Fire alarm going off

lovelystuff

I'm currently living in rented accommodation with my partner, a large Georgian house divided into a number of small flats and studios. For the last two months the building's fire alarm has been randomly going off most days. It is an incredibly loud alarm and scares the crap out of us every time!

Whenever the alarm goes off we go out and check there's no fire (obviously) and then reset the alarm which is what the landlord had told us to do. We are getting more and more worried and frustrated now, the other night the alarm went off at midnight, 2.30 am, and then 7am so out sleep is being affected. More worringly is that most tenants in the building no longer react and just stay in their apartment until one of us turns it off. If there is actually a fire I genuinely don't believe people will evacuate.

I've notified the landlord everytime it has happened. Over Christmas he decided that there must be someone smoking in the corridor setting off the alarm but we really don't believe that to be the case, whenever we go to turn it off there is no sign of smoke/smoking (and sometimes the alarm system says the fire is in my own apartment where nobody ever smokes).

We have asked repeatedly for him to get the alarm checked and he has stopped replying to our texts. The alarm went off again this morning at 5am and I'm sitting in work now absolutely wrecked!

Apologies for the long post I wanted to give as much detail as possible, I would really appreciate if anyone could give me any advice? Ideally we would like to stay in the apartment until we can buy somewhere in a year or two but it's hard to know if that's possible at the minute. Thanks for reading!

spaceHopper

It's the batteries, we have a mains wired system in our house but no panel, they have a back up battery, standard 9V one, ours started going off for no reason, it was that the batteries were low. Simple enough to take them off and replace them. Text the LL asking to get a handyman to change them. If he doesn't call him every time the alarm goes of and then to sort it.

lovelystuff

Thanks for the reply. We've asked him several times to get someone out to have a look at it and he has just started ignoring us at this stage. I'm not sure it is a battery issue as the alarm says there's a fire in a different apartment each time, there was a flood a few months ago which seemed to be around the time this all started so I'm concerned it's something electrical. It's very annoying to be honest!

aujopimur

Every time the alarm goes off, ring the fire brigade, problem solved.

Del2005

aujopimur wrote: »

Every time the alarm goes off, ring the fire brigade, problem solved.

The fire services are not to deal with landlords not fixing a fire alarm, along with the call out charges for the OP they could be putting others at risk by having a fire appliance responding to a know false alarm.

The OP could contact the fire service and request a safety inspection, but the risk with this is that the apartment complex could be shutdown and they'll have nowhere to live.

dazed+confused

spaceHopper wrote: »

It's the batteries, we have a mains wired system in our house but no panel, they have a back up battery, standard 9V one, ours started going off for no reason, it was that the batteries were low. Simple enough to take them off and replace them. Text the LL asking to get a handyman to change them. If he doesn't call him every time the alarm goes of and then to sort it.

You are mixing up a domestic systems and a commercial system here. OP don't let a handyman or anyone else that's not certified to work on fire detection systems.

Doop

Tell the landlord if he doesn't get someone out all the tenants are going to chip in and get someone (ie siemens) to come out and service the alarm and that you will all be forced to deduct the amount from each apartments rent, its not allowed but try the people power aspect on him. He is being ridiculous anyway fire alarm systems require regular servicing.

meath4sam

You need to get the company that maintains the fire alarm system out to access flood damage which could cause false alarms, would be someone like g4s or Chubb. Landlord should do this ASAP.

Might be no harm to let local local fire brigade or local fire safety officer know of the situation and I’m sure the landlord would step up then.

purplepatchit

Consider contacting the alarm system company directly, details will be on the main wall unit. They should;

a) be able to tell you it is not under a service agreement, increasing potential negative outcome of a malfunctioning fire system which may impact further decisions you make, even if they are painful/awkward) or
b) tell you it is under a service level agreement, at which point they are likely to contact the landlord themselves. No fire safety company wants the risk of a multi-unit fire system failing and lives being lost

As annoying as it is, don't risk your life by letting this situation continue. Best of luck.

lovelystuff

Hi everyone, thanks a million for taking the time to reply I really appreciate it. The landlord finally got someone out to look at the alarm system (he just called him "the alarm guy" so I'm not sure if he was from the actual alarm company or not).

He spent a full day in the apartment block and we were assured it was fixed, however it went off again at 315 am on Saturday and late Sunday night too. We've reported it to the landlord again but it's so annoying! We're at the stage where we would move if we could but the apartment is very cheap (for Dublin) so we'd rather it get sorted. The landlord has some very tired and cranky tenants!

mrs.doubt.fire

If you signed a contract with an estate agent to be living there, and you pay the rent to the estate agent and not directly to the landlord, then you should be contacting the estate agent with all and any matters in the house that needs fixing etc *that is proven to be the landlords fault*, and it should be reported when it happens (between 9am - 6pm when the estate agents office is open), if you have this contract you'll see that the landlord has 3 days from the time it's reported to the estate agent to get it fixed (or replaced, depending on what needs doing) or to have work started on getting it fixed if it takes longer than a day or two to fix or replace.

If there is no contract and no estate agent and you deal directly from day 1 with the landlord...well... I'll be polite and say...have you considered getting ear plugs ? If you bulk purchase you'll save some money.

spaceHopper

lovelystuff wrote: »

We're at the stage where we would move if we could but the apartment is very cheap (for Dublin) so we'd rather it get sorted. The landlord has some very tired and cranky tenants!

Is he trying to get you to move?

lovelystuff

spaceHopper wrote: »

Is he trying to get you to move?

The alarm goes off for the entire building so I really don't think so! As for the previous post, we deal directly with the landlord. The alarm is unbelievable loud (as it should be) and I don't want to wear earplugs and sleep through an actual fire if one happens, thank you though.

spaceHopper

lovelystuff wrote: »

The alarm goes off for the entire building so I really don't think so! As for the previous post, we deal directly with the landlord. The alarm is unbelievable loud (as it should be) and I don't want to wear earplugs and sleep through an actual fire if one happens, thank you though.

You either need to work with the LL or get on the the fire officer to make him fix it. There is nothing anybody here cand do.

If the LL is using a handyman it's probably not going to get fixed but it's because he probably had it put in on the cheap.

the_syco

As said, check the panel of the fire alarm for a number to ring, otherwise as said contact the fire service and request a safety inspection.