Pollution Control - Burglar Alarms

Alarms are used to disturb potential intruders. However, in residential areas, they can cause a great disturbance for a large number of residents.

The following steps help to minimise the risk of an alarm causing a nuisance by sounding unnecessarily:

1.  Ensure the alarm is fitted with a 20 minute cut out device
2.  Ensure the alarm is correctly installed and serviced periodically.
3.  Register details with Environmental Health Services of reliable key-holders to your premises who can be contacted should the alarm on your home sound unnecessarily whilst you are away. Key holders should live within a reasonable travelling distance and should be aware that they could receive a call from an Environmental Health Officer in the middle of the night should this be necessary.
4.  Ensure any changes to registered key holder details are passed on to Environmental Health Services
5.  Inform neighbours of key holder contact details.

Complaints about burglar alarms

If you are bothered by a neighbours alarm misfiring, you can contact us. We will need your name, address, and contact number, and the address of where the alarm is located. 

You may choose to call the police but please be aware that the police are unable to take action unless there has been a break in.

Once a complaint has been made

We are required to investigate the allegations of noise nuisance and take steps to prevent any substantiated problems. If it is found that an alarm is causing a statutory nuisance, we will try to contact the person responsible for the alarm and arrange for it to be silenced and reset. If this is not possible, we will serve a Noise Abatement Notice under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This notice will require that the alarm be silenced.

After the notice has been served, and it is evident that the requirements in it have not been met, we will apply to the Magistrates Court for a warrant to enter the premises to stop the nuisance by disabling the alarm.

We will recover any costs we incur (locksmith etc.) from the owner of the property.

Basildon Council recommends that people with burglar alarms should register their key holder details with the Council's Environmental Health Services before finding themselves out of pocket and faced with the embarrassment of being locked out of their own homes.

Every year the Council receives complaints about alarms going on for hours and hours. This can cause a lot of distress to nearby residents and can be very expensive for the owners of the property when they return.

If an alarm sounds for more than 20 minutes and is causing a nuisance, the Council can obtain a warrant from the Magistrates Court and have the powers to call a locksmith to enter the premises and deal with the alarm, then fit a new lock before they leave. In some cases a specialist electrician must be called in to deal with the system. All these costs mount up.

There is no need for any of this if residents just complete a simple form and return it to Basildon Council.

Key holders should live within a reasonable travelling distance to the property and should be made aware that they could be called on in the middle of the night by environmental health officers if the alarm goes off.

Register your key holder details

Householders can register their key holder details with Basildon Council's Environmental Health Services by completing an Audible Alarm Registration form.

See Downloadable form: Burglar Alarm Registration Form (PDF, 47 KB)

Once your details have been registered, should there be a problem with your alarm misfiring, an Environmental Health Officer should be able to contact a key holder to deal with the noise nuisance quickly. This could save you considerable expense and save your neighbours a long period of disturbance.

Please remember to notify this office of any changes to these details.

Any details held by the Council will be strictly confidential and kept securely.