larkim wrote:
On Friday, 15 February 2013 15:13:26 UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:11 +0000, Toby Sleigh wrote:



Hope someone can help.....

We have a Friedland SA5 6 zone wireless alarm system that I
installed

approx five years ago, and have maintained since. This unit is very

similar to Yale wireless alarms so one or othe is probably a
rebadged

version. Anyway we've recently changed house building & contents

insurer. Our new insurer is insisting that there is a maintenance

contract in place. I've been phoning round & consistently failing to

find a company who will take on a diy installed system.



Are there security companies out there who will maintain diy
installed

alarms? or will I have to give up & get an equivalent approved
system

installed at vast unnecessary expense. Location is Ealing, West
London.



IME any discount gained by having a burglar alarm is minimal. Best
say

you haven't got one. Especially since if you have got one, but had a

break in when it was off (e.g. you were at home) they may not pay up.

I've often wondered whether there was any correlation between having
/ not having an alarm and being burgled. Certainly isn't something
I'd ever bother to have fitted, unless there was a very compelling
financial case which saved me more than enough money on the fitting
cost compared to the discounts on the insurance (which I doubt is an
equation which works in practice).

Much as I'd hate to imagine either arriving home with the possessions
gone, or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still
consider it sufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth
spending £500-£1000 on (in addition to insurance!!)

Matt

Mat,

We were burgled some years ago with a fair bit of cash, goods and a car
lifted whilst we were asleep upstairs. When both the police and insurance
assessor turn up (at different times) both stated that there was a high
possibility of the thieving scrotes returning for another bite of the cherry
and they advised that we have a *professionally* fitted and maintained alarm
as a deterrent.

We did that within a week at a cost of around £600 (ALL external doors and
windows, garage and workshop) with a mix of vibration, motion, internal
sounder and door sensors, and lo and behold, within a fortnight the scrotes
did return and the alarm did its job and they got no further than attempting
to force a side door - and we've had several other attempts since with the
last about six months ago.

We also have a yearly maintenance contract with the local company that
fitted it - and in fact when it was last 'serviced' in January, I was told
that if parts now became unavailable for the main control board, they would
fit a new entire system free of charge.

Was it worth having the alarm fitted? In my opinion yes, just for the fact
that it made SWMBO feel a lot safer with the fact there would at least some
warning if they tried again (she'd had her engagement and eternity rings
lifted by the thieving *******s which really upset her) and it took a long
time for her to get over that incident and even now she still hides her
handbag and rings well out of sight every night - some 20 years after that
incident.

Even now, at my age and state of health, if I could find them, I'd do some
severe personal injury to the *******s before calling the law just for the
upset it caused SWMBO.


Cash