Why are building alarms not made with a auto cutoff?

[chrcoluk]

Property down the street has had its alarm going off since early evening, a neighbour went down there to find the exact property, and its still going off now hours later.

Most councils seem to consider 20 minutes as the limit when I checked, and if an alarm goes off for longer they may take action, so with this in mind why arent alarms manufactured to auto stop at 20 minutes?

I have also never seen police attend to an alarm when its called in, probably due to the amount of occasions alarms go off due to faults.

 

[chrcoluk]

I dont think its acts as a security benefit, so I dont know.

 

[chrcoluk]

I don't understand how these are even legal to install. Normally you are crucified for making noise after 11pm by the council with police showing up and everything, yet you can have one of these alarms sounding for days at a time and nothing is done.

Yep that was what I was wondering as well, it seems its frowned upon to have alarms that operate in this way but not to manufacture and sell them, very odd, as a good law would cut the problem off at its source.

 

[chrcoluk]

If an alarm keeps activating on so many occasions, most people just ignore them "oh its that same house again, must just be a fault". But of course alarms act as a security benefit, if a burglar had a choice he would pick a house without an alarm.

Yeah the initial 20 minutes and the presence of an alarm I accept that, just the going off perpetually.

For reference this alarm is still going 18 hours since we first heard it, neighbour asked me to log it with council which I just did as they not investigating.

I had a look, I think its coming from inside a building been renovated as a takeaway, and no one is there. So I think its an internal alarm.

 

[chrcoluk]

Council are here and walking around now to source it down, they told me over 20 people rang about it and because its ongoing for nearly 24 hours its a noise emergency.

 

[chrcoluk]

For the curious, it is a residential property, my estimation of location I gave to council was very accurate, it is a flat above a pizza takeaway. The letting agent has been informed, and I got told they know what happens if they dont act (rapidly rising costs) which makes me think in the past the council have had to be forceful with them. I got given a new number to ring to let them know if the alarm stops, I offered to wait a couple of days, but they encouraged me to ring during the night if its still going and they will then get the warrant to force the issue.

The alarm is a fire alarm so not security, the window is open on the property.