Negligent Security Company - Options?

[Icarium]

Scenario:

At 12:52pm a pair of burglars forced open the front gate, lounge security gate and lounge door with the last setting off the house alarm, which is linked to a security company. The pair proceeded to rapidly ransack the house with the alarm going and left the premises within about a minute.

At 12:55pm the security company patrol vehicle arrives at the house, and not having access to the premises proceed to perform a perimeter check. They contact us and inform us that there is nothing unusual to report (ie: Premises appear safe).

I arrive home at 3:15pm, and with the security company having signed off that there was no sign of entry proceed to enter the premises as normal (I don't use the front entrance around the corner). Upon entering through the kitchen I immediately notice that the lounge door and security gate are standing wide open as well as the gate to the street. The doors are all visibly damaged and incapable of being closed. So I call the police and then the security company.

When the security company arrives the first thing we ask them is why they did not check the perimeter - they insist that their officers must have done a full check. When questioned as to why they did not notice the wide open gates/doors, they claimed that the burglars must still have been inside at the time and had probably closed the door behind them to make it appear normal. When questioned how they missed the broken gate lock and bent frame, they didn't have much to say other than "sorry". The patroller that responded to the alarm is there and keeps insisting he followed the correct procedure.

Question:

Yesterday we checked if the cameras that are in the complex across the road picked anything up (They have street cameras, one of which is pointed squarely at our front gate where the burglars gained access). It clearly shows the burglars arriving and leaving. It also quite clearly shows the security company patroller driving rapidly past the point where the thieves gained entry (coming to a stop outside our garage around the corner), and doing no more than casually glancing around the corner of the wall. At no point does he come within sight of the gate where entry was gained (It's recessed about a meter back from the wall). So they not only failed to check the perimeter, they lied about doing so

Given that the security company failed to secure the perimeter of the property, and then proceeded to lie about doing so, do we have any claim or recourse against them? While we realise that they could not have prevented the burglary and the associated damage caused to the property, they put us in a position where, had the burglars been taking their time inside the house it's quite possible that either myself or the wife would have walked in on them believing the house to be safe.

 

[supersunbird]

Claim thing: Probably not, can just leave them and go with whomever else is better in your area.

The security company control room can only go on what their lazy ass AR officer tells them.

Security still remains you own baby (you experienced this now), I would have approached the house suspiciously after a reported alarm event.

Also look at getting a CCTV system, then you could have logged in on phone or tablet app from work and then see all that the officer is missing yourself and *** the control room person out who in turn can *** out the AR officer...

 

[rrh]

Realistically: none whatsoever

 

[ToxicBunny]

Realistically, they don't give a toss and there is nothing you can do to them anyway.

 

[supersunbird]

Example screenshot from my phone



See that gate to the veld behind or maybe the palisade above? I could perhaps say to the security company control room that phoned me "tell your officer the gate is open/the palisade is broken, there is a positive breakin, so he must stay there until I arrive, please call SAPS too"...

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

You could approach PSIRA.

These guys are mandated by the DTI as the legal watchdogs of the private security industry.
There is also legislation governing private security, the bill was amended in July to cover conduct of security companies and holds the directors to account.

 

[halfmoonforever]

You could approach PSIRA.

These guys are mandated by the DTI as the legal watchdogs of the private security industry.
There is also legislation governing private security, the bill was amended in July to cover conduct of security companies and holds the directors to account.

^ this

I'm sure the security company in question is ADT. Admit it

 

[supersunbird]

^ this

I'm sure the security company in question is ADT. Admit it

There are many other incompetents too unfortunately.

 

[skeptic_SA]

Approach them with the info. Friendly like and see what they say. If they ugm and ahh - go viral and burn them.

 

[Icarium]

Realistically, they don't give a toss and there is nothing you can do to them anyway.

This is pretty much the answer I was expecting. I'm just incredibly angry that the security officer that responded can stand in front of the gate that was used to gain entry and brazenly lie about having checked it.

As much as I'd like to name and shame, we're still deciding as to whether to stay with said company. They're the only company that does regular visible patrols in our area, have the most patrol cars around and while the quality of their response in this case was shocking, the fact that they were there within 3 minutes is probably the difference between coming home to a few missing things and coming home to an emptied out house.