Faulty alarms
Malfunctioning house and intruder alarms can cause serious noise nuisance, and great distress to a large number of people.
We investigate complaints about malfunctioning alarms if the alarm is ringing continuously for more than 20 minutes, intermittently for more than an hour, or if it sounds frequently and causes a noise nuisance.
If we cannot contact the owner, occupier or another person who can silence the alarm, we can take enforcement action to silence the alarm and charge the owner/occupier for the cost of this action.
We will silence the external bell if that is all that is required. However, if an internal alarm is causing the problem, we will obtain a warrant of entry, and enter the property, by force if necessary. This may involve replacing locks.
The legislation governing audible intruder alarms changed in April 2006. Under the old legislation, the police maintained a keyholder database. However, since April 2006, they are no longer keeping keyholder records. Unfortunately, they could not transfer this information to the Council. Any keyholder information that has previously been provided to the police has been destroyed and will no longer be available.
If you have an audible alarm
If your property has an alarm, you can help yourself (and your neighbours) by making sure it is well maintained and has a working cut off device that stops the alarm from sounding for more than 20 minutes. In addition, although it is not a legal requirement, we strongly recommend that you notify the Council of your contact details, and the contact details of your keyholders, so that we can contact someone in the event of a malfunction.
Residential premises
If you have an audible intruder alarm at your house, and would like to register contact details with us please get in touch
Our postal address:
Residential Team,
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames,
Room 118,
The Civic Centre,
44 York Street,
Twickenham,
TW1 3BZ.
Email residentialeh@richmond.gov.uk,
Telephone: 8891 7800
Commercial premises
For commercial premises:
Our postal address
Commercial Environmental Health,
7B Parkshot,
Richmond,
TW9 2RT.
Telephone 8891 7994
Email commercialeh@richmond.gov.uk