Top 7 Tips To Reducing False Alarms and the High Costs!
When you put your home up for sale in Palm Beach County Florida one of the considerations is should you turn your alarm off on days when your house is being shown.
This of course, is up to you and we do not recommend one way over another since this has to do with your security and belongings.
False alarms can get quite expensive.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff has established fees for each false alarm. The more false alarms you have in a year, the higher your fees are. From $25 for the first false alarm to $500 for the 10th false alarm.
The worst part is that if you don't pay your fines right away the Sheriff's office will not respond to your next alarm. That next alarm could be for real. It reminds me of the 'Boy Who Cried Wolf' story.
Here is a list of 7 things you can do to reduce your false alarms:
- Show everyone in your household who is going to be using the alarm how to use it. Show them how to disarm your system. Teach them what number to call to cancel an alarm. Go through this in person, have your family members, friends, whoever else, practice on the alarm system and go through the drills.
- Test your alarm system once a month.
- Replace your batteries in your alarm system once a year.
- Let your alarm company know when you are going out of town.
- Show your REALTOR® how to turn your alarm on and off and how to cancel if the alarm is set off accidentally.
- Double check with the showing desk when they call you - remind them you have an alarm and let them know if for the showing it will be on or off.
- Let your alarm company know if you get a new pet.
More than 90% of alarms are false alarms. That is a lot of stress and anxiety over false alarms. The police and sheriff are responding to all these false alarms.
The top reasons false alarms happen are because of: user error, pet movement and equipment that is not taken care of.
The false alarms cost the police resources about $2 Billion dollars a year.
The worse part about false alarms is that it takes the Sheriff away from responding to other calls.
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