FAQ

We provide a range of services for both residential and commercial customers. Our Key Holding and Alarm Response customers can expect a trained officer to attend any alarm activations or disturbances throughout the day and night. Upon arrival, they will follow the procedures we have in place such as calling the emergency services or arranging out of hours repairs to your premises. Before leaving the property, our licensed operatives will re-secure the premises and a comprehensive report will be shared with you shortly after the disturbance to provide details of the situation including all of the actions taken by our team.

WSS provide peace of mind to both residential and commercial clients, having gained experience in providing Key Holding and Alarm Response services to a range of businesses and individuals.

WSS provide peace of mind to both residential and commercial clients, having gained experience in providing Key Holding and Alarm Response services to a range of businesses and individuals. It’s straightforward to get started. Once you have decided which services you require, simply get in touch using our online form. A member of our team will arrange a convenient time to carry out an initial consultation at your premises, during which we will agree on the procedures you would like our operatives to follow in the event of an alarm activation. We will also agree a schedule so you can know when to expect our team to lock and unlock your premises or carry out mobile patrols of the area.  WSS provide peace of mind to both residential and commercial clients, having gained experience in providing Key Holding and Alarm Response services to a range of businesses and individuals.

Yes, all of our officers are Security Industry Authorised (SIA) licensed to BS7984 standards for the provision of Key Holding. They have also been CRB/DBS checked and vetted intensively to BS7858 standard which entails: 

• Confirmation of right to work in the UK
• SIA Licence confirmation
• 5 or 10 year career history verification
• Verification of any career gap in excess of 31 days
• Verified written character reference
• Financial Public Record check for CCJs, insolvency, bankruptcy or IVAs

WSS is a year-round operation and we ensure that our highly trained security operatives are available throughout. From the dead of night through to peak times such as Christmas and New Year, we will respond to any incidents with great haste and professionalism. 

The key holder of a property must have the ability to respond to any alarm activations and visit the premises in-person within at least 20 minutes. Failure to attend the property on more than three occasions could seriously impact upon your business as the police will withdraw their response for the premises, branding your alarm as nothing more than a nuisance! This is bad enough but now consider the legislation surrounding Corporate Manslaughter. Changes to the law have affected company Directors and Line Managers, who must now ensure that staff who are responsible for responding to alarm activations out of hours are fully trained and prepared to deal with any potential security breach at the premises. 

Even if your company has CCTV monitoring or a similar system in place, an authorised key holder will still be required to attend the premises in the event of any alarm activations or intrusions. CCTV is a useful tool for determining whether a property has been broken in to and can later be used by the police force to identify suspects however, CCTV alone may not deter criminal activity and certainly won’t ensure that the premises are left secure again following an incident! The lack of a dedicated key holder or failure of the key holder to attend more than three alarm activations could result in increased insurance premiums and may even affect the time it takes for the police to attend your premises in future. 

It is possible that your alarm could be branded a nuisance if you fail to respond to activations on more than three occasions. If your local council can prove the alarm to be a nuisance by law, then they have the authority to serve a Noise Abatement Notice to your business or home. They may be required to break into your premises and disconnect the alarm if it is causing a nuisance. Fortunately, they will re-secure the premises for you by changing the locks however, your will be charged for their time and resources. Failure to comply with a Noise Abatement Notice is a criminal offence and could lead to prosecution. If guilty, you may be liable to pay a hefty fine of up to £5,000 for residential property and as much as £20,000 for commercial premises. 

We require just one set of keys to enable us to access your property. This set of keys will be tested during our first visit to your site where we will also gather any other relevant information such as alarm codes and access controls. 

We will keep your keys in full compliance of BS7984 standard for the provision of Key Holding. All keys are tagged electronically so that they are identifiable to our team but contain no reference to your property or address. Your keys will be stored in a highly secure safe at our headquarters although each of our mobile response vehicles also contains a heavy-duty safe to ensure the security of your keys during transit. 

Setting up or moving key holding service to WSS is usually a straightforward process which can be completed in just a few days depending on your current key holding arrangements.

Upon completion of our initial consultation and site visit, we will agree a start date with you. Once we have an agreed start date, simply email your current alarm company to inform them that WSS will be your primary, authorised Key Holder from that date forward. We will also provide you with contact details for our control room which can be shared with your alarm company.

We cannot guarantee a response time as certain factors are outside of our control such as the level of traffic congestion or road closures. We can however, guarantee that our highly trained operatives will respond immediately to your alarm activation. Our team members operate in different areas throughout the day so we can ensure that a Security Officer will be in the vicinity and ready to take action if your alarm is activated, responding to the threat without delay.

We cannot guarantee a response time as certain factors are outside of our control such as the level of traffic congestion or road closures. We can however, guarantee that our highly trained operatives will respond immediately to your alarm activation. Our team members operate in different areas throughout the day so we can ensure that a Security Officer will be in the vicinity and ready to take action if your alarm is activated, responding to the threat without delay. We will not usually need to contact any members of staff outside of your usual hours of operation as most alarm activations we attend are false alarms or low-risk threats which can be resolved swiftly. There will however, be occasions where the situation requires us to contact a member of staff outside of working hours. In these instances, our highly trained operatives will work with the member of staff to follow agreed procedures and we will prepare a report to summarise the details of the incident. We cannot guarantee a response time as certain factors are outside of our control such as the level of traffic congestion or road closures. We can however, guarantee that our highly trained operatives will respond immediately to your alarm activation. Our team members operate in different areas throughout the day so we can ensure that a Security Officer will be in the vicinity and ready to take action if your alarm is activated, responding to the threat without delay.