Who attends when the alarm goes off at 3am, how keys are stored and audited, and what happens if your property is found to have been left insecure.
Why use a key holding service instead of a member of staff?
Because the alternative usually means whoever lives closest attends a potential crime scene alone, at night, without training, and often without your insurer having ever agreed to it.
It also removes a single point of failure. A key holding arrangement does not go on holiday, change jobs or fail to answer the phone.
And it produces a record. Every key movement and every attendance is logged, which is what lets you answer an insurer asking who had access on a given night.
In an access-controlled facility, identified by coded reference rather than by client name or property address. A set of keys labelled with the address it opens is a serious problem if it goes missing; a coded set is close to useless to whoever takes it.
Every movement should be logged: who drew the keys, when, for what purpose, and when they were returned.
An officer attends and carries out an external check first. Entering a building blind because a bell is ringing is how people get hurt, so entry happens once it is reasonable to do so.
You then get a report on what was actually found: a genuine intrusion, an insecurity such as a door left on the latch, an equipment fault, or a false activation with its likely cause.
If the property has been left insecure (a forced door, a broken window) cover should remain in place until it can be made secure, rather than the officer locking up as best they can and leaving.
Why do I keep getting false alarms, and does it matter?
It matters a great deal. Repeat false activations cost money in attendance charges, and they erode the quality of response: a system that cries wolf nightly gets treated accordingly, including by the police.
The cause is almost always physical and fixable: a sensor sited near a heater or air vent, a door that does not seat properly, insects, or a detector aimed at something that moves. Signage and sensor placement are usually cheaper to fix than the attendances are to keep paying for.
A contractor should be telling you the likely cause after each activation rather than simply invoicing for the visit.
