Neighbour's house alarm won't stop going off - help!

thesiren

Since 6pm yesterday evening, my neighbour's house alarm has been going off non-stop. Initially (for the first hour) there was an ear-piercingly loud alarm, and my housemate and I checked the house to make sure nobody had broken in. It was fine, and then the noise stopped, but it was replaced by a high-pitched alarm that sounds continuously. This can be heard in every inch of our house, and headphones/earplugs do nothing to block out the sound. Neither of us slept a wink, my cat is going crazy because of the noise.

The problem is that the house is owned by a woman in Cork. Yesterday she was cleaning the house up and a builder was in as well because the previous tenants had just moved out. I overheard her on her phone when I was making dinner (that's how thin the walls are in our block of houses) saying that she was going back to Cork until the new people move in next week. This means a week until she comes back and hopefully will turn the alarm off. There is no way we can survive with no sleep until then, and nowhere else we can go. I work in a hospital, if I don't get enough sleep then my patients' safety could be severely compromised.

I spoke to Dublin city council who said it's not in their remit, they advised I speak to the PRTB. Turns out the house isn't registered! So there seems to be no way to contact her, and none of the neighbours who were in last night had a clue who she is (we only moved in recently and we got to know the tenants, but we were under the impression that they owned the place).

Does anyone have any advice what we can do? The alarm company is not even registered (DH Alarms), and there is no way we can survive a week of no sleep. And we honestly have nowhere else we can go

mistress_gi

If you live in a block of flats you should have a management company and they should have the details of the owner. Give them a call tell them what is hapenning and either get them to get in touch with the lady or try to get her contact details from them.

K.Flyer

Did the builders van have any details on it? You could enquire through them.
Try local letting agents or advertisments.
Do a search for the address on line and maybe an old letting ad might pop up with a contact phone number.
Best of luck, a tricky one.

thesiren

mistress_gi wrote: »

If you live in a block of flats you should have a management company and they should have the details of the owner. Give them a call tell them what is hapenning and either get them to get in touch with the lady or try to get her contact details from them.

Hi there, thanks for this - unfortunately it's a house rather than apartment so there's nobody I can think of to contact

djimi

Maybe try the Gardai? I dont know if they can help (they probably cant tbh) but they might be able to offer some advice.

biko

Ask around the other neighbours, maybe someone else has her number.
If not you can all ring the closest garda station and see what they can do.
If nothing else helps I suppose some sort of drastic action will be needed - it's not like you can sit for a week listening to the noise. If so make sure other neighbours are also agreed so it's clear it's joint effort to stop the racket.

thesiren

K.Flyer wrote: »

Did the builders van have any details on it? You could enquire through them.
Try local letting agents or advertisments.
Do a search for the address on line and maybe an old letting ad might pop up with a contact phone number.
Best of luck, a tricky one.

I think my housemate might have written down the builder's registration number because he was parked in our parking space until he left yesterday afternoon, so will maybe try that.

Thanks for the suggestion re: letting ads, I did a search on the property and the only thing that shows up is a trademark for a man registered at the property, but there's no indication of how to contact this person or whether they actually still live at the property.

MissFlitworth

If you knew the previous tenants could you get in touch with them (or stalk them down on Facebook if you knew them but not enough to have contact details) and get through to the landlady that way, they should have a number or other contact details.

djimi

An alarm like this (that doesnt shut itself off after a period of time) is illegal now under EU law is it not? Maybe thats the angle to pursue with the Gardai.

thesiren

djimi wrote: »

Maybe try the Gardai? I dont know if they can help (they probably cant tbh) but they might be able to offer some advice.

Thanks. I'm at work and my housemate texted me to say he actually rang the Gards, and they said they would 'log' the call and that was it. I guess maybe if I ring later myself they might take it a bit more seriously?

biko

Get more people to ring in and log the nuisance.

thesiren

biko wrote: »

Ask around the other neighbours, maybe someone else has her number.
If not you can all ring the closest garda station and see what they can do.
If nothing else helps I suppose some sort of drastic action will be needed - it's not like you can sit for a week listening to the noise. If so make sure other neighbours are also agreed so it's clear it's joint effort to stop the racket.

