Wellington, FL Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Section 13-7(A) of Wellington's Code of Ordinances prohibits the sounding of any horn or audible signal device of any motor vehicle, boat, engine, machine or stationary boiler of any kind except as required by law or as a warning. The same subsection adds a second, separate rule aimed squarely at devices like car alarms: the sounding of any warning device for an unnecessary or unreasonable period of time is also prohibited. Read together, the section allows a horn or alarm to sound briefly as an actual warning, someone honking to avoid a collision, or a car alarm chirping once when triggered, but it does not allow that device to keep sounding once the warning purpose has passed.

A malfunctioning car alarm that blares in a parking lot for twenty minutes with no owner responding, or a horn someone leans on out of frustration rather than to warn of a hazard, falls outside the required-by-law-or-warning exception and into the separate unnecessary-or-unreasonable-period prohibition. The section reaches more than passenger vehicles: it also covers boats, engines, machines and stationary boilers, so a marina horn or an industrial alarm sounding without cause is treated the same way. Section 13-5's definition of 'plainly audible' and Section 13-8's decibel and unreasonably-loud standards apply to horns and alarms just as they do to other sound sources once the noise crosses a property line, giving Code Compliance two overlapping standards to cite an unreasonably long alarm under.