Burglar alarms

My alarm came with the house. I have a cat so can't use it anyway. Whenever there was a power cut it would make a racket when the power came back on which was very annoying.
I had it serviced and the chap said that the reason that happened was that it should have had a battery inside which was missing. It doesn't do that now. He put one in and changed the code to something meaningful.
If I used it and it went off I think it would scare the life out of me.
By the way, I'm stating the obvious but if your code was put in by the builder and it's 1-2-3-4 get it changed as most burglars try that, apparently.

We have our alarm linked to an app on our phone so we can turn it on and off remotely. So if it went off in error we are sent a notification and can switch it off. We would get a neighbour to pop round to double check everything ok. if we are out.

I’ve noticed that some alarms around us go off during a power cut, Pamelaj1. Ours doesn’t, thank goodness.

We live in a quiet terrace and have a back door which is not overlooked at all. We’d three opportunistic break-ins within two years before installing the alarm, and haven’t had one (touch wood!) in the 25 years since. So I’d say it worked for us! We never set it at night, after a false alarm woke us all up. It was terrifying! I can’t imagine anyone who’d broken in would stay with that racket going on.

I got home after Pilates one morning to find a police car in the drive.
The electric had gone off and set the damn thing off.

Thanks everyone. I’m still undecided. Obviously I won’t know any neighbours for a while after I move in. Perhaps Ill see how many other houses in the road have alarms. Wouldn’t want mine to be the only one without!

We’ve never managed to set ours successfully. Even if we did I doubt it would be used.

Monica ours doesn't ring inside the house. I once slept through mine going off and was only made aware the next day when the neighbours came to check I was ok. I don't know what set it off!

I had one installed when I moved into my current house 20 years ago. It certainly doesn't alert anyone to the fact the house is empty, it just alerts them to the fact there is an alarm. I've never been burgled but I've had an alarm for 20 years plus I've always had dogs. If you get on with your neighbours as we do, the chances are they will investigate if the alarm goes off. Monica is right approved alarms have to cease after 20 minutes before going off again. I too have had a fault when the alarm sounded for 24 hours before the engineer sorted it, not funny at all so we removed the fuse.

An alarm sounds inside the house as well as out so that the intruder will be driven out of the house by the unbearable noise - and it is unbearable, believe me, squirrels nibbled through our alarm in the middle of the night, the alarm sounded inside but not out and it took the emergency repair man an hour and a half to reach us. the alarm rang indoors all that time. We had cushions on our ears but our ears 'rang' for ages afterwards.

I think all approved alarms have to stop sounding outside after 20 minutes.

We live in a village in a row of 4 houses, with more opposite and anyone's alarm going off rapidly brings the neighbours out.

I've never had one either, and my husband reckons that they just alert anyone to the fact that the house is empty.

We've got CCTV, which I believe is more useful - ours at the front, side and back of the house (3 in total), so we'd see anyone on it, and see any vehicle too. My husband has got an app on his mobile and watch so that he can have a look at what's going on (to my annoyance, he does that a lot). We even saw that the cat-sitter we'd arranged had been calling in for 3 minutes(!) instead of the 30 minutes we'd agreed on!

I have alarm and CCTV and a neighbour has a key in case of problems. I think the large yellow notices declaring 24/7 video recording work as well as the alarm box on the wall.

It is just one of the measures you can take if you feel vulnerable. I think that movement sensor lights are a really good idea and would deter anyone approaching the house.

I read that burglars like the easy option so if your home looks more secure they will choose another unless of course they know you have valuable antiques etc!

Our neighbours would come to investigate straight away if they heard anything untoward.

I have a burglar alarm - a neighbour has a key and the code in case it goes off while I am out or away.

The fact there is an alarm box on the wall will make most burglars think twice and even if no-one investigates an alarm, it would scare the burglars away. Living alone the alarm makes me feel more secure when going to bed at night.

We had one after an attempted breakin, I asked the police officer who called around to look at our security and he said where we live, London people often ignore a triggered alarm but it might be enough to frighten off a burglar. I’m scared of mine I’m frightened it might go off while on holiday for some reason and I’d get a text from a neighbour telling me to turn the blasted thing off.?

Probably depends on where you live, in my last house in a small village, neighbours came out and checked whose alarm was going off and walked round the property, making sure all was secure.

Might be different in a busy town or city.