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Alarms

 
Burglar alarms are a useful deterrent against burglaries. However if they ring for long periods of time they can become a serious noise nuisance.

Your responsibilities

If you have an alarm in your home, you are required by law to:

  • submit the details of two keyholders to the police
  • ensure the alarm has a 20 minute cut-out device.

What happens when the alarm sounds?

When the noise team receives a complaint of a burglar alarm sounding, it tries to contact the keyholders. They should be able to let the police into the property to check for a break-in and be able to turn it off and/or re-set the alarm or have the contact details of your alarm company. Ideally, the keyholders should live within 20 minutes of the property.

When the keyholders are unable to help, council officers are entitled to break into the premises. If entry to a property is forced, police officers usually accompany council officers. If there is no access to the property then the alarm system is deactivated from outside.

A nuisance alarm can lead to prosecution and fines can be incurred, in addition to the additional costs of breaking into the property.

Registering keyholders

The Metropolitan Police has set up the Safer Homes initiative where it records the details of properties and keyholders in a secure database. Two levels of registration are offered.

The standard service is free. A premium service is available at a cost and allows you to store extra information, which might help in the event of an incident.

  • For free keyholder registration on the Metropolitan Police Keyholder Database phone FREEPHONE 0800 197 7711 (charges from mobiles may vary).
  • Access the premium service with its additional advantages or for more information visit the  Metropolitan Police Keyholder Database website or call 0870 060 1212  (8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday).

For more information

Download this leaflet: Noise from burglar alarms (pdf 9Kb).

(To view this document, you will require Adobe Acrobat, this can be downloaded via the link on the right.)
 
For general enquiries, call 020 8921 8921 or email nosie.team@greenwich.gov.uk.

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