I have a few health problems and actually ended up in hospital 2 years ago with exhaustion due to noisy neighbours. Thankfully that time I lived in an apartment and action was taken by the management of the apartment block, but this is just unreal, there's no way I can survice a week

thesiren

djimi wrote: »

An alarm like this (that doesnt shut itself off after a period of time) is illegal now under EU law is it not? Maybe thats the angle to pursue with the Gardai.

Thanks a million - I didn't know that, but will definitely tell them that when I ring them at lunchtime.

MarkR

Are you sure there are no broken windows / signs of forced entry? If there is, contact the gardai who will have to contact the owner. Is it a smoke alarm?

Thargor

The Guards wont do anything here.

MarkR

thesiren wrote: »

Thanks a million - I didn't know that, but will definitely tell them that when I ring them at lunchtime.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/environmental_protection/noise_regulations.html

thesiren

MarkR wrote: »

Are you sure there are no broken windows / signs of forced entry? If there is, contact the gardai who will have to contact the owner. Is it a smoke alarm?

I can't see round the whole house but there are no broken windows at the front, and from what I can see there is no sign of damage to the back. I don't think it's a smoke alarm, definitely doesn't seem to be the right type of noise, and there was no sign of smoke when I went to work this morning.

djimi

thesiren wrote: »

I can't see round the whole house but there are no broken windows at the front, and from what I can see there is no sign of damage to the back. I don't think it's a smoke alarm, definitely doesn't seem to be the right type of noise, and there was no sign of smoke when I went to work this morning.

If you cannot be sure that there is no damage at the back then the Gardai should be coming out to investigate. They have no business fobbing you off like that when you are reporting a possible break in.

thesiren

djimi wrote: »

If you cannot be sure that there is no damage at the back then the Gardai should be coming out to investigate. They have no business fobbing you off like that when you are reporting a possible break in.

Thanks very much, I really appreciate this (and everyone else's help/advice). Am waiting on a call back from the Environmental Protection Agency and then after they ring me I'm calling the gards.

Thargor

Im telling you the Guards arent going to do a thing, they simply do not give a crap about residential house alarms. Can you imagine the waste of resources if they did respond to every complaint? There wouldnt be anyone free to handle other stuff if a squadcar had to visit every burglar alarm that goes off in a town. You'll just be told to contact the owner of the house.

djimi

Thargor wrote: »

Im telling you the Guards arent going to do a thing, they simply do not give a crap about residential house alarms. Can you imagine the waste of resources if they did respond to every complaint? There wouldnt be anyone free to handle other stuff if a squadcar had to visit every burglar alarm that goes off in a town. You'll just be told to contact the owner of the house.

So youre saying that its not their job to investigate a potential crime that has been reported?

Penny Dreadful

It sounds like the battery in the alarm has died and this noise comes about afterward. I say this because in my previous home (built 1999) I had an alarm that kept going off unexpectedly, I would turn it off and meant to get someone out to look at it but it was one of those things that always escaped me.
Anyway a little while later I was away with my (then) boyfriend and I got a call in the middle of the night from the girl who rented a room from me. She said the alarm wouldn't stop going off but it wasn't making the usual really really loud "someone has broken in" noise and nothing would make it stop. She called out an emergency company who came out and removed and replaced the battery. Noise stopped. Bill of €275 for me.

So OP I'd get hold of the woman who owns next door (ask the Gardaí for her number - they'll be able to get it somehow) tell her whats going on and ask her to send someone over to fix it.

Thargor

What do you think they're going to do? Get a warrant from a judge to go in and turn off the alarm? Even if by some miracle you get them to come out for the sake of a house alarm (you wont) they still wont do anything, alarms need keys or codes to turn off and that infrastructure is always indoors where the Guards cant go without permission.

djimi

Thargor wrote: »

What do you think they're going to do? Get a warrant from a judge to go in and turn off the alarm? Even if by some miracle you get them to come out for the sake of a house alarm (you wont) they still wont do anything, alarms need keys or codes to turn off and that infrastructure is always indoors where the Guards cant go without permission.

