Faulty burglar alarms cause a great deal of disturbance to neighbouring properties and are a regular cause for complaint.

If you have a burglar alarm you should:

• Register at least 2 keyholders, besides yourself, with us
• Ensure the alarm has a 20 minute “cut out” and will only sound for one 20 minute period. There is no benefit to having it set to go off 3 or 4 times
• Install the alarm as per manufacturers instructions or have it installed by a professional alarm company and make sure you get a maintenance agreement
• Ensure neighbours know who to contact if the alarm goes off unnecessarily
• Ensure the alarm is serviced regularly
• Test the alarm from time to time

Consider having an alarm that is linked to a call centre with CCTV system so if an intruder is spotted the police and alarm engineer can attend straight away.  We offer an alarm monitoring service, for more information visit our CCTV webpage.

The Kent Police work in partnership with Kent Key Link, 01622 636326. They provide an up to date register of key holders,  that is accessable only by Kent Police. The police use this  to contact your nominated key holders, to deactivate your alarm. In the event of damamge to your property, the police will be able to contact your nominated trades person to resecure your property. There is an annual fee and the service is available to residential and trade premises.

Remember - Your neighbours are the ones likely to spot an intruder so make sure you don’t annoy them with the alarm going off unnecessarily.

Installation of a new alarm system or a change of alarm-holder

If you install a new sytem or change your alarm holder, you are required to notify us using the form below:

• Download Keyholder form for Council 35.5 Kb PDF

Nuisance Alarms

If you are being disturbed on a regular basis or for prolonged periods by a neighbour’s burglar alarm, we have powers to silence it.

Before You Call

• Obtain the address where the alarm is installed
• Check with neighbours and ask if they know where the people are:
  1. are likely to be home shortly
  2. do they know where they work
  3. are they on holiday
  4. do they have contact details of any family members of friends who may be able to contact them or who may have spare keys?
  5. Look at the alarm box and get the phone number of the company in case they have a service contract.

What Next?

If the owner or a keyholder cannot be contacted and the alarm continues to sound let us know. We will check our keyholder records and follow up with the Police.

If we are unable to obtain keyholder details an Officer will visit to establish whether the alarm is causing a statutory nuisance. If it is we will serve an abatement notice and apply to the magistrate’s court for a warrant to silence or reset the alarm.

The process isn’t quick but bear with us. We will need to arrange for various experts to be on site to disarm the alarm. We have to make a charge to the householder with the alarm which can run into hundreds of pounds,  especially if an alarm sounds at night.

If you are experiencing regular problems with an alarm please contact us on 01233 330571/330645.