Estate and complex security, handled by one company

Estate security is all four layers of security working on one site, with a lot of people coming and going. DBS can cover each of them:

• Perimeter: an electric fence on the boundary wall, split into zones, and gate motors on the vehicle gates.
• Detection: CCTV on the entrance and the perimeter, and biometric readers on the pedestrian gates.
• Watching: 24-hour off-site monitoring of the fence zones and cameras.
• People: guards at the gate and on patrol, and criminal background checks on staff.

You don't have to take everything at once. An estate can start with the gate and the guards, then add the rest as the budget allows.

On a normal day, the boundary wall is quiet and the gate is busy. Residents, visitors, domestic workers, contractors, couriers and food deliveries all come through the same place, many of them several times a day. That's where the rules either hold or slip.

A good gate setup makes the right thing easy:

• Residents get in quickly, without queuing behind visitors.
• Visitors are expected, checked and recorded.
• Contractors and domestic workers are known, with access limited to the days and hours they work.
• Cars don't follow each other through on one opening.
• The guard knows the estate's rules and has the backing to apply them, even to a resident in a hurry.

Cameras at the gate keep a record of every vehicle and visitor, and biometric readers mean regular staff don't need a remote or a code that gets passed around.

Trustees often ask whether they can replace guards with cameras, or skip the cameras because there's a guard. In practice, they do different jobs.

A guard can stop a car, speak to a visitor, refuse entry and make a judgement call. Cameras can't do any of that, but they never look away, and they keep a record the guard can't. An electric fence split into zones tells the guard which stretch of wall to check, instead of the whole boundary. Off-site monitoring covers what a guard at the gate can't see from the booth, like the far corner of the estate at 03:00.

The right mix depends on the size of the estate, how busy the gate is and the budget. We'll show the board what each option covers, so the decision is based on the estate, not on what's easiest to sell.

Estate security decisions are made by a board, not one person, and they're paid for out of levies. We work with that:

• We walk the estate with the trustees or the managing agent before we quote.
• The quote is in writing and broken down by layer, so the board can see what each part does and decide what to start with.
• Changes to posts, hours or equipment are agreed with your contact person, not made quietly.
• If something isn't working, you speak to the owners, Pieter or Marco, not a call centre that changes every time you phone.

If the estate is changing from another security company, we plan the handover with your contact person, so the gate isn't left without cover between one company leaving and the next arriving.

We don't publish prices, because no two estates are alike. These are the things that change the quote:

• The number of gates, and whether they're for vehicles, pedestrians or both.
• The length of the perimeter wall and its condition.
• The number of units and how busy the gate is.
• Guard posts, hours and patrols.
• Existing equipment that can stay, and what needs replacing.
• Which layers the board wants now, and which later.

DBS Security is a family business with 25 years in the trade, owned and run by Pieter de Bruyn Jr and his son Marco. Get a free quote for estate security, or see the areas we cover.