What happens if my alarm has too many false alarms?

Your police response can be suspended and eventually withdrawn. Forces operate a false-alarm allowance over a rolling twelve-month period, and once you exceed it the URN is suspended until the cause is fixed. The exact threshold and how it is applied are set by each force, not nationally.

The principle is national: police response is a finite resource and a system that cries wolf loses access to it. The numbers are local. Some forces publish their thresholds, some do not, and the way suspensions and reinstatements are handled differs, so the only reliable figure is the one your own force gives you.

A suspension is not usually permanent. The normal path is that the installer diagnoses and fixes the cause, demonstrates a clean period, and applies for reinstatement — sometimes with a further fee.

The causes are boringly consistent: user error, pets, poorly sited detectors, insects, unsecured doors and windows moving in draughts, and ageing sensors. Most are cheap to fix once identified, which is why it is worth reporting a false alarm honestly to your provider rather than resetting and hoping.

Because the URN attaches to the address, a bad false-alarm history is inherited by whoever occupies the property next.