Gran Cathy Richardson spent £300 having interlinked smoke alarms installed at her home in Lanarkshire.
The 70-year-old already had working alarms but was worried about her home insurance becoming invalid due to new legislation which requires every property to have the interlinked system. The new legislation comes into force on February 1.
The former disability support worker said: “I’ve paid my house insurance for 30-odd years but I thought, if I don’t get these alarms, my house insurance is going to be null and void.
“I got panicking about it. Someone came and told me I needed four alarms and a carbon monoxide alarm.”
Cathy, from Airdrie, said she had the money saved up due to a holiday being cancelled because of Covid but believes many OAPs won’t be able to afford it.
She said: “I said to the man that fitted mine, ‘What happens to the people who can’t afford all this?’
“And he said they’re not covered in their house insurance from February 1.”
Cathy, who has seven grandchildren, said she had heard of the new rules but didn’t think there had been enough advertising for it.
She said: “You might see something about it and then there’s nothing else for months.
“Two or three people had said to me about it but because it was getting nearer to February 1, I was getting panicky about it.
“I had two brand new smoke alarms which had been put in last year.
“But I was just terrified about it so have just paid the £300.”
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