Unregistered installer

jenb550

Hi all,

Firstly, please excuse my ignorance as far as alarms go but I am looking for help.

To cut a long story short, we bought our house, a new build, in 2017,moved in April 1st. Our contractor gave us the number for the electrician on site who did a few bits of work for us, few extra sockets and the likes. He also told us he could install our house alarm for 1200 eur. As we were the first on the estate to move in, we didn't question this and went ahead and paid him to install. Now, it's a wired hkc alarm system with the ability to text you if the alarm goes of however since initial installation over a year ago the electrician will not answer the phone and has not been back out to activate the fucnctions on the system. I have the hkc app that I cannot use and I may as well have nothing as have what's there. Yes, you can set the alarm and leave the house but you won't have any clue if it's going off until you get home. I've just visited the hkc website and I can't find his name on the list of registered installers so I'm fairly sure I've been duped. My questions now are 1 - how so I report him and 2 - Who can I get to bring it up to spec! I'm in Limerick

Thanks for any help

massy086

jenb550 wrote: »

Hi all,

Firstly, please excuse my ignorance as far as alarms go but I am looking for help.

To cut a long story short, we bought our house, a new build, in 2017,moved in April 1st. Our contractor gave us the number for the electrician on site who did a few bits of work for us, few extra sockets and the likes. He also told us he could install our house alarm for 1200 eur. As we were the first on the estate to move in, we didn't question this and went ahead and paid him to install. Now, it's a wired hkc alarm system with the ability to text you if the alarm goes of however since initial installation over a year ago the electrician will not answer the phone and has not been back out to activate the fucnctions on the system. I have the hkc app that I cannot use and I may as well have nothing as have what's there. Yes, you can set the alarm and leave the house but you won't have any clue if it's going off until you get home. I've just visited the hkc website and I can't find his name on the list of registered installers so I'm fairly sure I've been duped. My questions now are 1 - how so I report him and 2 - Who can I get to bring it up to spec! I'm in Limerick

Thanks for any help

The PSA would be the people to report him to.I would send him a text stating you intend to do this and see how quickly he will contact you.but be cArefull as the PSA could also fine you for not using a registered PSA licensed contractor. https://www.psa.gov.ie/en/PSA/Pages/Home

altor

jenb550 wrote: »

Hi all,

Firstly, please excuse my ignorance as far as alarms go but I am looking for help.

To cut a long story short, we bought our house, a new build, in 2017,moved in April 1st. Our contractor gave us the number for the electrician on site who did a few bits of work for us, few extra sockets and the likes. He also told us he could install our house alarm for 1200 eur. As we were the first on the estate to move in, we didn't question this and went ahead and paid him to install. Now, it's a wired hkc alarm system with the ability to text you if the alarm goes of however since initial installation over a year ago the electrician will not answer the phone and has not been back out to activate the fucnctions on the system. I have the hkc app that I cannot use and I may as well have nothing as have what's there. Yes, you can set the alarm and leave the house but you won't have any clue if it's going off until you get home. I've just visited the hkc website and I can't find his name on the list of registered installers so I'm fairly sure I've been duped. My questions now are 1 - how so I report him and 2 - Who can I get to bring it up to spec! I'm in Limerick

Thanks for any help

To report an unlicensed installer you need to do it through the Private Security Authority.
Here is a link to the website.

jenb550

massy086 wrote: »

The PSA would be the people to report him to.I would send him a text stating you intend to do this and see how quickly he will contact you.but be cArefull as the PSA could also fine you for not using a registered PSA licensed contractor. https://www.psa.gov.ie/en/PSA/Pages/Home

Thanks massy086.

This is the only thing that would put me off. I want to hire someone registered to rectify everything but I also do want to report him though, by doing that I leave myself liable for a fine I can't afford to pay. I genuinely was ignorant at the time and had no idea he would need to be registered, it wasn't something that crossed my mind since he had worked our house and was employed by the builder contractors from whom we bought the house. Does anyone have experience of reporting in hindsight and is it looked favourably upon? I am sick and tired of ringing and texting this guy for the last 6 months and now with an 8 week old baby I just want to make sure our house is safe. From what I'm reading here, we have the most basic we could get for the highest of prices. A few sensors inside the sitting room and the kitchen and hall and that's it.

altor

jenb550 wrote: »

Thanks massy086.

This is the only thing that would put me off. I want to hire someone registered to rectify everything but I also do want to report him though, by doing that I leave myself liable for a fine I can't afford to pay. I genuinely was ignorant at the time and had no idea he would need to be registered, it wasn't something that crossed my mind since he had worked our house and was employed by the builder contractors from whom we bought the house. Does anyone have experience of reporting in hindsight and is it looked favourably upon? I am sick and tired of ringing and texting this guy for the last 6 months and now with an 8 week old baby I just want to make sure our house is safe. From what I'm reading here, we have the most basic we could get for the highest of prices. A few sensors inside the sitting room and the kitchen and hall and that's it.

In all the convictions against an installer the client has never had to pay a fine.
They will only prosecute the installer if they have a number of jobs he has done and evidence to prove he has done same so you honestly have nothing to worry about by reporting him.

alta stare

These industries are full of people doing things they should not be doing.

Plenty of installers putting in spurs when they shouldn't be. Installing panels in restricted places. Tapping into immersion circuits. Not doing proper site surveys.

Same as sparks doing major works when not recci. Same as sparks doing security systems when not psa approved.

These kind of things are happening all the time and only small amount ever get caught and prosecuted. I was at a job the other day and i seen a guy at some electrics so i asked him was he the spark as i wanted to know about power on site but no he was a chippy who was doing a jack of all trades kind of operation in the house.

OP do yourself a favour and get a good security systems company in to go over your alarm as usually sparks and alarms tend to be a messy combination. Sparks tend to just throw in alarms without much thought.

bk

OP, just to add to what the others have said, the good news is that HKC systems are a very good system, the market leader in Ireland and pretty much every decent PSA installer will have plenty of experience with your system and should be able to easily maintain it for you.