Keyholding and alarm response in London

What is keyholding and alarm response?

Keyholding means we keep a set of your keys and act as a named keyholder for your building. When your alarm goes off, your alarm company can call us first, rather than a member of your staff.

Alarm response is what happens next: we send an officer to find out why the alarm went off, deal with it and leave the building secure. The two usually go together. If you also want regular checks when the alarm hasn’t gone off, add mobile patrols.

Why use a keyholding company?

If your alarm is monitored with a police response, the police require at least two keyholders for the building. Under the NPCC’s requirements for security systems, each keyholder must:

• be trained to operate the alarm
• be contactable by phone
• have transport to reach the building at any hour
• have access to all relevant parts of the building
• be able to attend within 20 minutes of being notified

A key safe isn’t accepted instead of a keyholder. If a keyholder is away or ill, a replacement has to be provided, and if keyholders fail to attend when asked twice in a rolling 12 months, the police may withdraw their response for three months. The police won’t normally go into a building without a keyholder, and may leave before one arrives if there’s no obvious sign of a crime.

That’s a lot to ask of your own staff, who go on holiday, move house and change jobs. It also means someone from your team going out to an empty building at night. With a keyholding company, an SIA-licensed officer goes instead.

We attend within 1 hour as standard, so we don’t promise to meet these rules. If your alarm has a police response, keep at least two keyholders who do.

Your own staff or a keyholding company?

The licence rules are in the SIA’s guidance on who needs a licence.

What happens at a call-out?

Every call-out starts the same way: your alarm company calls us, and an officer goes to the building with your keys. What happens next depends on what they find.

• A false alarm. Many alarms turn out to be a door not quite shut, a fault or a detector set off by something harmless. The officer checks the building inside and out, finds the cause if they can, resets the alarm where your system allows and locks up. A run of false alarms is worth fixing, because it can cost you your police response.
• A break-in. The officer calls the police and doesn’t go inside until it’s safe. They keep the scene as it is for the police, let you know, and make the building secure once the police have finished.
• Damage that leaves the building open. If a door or window can’t be secured, the officer can stay on site until a glazier, locksmith or boarding contractor has made it safe, so the building isn’t left open overnight. We charge for the time the officer stays.
• A fault that won’t reset. The officer contacts your alarm company or engineer. If the building can’t be protected until the fault is fixed, an officer can stay.

The officer leaves a report on site, which can also be done digitally. If there’s a major incident, we contact your main contact.

Do you attend fire alarms?

No. A fire alarm is completely different, so our alarm response covers intruder alarms only.

Plan for fire alarms separately, because in London this matters more than it used to. London Fire Brigade policy is not to attend automatic fire alarms in most non-residential buildings between 7am and 8.30pm, unless someone calls to confirm there’s a fire (LFB). The Brigade says 99% of calls from non-residential automatic fire alarms turn out to be false.

If your building is empty in the daytime, at weekends for example, nobody may be there to check. Make sure your fire risk assessment covers what happens when the building is empty.

How quickly can an officer attend an alarm in London?

We attend within 1 hour as standard, though this can vary depending on where the building is. If your alarm has a police response, the police require each keyholder to be able to attend within 20 minutes, so keep registered keyholders who can.

What do we need from you to set up keyholding?

• Keys to every door the officer may need to open, including gates, shutters and the alarm panel cupboard.
• The alarm details: how to set and unset it, the name of your alarm company and your account reference.
• Your police reference (the URN), if your alarm has a police response.
• Your contact list: who we call if there’s a major incident, in order, and how to reach them out of hours.
• The building’s hazards, and any areas the officer shouldn’t enter.
• What the officer may do for you, such as calling your glazier, locksmith or alarm engineer, and who pays for it.

How are your keys kept safe?

Ask any keyholder how your keys are labelled, where they’re kept, who can take them out and how each movement is recorded. Keys shouldn’t carry your name or address, so a lost key can’t lead anyone to your building. We tag and number your keys with internal codes, and lock them away in a secure safe and facility.

The British Standard for keyholding and response services is BS 7984-1. The police’s requirements tell anyone who uses a keyholding company to be aware of it, and of the SIA’s licensing rules. Our keyholding and response service complies with BS 7984-1.

What should you check before you hire?

• Licences. Keyholders supplied under contract must hold an SIA licence.
• Response times. Ask for typical times to your area, at night as well as by day. If a keyholding company can’t attend within 20 minutes, the police’s requirements say you need other keyholders who can.
• Screening. Ask how the officers who hold your keys are screened. Our officers are screened to BS 7858 before they start.
• Insurance. Ask for proof of public and employers’ liability cover. We’ll send you our insurance certificate on request.