Owning your own home

With water some ‘plumbers’ are certified by Water companies to do the mains laying, testing and connection so may be similar for gas.

Alternatively look for a self lay company

Chancery Mortgages in Sevenoaks. Diamonds.

Thanks, that search term helps.

Edit: actually it looks like self lay is for much larger developments, but that did help me find an approved contractors page on the Welsh Water site, so will make some calls tomorrow.

Our house is at a reasonably prominent spot on a new build estate. The other day a salesman came around from ADT security offering us a deal on a home security system. The deal is that they fit the system for £50 (down from ~£400), and then we pay a £40/month monitoring fee (I think 18month contract). The idea is that given our prominent position, having an ADT burglar alarm box on the outside of our property might encourage other people to buy an alarm too.

The question is, are these forms of monitored alarm systems worthwhile?

I may just be naive but I never previously considered getting one, and being a country bumpkin means I'm not even particularly convinced about locking our doors, but I know there have been thefts recently - the building site portion of our new build estate was apparently burgled a while back and recently the village manor house was burgled for agricultural machinery.

But £40/month seems like a lot of money and if the salesman is right that that a burglar alarm box reduces the risk of getting burgled by 90%, then why don't people just stick a faux box on the wall?

Pretty sure you can't just get any gas engineer to fuck about with the supply pipes. If its between the gas main and your meter it would need to be done by the gas network people. Then only the utility supplier can move the actual meter. For anything after the meter, you can get any (qualified) gas engineer to do it.
Find out who they are from here https://www.energynetworks.org/operating-the-networks/whos-my-network-operator. They will probably have a link on their website to generate a quote request, as you would if you want a new supply / remove a redundant one etc.

why don't people just stick a faux box on the wall

That’s what we have. Ours is Banham though #considerablyricherthanyow

£40 / month is far too much money.

Security alarm companies prey on people's fears of crime. Alarms are only really worth it if you have lots of high value items in your house like jewellery.

Fit decent locks, have window locks and don't leave valuables in prominent places and that'll minimise the risk.

Ah yes good point, it's before the meter. I'll give them a call today

My parents got one after we were burgled when I was about 14 so that if my mum came back with us she knew nobody was in the house

I would go for decent locks and - presuming you have half-decent internet/wireless - a smart doorbell and/or an outdoor IP camera over that. Then maybe also a dummy alarm box. But then I think conventional burglar alarms are pretty useless really as well as expensive.

It might be an 18 month contract but you'd need that £40/month monitoring as long as you kept the system and it's not going to go down is it...

To compare on fees, the standard Nest Aware (not the cheapest smart doorbells/cameras by any means but good quality) fee is £50 a year, the upgraded one (Nest Aware Plus) £100 a year.

I don't think you'd need Plus...

I just leave some of my cheaper gold laying around so they grab that and leave the good stuff.

#golfthreadtroll

This got me casually googling the Nest Outdoor cameras. Can anyone find the catch here?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294117097233?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28

Seems way too cheap, but they've been an eBay member since 2013. Have barely any feedback, but if it's not as described I should be protected by PayPal/eBay, right?

Daring to link to it cos there's more than 10 available :P

Home security companies are some of the most aggressive D2D sales people out there. One of their tactics is that after every arranged sales meeting they have to make their own new business by door knocking. You can make your own decision on the need for an alarm etc but that will not be the best price or deal you can possibly get.

Although my 2p would be what others have said plus you have home insurance.

Ask the seller - maybe they picked up some cheap stock

Isn't, old but not active account (3 items between 6-12 months ago, buyer only) suddenly selling large #s of a single commercial good at a too good to be true price, stock only photos, and nothing else, exactly the blueprint for a taken over account?

Technically the risk is low in the sense that you will have ebay/paypal/CC buyer protection, but I'd hazard the chance of getting the camera you want are slim.

Are you in Wales btw? We are, and found Wales & West Utilities very quick to respond when we asked them to remove a gas supply. Unfortunately they can't do it until Scottish Power have removed the meter, and they are (so far) very fucking slow. Probably about 6 hours spent on the phone to them in total, and at least the same still to go I reckon..

Home security companies are some of the most aggressive D2D sales people out there.

So do you need a home security system aimed specifically at keeping home security salespeople away?

On the security theme - most burglaries are opportunists so it's about making your property a tricky target compared to others in the area. A combo of making the garden harder to access real/fake alarm boxes and obs stuff like keeping windows closed when you go out.
I also have Nest CCTV but only since I put a bike box out front.

I had this happen to my ebay account, no alerts of dodgy logins or anything and a password I didn't use for anything else cos I've changed it a millions times after forgetting it, but still someone got in and listed a bunch of Apple TVs for just under retail, only stock photo, about 50 of them. 3 had sold before customer service even replied to me but it was all sorted out in the end.

you only need a monitored alarm system is you're hanging some priceless artwork or have a big safe full of gold, otherwise spend the money on insurance and locks. They aren't going to catch a robbery in progress unless the thieves are still trying to break in to said safe. A fake alarm box with an LED in (remember to change the battery every now and then), and a camera or even a fake camera will go a long way.

Great, on hold to W&WU now. I assume you were moving the meter because you wanted it located somewhere else? I'll not be moving mine further than a few inches further back in to the box it occupies currently hopefully.

Unfortunately that probably means I'll have to coordinate the water engineer, W&WU and a gas engineer for my side of the meter.

Ouch - good luck! Be prepared to be quoted many hundreds of pounds for even such a small job..