Keyholding & Vacant Property Services Northern Ireland
Advanced Overwatch provides keyholding and vacant property protection across Northern Ireland, holding your keys, attending out of hours alarm activations and keeping empty sites watched, secured and responded to on your behalf, 24 hours a day. We have been looking after property in Northern Ireland since 2017.
Thousands of premises secured since 2017
Who looks after the property when you are away?
Keyholding provides a named responder for your property. Vacant property protection starts with the risks facing the site and the security systems it needs while it stands empty.
Advanced Overwatch provides both services across Northern Ireland.
Plan around the property.
Property risks
Vacant properties are at heightened risk to unauthorised access, break-ins, arson, vandalism, theft, squatting and environmental damage. Should any of these threats occur, the results can be devastating, damage to your building, plunging property values, delayed building works and failed sale completion dates, all of which have major unwanted cost implications.
Protection options
The deployment of licensed security guards when required, alarm systems and other such security solutions can help diminish these risks and often prevent misuse and damage to these properties.
Our highly trained vacant property specialists are put in place so that we can provide expert advice and guidance 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We are happy to provide a free analysis to determine the probability and criticality of key risks e.g. Arson, Vandalism or Squatting.
Insurance
In addition, insurance premiums for long-term vacant properties can often be high unless those responsible can show they have taken a broad range of sensible precautions. Our guide to security for empty commercial property covers what changes when a building stands empty.
The first step is a free risk analysis for your site.
Connect the arrangements
for your site.
Keyholding usually sits on top of a system we already look after. See 24/7 security system monitoring for the monitoring side, intruder alarm installation across Northern Ireland for the detection, and CCTV rental systems where a site needs temporary cameras while it stands empty.
Keyholding and vacant property questions
What does a keyholding service actually cover?
We hold a set of your keys and act as the named responder for the property, so an out of hours alarm activation reaches our team rather than you or a member of your staff. We attend the site, deal with the activation and leave the building secure again. Empty sites are watched, secured and responded to on your behalf, 24 hours a day.
Who attends if the alarm activates out of hours?
Our own Coleraine team. Advanced Overwatch has been looking after property in Northern Ireland since 2017 and works from one office at Beresford House in Coleraine, so keyholding is handled by one local team rather than a franchise network. Vacant property specialists are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and licensed security guards can be deployed when a site needs them.
How quickly can you protect a property that has just become empty?
In most cases within hours. We start with a free risk analysis that weighs how likely and how serious the main threats are at that particular site, usually arson, vandalism and squatting. The security solutions we then recommend can be deployed rapidly and, in the majority of cases, are set up within hours. You decide which option is right for the property.
Does keyholding work with the alarm and CCTV already on the site?
Yes, and that is the usual arrangement. Keyholding normally sits on top of a system we already look after, so detection, monitoring and response are joined up rather than split between suppliers. Advanced Overwatch is SSAIB certificated (NIRE127) specifically for Intruder Alarm Systems, Visual Surveillance Systems (VSS) and Access Control Systems. Where a site has no permanent system, temporary CCTV can be brought in while it stands empty.
What are the main risks to a vacant property?
Empty buildings are at heightened risk of unauthorised access, break-ins, arson, vandalism, theft, squatting and environmental damage. Those knock-on effects carry the real cost: damage to the building, falling property values, delayed building works and sale completions that miss their date. A free risk analysis sets out which of those threats matters most at your site.
How much does keyholding and vacant property protection cost?
It depends on the size of the site, how long it is likely to stand empty and the level of cover it needs, so we give a fixed quote after a free survey rather than a list price. The free risk analysis comes first and carries no obligation. Insurance is worth weighing up too, because premiums on long term vacant property can be high unless you can show sensible precautions have been taken.
Protect an empty or out-of-hours site
Start with a free risk analysis for the property and discuss the protection it needs.
Established in 2017
- ISO 9001
- ISO 14001
- ISO 27001
- ISO 45001
Advanced Overwatch is SSAIB certificated (NIRE127) specifically for Intruder Alarm Systems, Visual Surveillance Systems (VSS) and Access Control Systems.