Should you have a key-holding contract?

Welcome to another blog entry here at Meridional. Have you ever been afraid that something might happen in your holiday property, either in another municipality or abroad, and that you won't be there? For these problems there is a solution, key holding.

There are companies, usually security companies, that provide this service both to other companies and to individuals. This service consists, as the name suggests, of the company keeping a copy of the keys to your property in case of any inconvenience.

You don't need to be afraid to leave the keys with this type of company, they are usually reliable and reputable. Despite this, it is very important that you read the contract you sign to know what they can and cannot do with the keys to your property.

But why should I hire this service?

The main reason for you to contract a key safekeeping service would be peace of mind, as this service is usually provided as an extra when contracting alarms. For this reason, it is advisable that both services are contracted together, as this way, the security company will have more power to act in case of any unforeseen event.

In addition, one of the services that can be associated with this key safekeeping service, and which is usually very interesting, is the "Acuda" service. Thanks to this service, a security guard can travel to your property in the event of an alarm going off or any other unforeseen event. This is very useful when you are not near the home in question.

In which cases can a key safekeeping and alarm system be useful for me?

This service can be very useful if your secondary or holiday home is far away, be it in another province, community or country, or if it is usually empty for a long period of time.

This key safekeeping, together with the security system and the on-call service, can be used in the following cases:

• If the alarm is triggered at your home, a security guard can check the state of your home after prior authorisation. If the property has been burgled, the police can be called to collect evidence and file a report. All this can be done even if you are not present.
  
• It guarantees the opening and closing of your home to people you allow (cleaning service, repair service...) always under the surveillance of a security agent and video surveillance cameras.
  
• If you suffer an attempted occupation of your home, these services facilitate and speed up police action. By having cameras and keys, it can be proven that it has been a break-in despite not being close to your property.
  
• In the event of a breakdown in your home, for example a water leak, you can authorise the security company to enter and thus avoid major problems for the rest of your neighbours.
  
• If there is a risk of fire in your home or the fire starts in your home, the company that holds the keys could facilitate the entry of the fire brigade.
  
• Another problem you may have is forgetting your keys at home or losing them. Before calling a locksmith, if you have contracted this service, with a simple call you could solve the problem. This is the main report that companies have with this service.
  

How to contract the alarm and key safekeeping service?

If you are convinced by the benefits of having a key holding service in conjunction with a security system to protect your property, you need to follow the steps below:

• Security study of your home: First of all, a security specialist will ask you a series of questions over the phone about the characteristics of your home and your needs or preferences. If necessary, the specialist will carry out an on-site study to see the peculiarities of your home and the weak points to be covered.

• Alarm budget: Once the study has been carried out, all that remains is to determine the devices and services you want in order to draw up the budget. This is where you should request the key-holding service and the service to come to you for greater coverage and peace of mind. At this point they will calculate the final price broken down according to the devices and services you have selected.
  
• Contract to sign: Once you have the budget in hand, it is time to decide whether to sign with the security company or not. Don't forget to read the contract carefully and even more so under the heading of key safekeeping, asking any questions you consider appropriate.
  
• Installation of the security system: Finally, an authorised installer will install the entire security system. This is usually done in the same week that you sign the contract.
  

Conclusions

As you can see, we recommend that the key holding service is contracted in conjunction with an alarm system. We believe that these two services complement each other very well in situations such as those described above, especially in the event of burglary, break-ins... etc. All this means that you have total control over your property, with the peace of mind that this entails no matter how far away you are from it.

To conclude this article, we recommend that you contract these services with specialised and reputable companies. In addition, it is important that you find out if they have a key safekeeping service, as not all of them do.  

We hope this article has helped you to see if you need or not to have this type of services, from Meridional we want your property to be as safe as possible. Also if you want to protect your home even more, here you have an entry about home insurance that can help you.