I wonder can anyone advise me? I have just received a recorded message on my landline phone saying that it is necessary for an inspection of my fire alarm to take place, it being illegal not to get this done. I was given a number to call and told I should call them to arrange for the inspection. Is this a valid situation or is it just a company looking for work? At this moment in time we do not have a fire alarm in place (too many other things have had to be seen to!) and I am more than willing to purchase one if it is illegal not to have one, however I do not want to be press ganged into buying a state of the art all-singing, all-dancing piece of apparatus that someone may want to sell me on inspection. Any info on this matter would be gratefully received. It surprises me that inspections of all residences are in fact obligatory.
No, it’s the other way around.
definately a scam - carbon monoxide alarms ARE a legal obligation being bought in but not smoke alarms (I'm in an hlm rental, we had smoke alarms already but earlier this year we had to have the carbon monoxide ones installed to comply and we get a contractor sent by the hlm to check all alarms every 6 months. We were told that the smoke alarms are RECOMMENDED, Carbon Monoxide OBLIGATORY )
Go and talk to the local police.....I think they will be very interested in if put it to them less switched on people than yourself could be scammed into handing money over, or indeed their house "cased" for future robbery etc.....
Although we are supposed to have fire alarms just about everywhere now, there is no enforcement of the law yet. Actually, I don't think it will ever be enforced as it would be too costly! So any mail or phone call pertaining inspection should be ignored.
Scam. Ignore it.
Exactly,Valerie, perhaps I should have spelt it out - if it aint la mairie it's probably a scam and as you say, watch out for expensive numbers if you do ring back ;-)
It is a scam. My OH grabbed a visiting neighbour who happened to be a local fireman who asked if they had liaised with so-and-so the local head of the emergency service, to which the caller said 'Of course'. He replied that he had just made up the name therefore would this 'inspectorate' like to identify itself so that he could check whilst he was on duty as a voluntary fireman. By then the line had gone dead. For the last month we have had no such calls. We have them on and off and have done so since the regulation came in.
Hi Jennifer, I'm actually going to disagree slightly with Andrew on this one with regard to the phone message. I receive these all the time but the number, if it shows on the display because some are 'withheld', has an odd prefix and may be premium rate. In my book, if there is an official, legitimate inspection there'll be a man knocking on the door holding an ID card (which also needs to be verified before allowing access - there are reports of fake ones as well).
Yes you do now have to have a smoke detector but 10€ at your local DIY shop gets you what you need, just like in the UK ;-)
As for the message - phone the number and ask, it'll be someone from la mairie if it's official ;-)