€1,400 fee for installing Fire Alarm System

Sennie

My Property Management Company sent out a letter earlier this year proposing a 'one off annual levy' on €1400 to install a fire alarm system in the whole of the apartment complex. They said in the letter that Church & General would not give them block insurance without this. Has anyone ever come across this type of scenario? I have asked friends in work with apartments and none have ever heard anything like this.

Mrs OBumble

Does your block not already have a fire alarm????

Doop

Is there no existing alarm system? Is it possible this is just to update the system?
Doesnt sound unusal really, spose there could be an argument for suggesting the required amount comes from the sinking fund, but either way your paying for it.

Sennie

No it didn't.

athtrasna

Is it an old development? It's really unusual that a block would have been able to get insurance or get passed for habitation without having a fire alarm system.

Marcusm

This is why there should be a sinking fund and also a managing agent with the ability to plan in advance.

Sennie

It was built in 1995. But it must have been getting block insurance without a fire alarm system before now.

Villa05

Is the cost of the fire alarm 1400 for the whole building or just your required contribution as the owner of 1 apt in the building. How many apts r in the building?

Villa05

Is the cost of the fire alarm 1400 for the whole building or just your required contribution as the owner of 1 apt in the building. How many apts r in the building?

L1011

I would query them referencing Church & General as they've been gone for maybe a decade or more at this stage.

markpb

Sennie wrote: »

It was built in 1995. But it must have been getting block insurance without a fire alarm system before now.

Different insurers will have different requirements, it may be that your old insurer has left the market, refused to quote you or offered a quote that was much higher than the one your OMC is proposing to go with.

Regardless of insurance, if you can afford it (that is, if the OMC can collect all the cash), installing a fire detection system is definitely a good idea.

Paulw

It may be the case that individual units had their own smoke detectors, but there was no connected fire alarm system for the whole complex.

In that case, it wouldn't be too unusual for it to become a requirement for block insurance. Many insurers have left the Irish market and those left seem to have stricter and stricter requirements.

It may seem expensive, but it doesn't sound wrong.

Henry Ford III

Church and General don't exist anymore. It's part of Allianz.

Mrs OBumble

But surely if it's a block, there's a fire safety requirement for an alarm system in order for the block to be occupied - no matter what the insurance status.

Paulw

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

But surely if it's a block, there's a fire safety requirement for an alarm system in order for the block to be occupied - no matter what the insurance status.

It would depend on the building regulations when it was built. It may also be the case that the builder never put one in, and the builder is now gone.