Hypothetical Question

[imbecile]

If a neighbour goes on holiday with a blaring fire alarm left on in their house, are you permitted to enter the house to disable the noise?

[NCC1701]

I believe that environmental health officers have powers to enter premises and disable the alarm under such circumstances.

[Glassman]

imbecile said:

If a neighbour goes on holiday with a blaring fire alarm left on in their house, are you permitted to enter the house to disable the noise?

So nothing to do with it actually burning then?

[tlracing]

You can't enter legally but...I'm sure your neighbour would be happy for you to do so, if you're on reasonable terms.

If not, then environmental dept. of your local council can enter, but if it's out of office hours then there's little chance of anything happening. The Police can't actually do anything, but tend to turn a blind eye if you take action yourself (allegedly!)

[Greendubber]

Whats the relationship with you neighbours like?, got a phone number for them?. If not then don't go kicking the door in to turn it off as you'll get in some bother. See if anyone has a number for them and try to give them a call to try and sort it out and get someone with a spare key to come around.

The council can gain entry to silence the alarm and then charge the owners of the premises for doing it....however that should be a last resort as you may well have you neighbours kicking off that you didn't take reasonable steps to track them down before getting the council heavies in.

Edited by Greendubber on Monday 4th June 21:48

[NCC1701]

tlracing said:

The Police can't actually do anything

Unlikely i guess but they do have a power of entry to protect property and if called soon enough could enter to satisfy themselves that there wasn't a fire.

[BertBert]

fire alarm? An internal smoke alarm or external. If external that'll be a burglar alarm surely? Pretty hard to disable.
Bert

[imbecile]

It's a hypothetical... My actual neighbours where I live at home leave their doors unlocked*, and at university there's no problem.

But for argument's sake - suppose I hated my neighbours, my council hated me, and I would have to smash a window to get in?

• We get 6 henious crimes a year in the entire area (e.g. someone stealing flower pots, or leaving a bed and breakfast without paying) , and 0 in the village where I live.

[Greendubber]

imbecile said:

It's a hypothetical... My actual neighbours where I live at home leave their doors unlocked*, and at university there's no problem.

But for argument's sake - suppose I hated my neighbours, my council hated me, and I would have to smash a window to get in?

• We get 6 heinous crimes a year in the entire area (e.g. someone stealing flower pots, or leaving a bed and breakfast without paying) , and 0 in the village where I live.

If you broke in by damaging the building in anyway (ie smashing a window) you could be looking at burglary as its unlawfull damage to a building, also if you caused any damage to the alarm it would be burglary as its causing unlawfull damage to anything therein.

[Flintstone]

Greendubber said:

imbecile said:

It's a hypothetical... My actual neighbours where I live at home leave their doors unlocked*, and at university there's no problem.

But for argument's sake - suppose I hated my neighbours, my council hated me, and I would have to smash a window to get in?

• We get 6 heinous crimes a year in the entire area (e.g. someone stealing flower pots, or leaving a bed and breakfast without paying) , and 0 in the village where I live.

If you broke in by damaging the building in anyway (ie smashing a window) you could be looking at burglary as its unlawfull damage to a building, also if you caused any damage to the alarm it would be burglary as its causing unlawfull damage to anything therein.

But would that not require the property owner to press charges?

[Zeeky]

There is a defence to CD of protecting property or a right or interest in your property. As 'peaceful enjoyment' of your property is a right or interest then you could lawfully damage your neighbour's property to stop the alam. IMHO

[Greendubber]

Flintstone said:

Greendubber said:

imbecile said:

It's a hypothetical... My actual neighbours where I live at home leave their doors unlocked*, and at university there's no problem.

But for argument's sake - suppose I hated my neighbours, my council hated me, and I would have to smash a window to get in?

• We get 6 heinous crimes a year in the entire area (e.g. someone stealing flower pots, or leaving a bed and breakfast without paying) , and 0 in the village where I live.

If you broke in by damaging the building in anyway (ie smashing a window) you could be looking at burglary as its unlawfull damage to a building, also if you caused any damage to the alarm it would be burglary as its causing unlawfull damage to anything therein.

But would that not require the property owner to press charges?

Yep, so it depends on the relationship with them. Imbeciles said that in this hypothetical question he hates his neighbours, so I was guessing they're non too fond of him and would press charges if he smashed a window to gain entry to their house to sort the alarm out.

[eltax91]

Shove a molotov cocktail through the letter box and call the fire brigade?

Edited by eltax91 on Tuesday 5th June 15:14

[GKP]

Is it worth checking to see if the house has been burgled?

Just a thought....

[ff5317]

We get quite a few of these, the correct procedure is to call the fire service inform them that a smoke alarm is sounding in a property, a crew will then be sent to the address and if the property is empty and it's obvious there is no fire the officer in charge will arrange for someone to enter the property to silence the alarm.