Im obviously not suggesting that they are going to go into the house, but if the respond to the issue as they should be doing then they might be able to find a way to get in touch with the owner.

Im not sure why you feel they shouldnt respond. Its not to do with the alarm, its to do with a possible break in. The OP cant say for sure that there hasnt been a burglary.

thesiren

Have made numerous phonecalls, to environmental protection, gards, and even the electricity company. Nobody is able to help and the gards claim that they can only check that the property is secure and if it isn't then they will try and contact the owner.

I am this close to posting the address online to see if anyone anywhere would know where the owner is, because my work is already being affected by sleep deprivation and short of moving into a pet-friendly hotel/hostel for a week until the owner comes back, I don't know what else I can do.

thesiren

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

It sounds like the battery in the alarm has died and this noise comes about afterward. I say this because in my previous home (built 1999) I had an alarm that kept going off unexpectedly, I would turn it off and meant to get someone out to look at it but it was one of those things that always escaped me.
Anyway a little while later I was away with my (then) boyfriend and I got a call in the middle of the night from the girl who rented a room from me. She said the alarm wouldn't stop going off but it wasn't making the usual really really loud "someone has broken in" noise and nothing would make it stop. She called out an emergency company who came out and removed and replaced the battery. Noise stopped. Bill of €275 for me.

So OP I'd get hold of the woman who owns next door (ask the Gardaí for her number - they'll be able to get it somehow) tell her whats going on and ask her to send someone over to fix it.

Thanks - I did speak to the gards, but they (along with everyone I spoke to - even An Post) said that they couldn't give out the owner's details, and they would only speak to her themselves if the property had been broken into.

loyatemu

One of the other neighbours might have contact details for the owner maybe?

MarkR

thesiren wrote: »

Thanks - I did speak to the gards, but they (along with everyone I spoke to - even An Post) said that they couldn't give out the owner's details, and they would only speak to her themselves if the property had been broken into.

That's a joke. At this stage it would be better if someone had broken in. Would be resolved straight away, rather than it running on like this.

What about the link for the EPA? If you make a complaint by phone, will they contact the registered owner about the complaint?

Penny Dreadful

Thargor wrote: »

What do you think they're going to do? Get a warrant from a judge to go in and turn off the alarm? Even if by some miracle you get them to come out for the sake of a house alarm (you wont) they still wont do anything, alarms need keys or codes to turn off and that infrastructure is always indoors where the Guards cant go without permission.

I thought that the Gardai might be able to help to get the woman's phone number - get in touch or let the OP get in touch and they could then discuss how to sort it out.

thesiren

MarkR wrote: »

That's a joke. At this stage it would be better if someone had broken in. Would be resolved straight away, rather than it running on like this.

What about the link for the EPA? If you make a complaint by phone, will they contact the registered owner about the complaint?

Yeah I nearly cried after getting off the phone to them, I'm sure they wouldn't be too pleased if they had this persistent high-pitched alarm going off in their ears 24/7. The 'best' bit was the fact that the station I rang last night apparently isnt' even my local station - so they wouldn't even have logged the call that I made despite claiming that they would! It has now been logged correctly, but that means they totally misinformed me when I rang them last night.

I spoke to someone from the EPA. She was sympathetic but said that all I could do would be to take a case against the owner - but I would need her contact details for this, which I don't have (after work today I will try the other neighbours who weren't in last night, just incase one of them might have a phone number or something). She also suggested I contact An Post, but like the PRTB (even though the property isn't registered) they said data protection prevents them from divulging contact details.

Michael D Not Higgins

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

I thought that the Gardai might be able to help to get the woman's phone number - get in touch or let the OP get in touch and they could then discuss how to sort it out.

That's a civil matter. The only thing the Gaurds can do is investigate if there's a crime.