Keyholding Services
Every out-of-hours alarm activation forces a decision: send a director or manager to check it themselves, call the police and hope someone attends, or hand the problem to a professional keyholder. Anubis Group’s keyholding and alarm response service means you’re never the one getting the call at 3am.
This page covers how keyholding actually works, what happens when an alarm goes off, why most businesses find it cheaper than handling it internally once everything is accounted for, and who typically uses the service.
What keyholding replaces
Without a keyholding contract, the job of opening up, locking down, or responding to an alarm usually falls to whoever happens to be closest, willing, or least able to say no. That’s rarely the safest or most efficient answer, and it puts an unfair burden on employees who aren’t trained or paid for security work. Keyholding services are commonly used by businesses, landlords, and sometimes homeowners.
How our keyholding service and secure access works
Your keys or access codes are held securely in a secure facility under strict chain-of-custody procedures, stored in individually sealed pouches without site references and protected with a coded numerical security seal. Access to keys is limited to SIA-licensed personnel only. From there, our mobile officers can:
- Open and close your premises to a fixed daily or weekly schedule, including support for your business premises opening or closing routine.
- Attend on request outside normal hours, for example if a manager is unexpectedly unavailable.
- Provide access to contractors, cleaners or delivery drivers when nobody from your own team is available.
- Carry out routine checks of the property each time they open or close, flagging anything that looks wrong.
How alarm response actually works
Alarm response is where this service earns its keep. Here’s what happens step by step, with alarm response services running 24/7, 365 days a year:
- An alarm activates and is picked up by your monitoring provider, which alerts our 24-hour control room.
- The nearest of our security officers already on patrol, or the on-call keyholding officer, is dispatched to attend as part of our alarm response services.
- In the event of an alarm, the officer attends, conducts checks to assess the situation and any security issues, and determines whether the activation is genuine or false.
- The officer reports back to control with their findings.
- If it’s a genuine event, the officer and control act immediately and coordinate emergency response as needed.
- You receive a full written incident report covering what was found, what action was taken, and the time of each step.
Because response is coordinated through a control room rather than a single individual driving over from home, response times are generally faster and more consistent than an ad hoc internal arrangement.
Response teams aim to arrive within one hour of an alarm activation, depending on contract and location.
Why hand this to a professional keyholder
- Nobody on your team gets asked to attend site alone, late at night, for what might just be a false alarm, giving you more peace of mind through professional keyholding.
- A trained, licensed officer provides a rapid response and professional response faster than most internal keyholders can manage from home.
- Every access and every callout is logged, which matters for insurance claims and compliance audits, and many insurance providers offer reduced premiums for businesses using accredited keyholding services because it demonstrates stronger security practices.
- It helps protect employees and premises by removing a genuine safety and liability risk from staff who didn’t sign up for security work.
Monitoring and alarm types we respond to
Not every alarm is the same, and our control room handles each type differently as part of wider security services and tailored security solutions:
- Intruder alarms: the most common trigger for a keyholding callout, checked visually and, where fitted, against CCTV before an officer commits to a full site check at commercial premises.
- Fire alarms: officers attend and liaise directly with the fire service where a genuine activation is confirmed, helping keep the business secure rather than waiting for staff to travel to site.
- Panic and personal attack alarms: treated as a priority dispatch, since these are triggered by a person on site rather than an automated sensor.
Where a site already has CCTV, our control room can review footage alongside the alarm signal before dispatching to support an effective response and reduce unnecessary attendances. See our CCTV Installation & Services page if you don’t yet have cameras in place.
Keyholding compared with other cover
Keyholding is often the right security solution on its own, but it’s worth understanding where it sits alongside other services.
| Service | What it covers | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Keyholding & alarm response | Scheduled access and reactive attendance when an alarm triggers | Sites with a monitored alarm and no need for a permanent presence |
| Mobile patrol | Scheduled, unpredictable patrol visits throughout the night | Larger or multi-site premises needing visible deterrence and routine checks |
| Static manned guarding | A continuous physical presence on site | High-risk or high-value sites needing round-the-clock cover |
Keyholding and alarm response works well as a standalone contract, or alongside our mobile patrol service if your site also needs scheduled patrol visits, or our manned guarding and static security service if you need a permanent presence during the day and broader response services.
Who uses keyholding and alarm response
Retailers managing multiple sites, offices with no overnight staff, warehouses and distribution centres, and construction sites are the most common business users of this service across multiple sectors. It’s also one of the most cost-effective ways to cover out-of-hours risk, including vacant property checks for sites left unoccupied, for logistics and warehouse operations and retail premises without paying for a static guard overnight.
A typical alarm activation callout in practice
A retail unit’s intruder alarm activates at 2am. The monitoring company confirms the signal and alerts our control room with the site address. The nearest mobile officer, already on a scheduled patrol route nearby, is redirected and attends the business premises within minutes rather than the hour or more it might take a manager driving from home to secure access and protect the property. The officer checks the shutters, the rear access door and the stockroom, finds a faulty sensor rather than a break-in, resets the alarm, and logs the visit. You get a written report the next morning, and the manager who would otherwise have lost a night’s sleep gets peace as well as never getting the call at all.
What's typically included in a contract
- Secure storage of a spare key or access credentials under a documented chain of custody.
- A defined opening and closing schedule, agreed in advance.
- 24-hour alarm response through our own control room as part of a professional keyholding service, not a third-party call centre.
- A written incident report for every attendance.
- Regular review of response times and callout patterns, so recurring false alarms get investigated rather than just repeatedly answered.
- Keyholding services protect over 1200 locations in the UK.
Pricing and how quotes work
Keyholding and alarm response contracts are priced according to the number of sites, the business risk, and the response time required. For typical UK market rates, see our guide, How Much Do Security Guards Cost in the UK?, or contact us directly to discuss the right keyholding solution for your site.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the alarm turns out to be false?
Our officer still attends, checks the premises, and reports back, and this is logged the same way as a genuine callout. Once checks are complete, the officer can reset the alarm, and persistent false alarms are flagged so the underlying cause, whether that’s a faulty sensor or a procedural issue, can be addressed.
Do you hold keys for multiple sites under one contract?
Yes. Multi-site keyholding is common for retail and logistics clients, and pricing is usually structured per site with a combined response arrangement.
Can you grant access to contractors without us being there?
Yes, this is one of the most common uses of the service. Access is logged, and officers can provide access under the agreed rules you set in advance for who is permitted entry and when.
Is keyholding cheaper than a static overnight guard?
Usually, yes, for sites that don’t need a continuous physical presence at commercial premises. Keyholding and alarm response is priced for occasional attendance rather than round-the-clock cover, which is why it suits monitored-alarm sites so well.
What if we already have an alarm monitoring company?
That’s normal. Your monitoring company detects and verifies the alarm signal; we provide the physical response, the officer who actually attends site, as part of broader security solutions. The two services work together rather than duplicating each other.
How quickly will someone attend if my alarm goes off?
Response time depends on your contract and the location of the nearest mobile officer. This is agreed and documented before the contract starts, and the contract sets expectations for an effective response while our control room logs actual attendance times against it.
Get a quote
Call 0800 121 6576 or email sales@anubis-security.com to discuss security services for your premises and how they help protect your business, or get in touch through our contact page for a free, no-obligation quote.