Reverend Conehead
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I see this all the time in the business I'm in. Someone buys a house and is all excited about getting moved in and all settled in. There's some panel thing on the wall, but they don't pay much attention to it, and the real estate agent neither points it out nor gives them any information about it.
So then after they move in, their kid, always the curious type, fools around with the panel, going through its various menus. Then voilà! The system is armed. Turns out you can arm it without using any panel passcode. Problem is, you cannot disarm it without the panel's passcode, something which the real estate agent didn't bother to provide. So now, they'll set off an awful alarm and have no way to shut it off. They won't even know whom to call for help. The alarm won't send the police since it's not hooked up to service, but it will be a nuisance that they can't shut off.
Does someone selling a house think the new owner has no need to know anything at all about its alarm system? They kind of do. They could leave with the real estate agent the panel's passcode and the contact number of the company they had service with. Then at least they could decide what they want to do. They could sign up for service or they could uninstall that panel, and at least they would have the info they need to do either one.
In the business I'm in I get frantic calls from people all the time who have accidentally armed their panel and then set off the alarm. It's often their kid who did that. When I ask them what information the real estate agent or the seller gave them about the alarm system, they almost always answer, "They didn't tell us anything." Makes me want to slap a bunch of house sellers across the face. They didn't think the home buyer kind of needed to know what they were buying? Do they also forget to tell a buyer that a house has an empty swimming pool? Or that it has an attic? A basement?
I would think an alarm system would be a selling point. Then if they bought the house, the seller could give them an envelop with all the relevant info. But that's just me.
So then after they move in, their kid, always the curious type, fools around with the panel, going through its various menus. Then voilà! The system is armed. Turns out you can arm it without using any panel passcode. Problem is, you cannot disarm it without the panel's passcode, something which the real estate agent didn't bother to provide. So now, they'll set off an awful alarm and have no way to shut it off. They won't even know whom to call for help. The alarm won't send the police since it's not hooked up to service, but it will be a nuisance that they can't shut off.
Does someone selling a house think the new owner has no need to know anything at all about its alarm system? They kind of do. They could leave with the real estate agent the panel's passcode and the contact number of the company they had service with. Then at least they could decide what they want to do. They could sign up for service or they could uninstall that panel, and at least they would have the info they need to do either one.
In the business I'm in I get frantic calls from people all the time who have accidentally armed their panel and then set off the alarm. It's often their kid who did that. When I ask them what information the real estate agent or the seller gave them about the alarm system, they almost always answer, "They didn't tell us anything." Makes me want to slap a bunch of house sellers across the face. They didn't think the home buyer kind of needed to know what they were buying? Do they also forget to tell a buyer that a house has an empty swimming pool? Or that it has an attic? A basement?
I would think an alarm system would be a selling point. Then if they bought the house, the seller could give them an envelop with all the relevant info. But that's just me.
