: »

A house alarm wouldn't be much use if you could easily just pull a power cable out!

they are that simple, except there s a battery back up that won't last to long and is just as easily pulled out

Citycap

Had the same problem and could do nothing. When the neighbour returned she was completely dismissive of her neighbours. I made it my business to ring her phone number on a continual basis when I was out late at night as well as ringing her door bell on my way home. I think she got the message.

The_Conductor

ted1 wrote: »

they are that simple, except there s a battery back up that won't last to long and is just as easily pulled out

Its normally internal, on a trickle charge and mostly installed next to the fuse box. It depends on the age of the battery- but typically, it could well last a day or even more.

Del2005

EnterNow wrote: »

Criminal Damage unfortunately. It happened me once, was an alarm going off from a Friday to Monday morning. Lord knows, at the time I considered a criminal record a fair deal for peace & quiet

Are you sure? I though there was a case a good few years ago where someone was being done for hammering a alarm box off the wall. They got off as the alarm had been ringing for a couple of days and the judge said that it was a nuisance. Could have been in the UK though.

A can of expanding foam into the box wouldn't be as noticeable;)

koheim

Found this small notice on KFM news a few weeks back, looks like "the Private Rental Tenancies Board" are the ones to contact...

"Kildare Faulty Alarm Owners Face €3K Fines
2013-06-26 09:47:13
Kildare householders whose faulty alarms ring incessantly face fines of up to €3,000.

That's under the Environment Protection Act, which also provides for up to 12 months in prison.

In addition, the Private Rental Tenancies Board will pursue the owners of rental properties if tenants are proving a nuisance of this type.

Cllr. Tony O'Donnell says these alarms impact negatively on neighbours quality of life"

No Pants

Ladder and hammer. After four days of this, there should be no witnesses.

Mr. G

Alarms must meet EN50131 standard as it is now a legal requirement, first came in years ago for commercial properties but applies for all now as far as I know.

All alarms installed must meet this standard now and the regulations state that the alarms now must stop after 15 minutes. There is a setting inside the box that makes it shut off after 15 minutes.

I would have gone mad if it was me. Its only 12 or 24 volts inside so if you want to have a go, just disconnect all the wires including the battery and it will stop. The internal alarm inside the house usually near the control panel will keep going but there's nothing that you can do about that. I would get permission before hand though to be honest.

ted1

The_Conductor wrote: »

Its normally internal, on a trickle charge and mostly installed next to the fuse box. It depends on the age of the battery- but typically, it could well last a day or even more.

N its usually in a box under the stairs, fuse boards are usually in the top cornering the hall

The_Conductor

ted1 wrote: »

N its usually in a box under the stairs, fuse boards are usually in the top cornering the hall

In houses. In apartments- we normally just used the ducting in situ- and put them together. Often its in the kitchen (no idea why- and I'm not sure that its a good idea).