Manned Guarding, Mobile Patrols Or Remote Monitoring: Comparing Vacant Property Security Options

The right vacant property security keeps your insurance valid and your building in the condition you left it, ready for your next tenant or buyer to move in with no issues.

The wrong choice leaves you paying for cover you don’t need, or finding out about break-ins days after they’ve happened.

Once you’ve decided you need support, your next step is choosing from the vacant property security options available.

That’s harder than it sounds, because your main options work in different ways, at different costs.

What Each Vacant Property Security Option Involves

Every vacant property can benefit from the same physical barriers, whether that’s steel screens or boarding over windows and other access points, secure locks on doors, perimeter fencing and removing any valuables.

The security services below are layers added on top to protect your vacant commercial property against trespass, squatting, theft, vandalism, arson and accidental fire.

Manned Guarding

Manned guarding puts an SIA-licensed officer on your site, keeping your vacant property secure with a constant, visible presence that can deter criminals.

Our officers are vetted to BS7858 standards and go through strict background and right-to-work checks.

Their duties include patrolling your building, dealing with disturbances, setting and resetting alarms, keeping patrol logs and carrying out regular inspections.

Because someone’s there every hour you’re covered, officers need welfare facilities (heating, lighting and a working toilet), so that’s a consideration for whether this option is viable.

And UK health and safety regulations on workplace welfare still apply when your building is empty.

Mobile Patrols

With mobile patrols, an officer (either on foot or in a marked vehicle) visits your property on a set schedule or at random times, so nobody watching can predict the next visit.

Each vacant property security patrol checks your perimeter is secure, as well as inside your building, logs what’s found (broken windows, vandalism, forced access) and can attend alarms or provide a lock and unlock service for your contractors.

Our patrols are coordinated from our National Operations Centre 24/7/365 with additional options like RFID check-ins to prove our officers attended on schedule and followed your agreed route.

Remote Monitoring

Remote monitoring covers cameras and monitored alarm systems watched from a control room, with an officer sent out when an alarm is verified. At ProFM Group, our NOC monitors these systems around the clock.

For vacant properties in remote locations or those with no mains power, CCTV towers are solar-powered so can provide cover for these types of property.

VPOD alarm systems are visually verified wireless intruder alarms, when they’re triggered, the operator sees images and knows whether it’s intruders or a false alarm before anyone’s sent to your site.

How The Three Options Compare For Vacant Property Security

Choosing security for vacant property comes down to these questions:

• What can you spend?
• How fast does someone need to arrive?
• Whether your building has power and facilities
• What your insurer needs to see
• How long it’ll be empty and how exposed it is to crime

Which Is The Most Cost-Effective Option?

CCTV towers and VPODs are usually the lowest cost options, because you’re not paying for a person to be on site.

Patrol costs scale with how often an officer visits, so a nightly patrol costs more than a weekly inspection.

Constant manned guarding costs the most, since you’re paying for every hour covered.

We’d recommend pricing each option with the response service included, rather than comparing monitoring fees on their own.

Which Gives Your Insurer The Evidence It Needs?

All three can, so this can usually come down to the reliability of the reporting you get from visits or inspections.

There’s no industry standard, but UK insurers tend to treat empty premises as unoccupied buildings after 30 days.

After that, your cover can be restricted or excesses raised.

Insurance providers may also ask about specifics for your unoccupied property, like:

• how often it’s inspected
• what fire or security alarm is fitted
• whether there’s CCTV
• whether a security firm patrols it

Your own insurance policy decides what’s needed to stay compliant, so check it against what insurers ask about security at your vacant property.

Combining Options As Your Property’s Needs Change

The three options work best as layers, with monitoring forming the base for most empty buildings, patrols carrying out inspections and attending alarms, and guarding stepping in after an incident, during a handover or ahead of demolition.

We’d advise reviewing your security mix whenever your building’s status changes (a new tenant signing, a sale agreed or demolition scheduled), since that’s when your risk of theft and squatting changes.

Good vacant property protection rarely stays the same for long, so the way you manage and protect a building should change with it.

ProFM Group can scale your security up or down across the life of a project, so you’re never locked into one level of cover after the risk has moved on.

Flexible Vacant Property Security With ProFM Group

Most empty buildings don’t need a provider ready to change when your risk changes.

That’s far easier with one partner providing all three security services.

When an alarm triggers at 3am and the NOC, patrol and keyholder all answer to the same team, nothing falls between suppliers.

Our NOC monitors CCTV towers and VPODs 24/7/365, our officers are SIA-licensed and vetted to BS7858, and we hold SIA Approved Contractor status and NSI Gold certification.

If you’d like to talk through the right protection for securing your vacant property, call us on 0808 501 5332