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ApnaComplex
January 20, 2011

The Importance Of Apartment Complex Home Security Systems

An apartment complex is one of the secure locations that you can live in, as any well organized apartment complex will have professional security guards placed strategically near the gates and within the complex. This strong emphasis on security may negate the need for further measures, but it’s any day better to be safe than sorry. Crime rates in India are rising, and according to unvalidated reports, a burglary occurs every 14 seconds.

Make their work harder!

Steps That You Should Take

You can beef up your security by installing various home security devices and systems, so that nothing untoward happens out of the blue. Many homeowners are opting for such security devices and systems because they are widely available now and are quite affordable as well. When it comes to security systems for an apartment complex, you can either opt for indoor home security systems or outdoor home security systems, depending on your apartment’s placement and your personal preferences.

If you already have a security system, ensure it is not an outdated system installed, you must understand that burglars have come a long way with regards to technology, and it won’t take them long to dismantle your system or get past it using some loophole in the system.

Some of the systems that are popular are:

Spy Holes – A spy hole is one of the oldest, cheapest and most effective security tools, and this should be installed in all the houses in the apartment complex.
Door Sensors/Window Sensors – This is a contact sensor system that is magnetic in nature. Its main advantage is the fact that it is wireless and can be installed in any door and window. You can turn on this system whenever you’re not at home or during nighttime and during this time, if any doors or windows are opened, a siren will immediately activate and bring down the house while also alerting the monitoring station.
Wireless Alarm Systems – True to their name, these systems are wireless and operate through radio signals. These systems will continue to run even if there’s a power shutdown and all other appliances are switched off, and this is their biggest advantage.
Occupancy Sensors – You can install an occupancy sensor if you have an extended budget, as this is one of the prime security devices. This device will detect movements and sense the presence of human occupants within its range. You can turn this sensor on whenever you leave home, and upon sensing intruders, it’ll immediately alert the monitoring station and turn on all the lights in the house so that the burglar can’t hide.
Heat/Smoke Detectors – Your home security systems should not only cover break-ins, but should also comprehensively cover other risks such as fire breakouts. Smoke detectors can help in this regard, as these systems will trigger off an alarm upon detecting any kind of smoke. The system will also alert you immediately through its control panel, and it comes with a 24-hour power backup facility.

Burglars usually survey an apartment complex before they strike and they normally pick out a house that poses the least amount of risks. With the help of a comprehensive home security systems, you can make their task hard, and make your complex safe.

ApnaComplex is a web based apartment management software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by brining in more transaparency and accountability in manging the complex. Sign up your complex today and get the benefits!

This article aims at collating and providing information for benefit of ApnaComplex customers and blog readers. While ApnaComplex has taken every care to ensure the information is accurate, we suggest to please use it only as a guidance for further discussion and action with help of relevant professionals. If you need professional advise on this topic and any other property related matters, please send your request through our contact us form. You may post your questions/inputs in the Comments section below and we will try and get them answered through relevant subject matter experts.

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ApnaComplex
January 6, 2011

Apartment Complex Safety – How To Protect Your Kids From Mishaps

Apartment complexes are vast structures, and it can be hard to monitor what’s going on at any given point of time. Apartment complex safety has always been an important issue, and the need for safety measures is always there.

Why Apartment Complex Safety Is Primary

There’s been a collection shift in the urban lifestyle, and people are not moving into spaces like an apartment complex rather than opting for individual houses due to a general lack of space. While there are many advantages that living in an apartment complex can bring, apartment complex safety is something that you should always keep an eye out for.

Kids, especially, have a habit of throwing caution to the winds due to their inherent excitement and curiosity, and this can prove fatal unless proper steps are taken.

Moreover, many apartment complexes don’t have separate play areas where kids can get together and have fun, and for this reason, many kids end up playing in potentially dangerous areas like the terrace and on the roads.

Ensuring that your kids are safe during your stint in an apartment complex can be quite hard, but you’ll need to take up the responsibility of managing their daily activities.

An Open Window Can Spell Major Safety Trouble in an Apartment Complex

How You Can Do It

There are many steps that you can easily follow, so that no mishaps occur during your stay in an apartment complex.

Ensure that your kids are under your supervision whenever they’re within the complex. You can teach your kids the importance of being safe, and you can subtly highlight the dangers that can occur so that they take it seriously.
Talk to the members of your apartment association and ensure that the terrace has safety nets and proper iron railings. The terrace should ideally have a parapet wall that’s more than 1.5 meters in height, and the iron railings can be provided on top of this.
The access doors that lead to the terrace should be kept closed and locked at all times. The apartment association can grant keys to every family, and parents should ensure that these keys are kept out of their kids’ reach.
Separate play areas for kids can be created in a very safe space where they’ll be exposed to minimum dangers. This will dissuade kids from playing in other open spaces, including parking lots and roads. Make sure that your kids don’t end up playing in the balcony on any account.
Iron railings can be placed in balconies as well so that people (not just kids!) don’t rest or sit on the balcony wall.
Install window guards if your flat is located anywhere above the first floor. You can get window guards for your home easily as they are available in all hardware stores.

You can also get the apartment security personnel to closely watch all kids when they’re not accompanied by adults in any particular section of the apartment complex. These safety measures are necessary in all apartment complexes, and they need to be strictly followed.

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ApnaComplex
December 8, 2010

The Benefits Of Hiring An Apartment Security Agency

An apartment security agency can solve more than half your worries, and how!

Apartment security has been quintessentially ignored, as people hardly realize the gravity of having proper security measures in place for apartments. There are many common problems that can be noted in most apartments as members of the apartment association realize the fact that they need the services of a professional apartment security agency a little too late.

Security Is the Key to Safety in Apartments

Common Mistakes

A common attitude that many people in apartment associations and resident welfare committees share is that apartment security does not require the involvement of professional and trained men. This fact cannot be more wrong.

Association members who believe that making mistakes is the only path to learning will often pay a price for their negligence, as improper security measures will often bring about distrust and suspicion in the minds of the residents.

The whole idea about living as a community is learning to co-exist in peace and harmony, and this dreamy glass wall will be shattered when any physical damage or loss is caused due to negligence in the security’s part or also due to lack of proper security.

Why battle suits from unsatisfied residents and live in a perennial state of unrest, when apartment security agencies can provide an instant solution for all your security worries?

Why Sudden Fixes Don’t Work

Many apartment associations also resort to sudden decisions like hiring a patrol service temporarily. This may keep out all vandals and troublemakers, but this is just a temporary solution and not a long term solution. Hiring an apartment security agency can provide a long term solution with benefits, as professional security men will develop a bond with the residents of the apartment complex over time, thus taking up more responsibility.

Looking for a security agency to secure your apartment complex?
Check out Marketplace from ApnaComplex and request for quotations from multiple security service agencies at the click of a button.

Apartment Security Agency – The Benefits

Any apartment should have a detailed security plan and a procedure that all security units in the apartment should follow. A comprehensive plan will contribute a lot towards reducing criminal activity in the region to nonexistent levels from minimal proportions. There are many benefits to hiring a professional security agency, and some of this is monetary too.

Just think of the amount of money that you can save, which will otherwise be spent on maintaining and repairing infrastructure affected by acts of vandalism. Residents will also be content, and overall occupancy will significantly increase.

Other key benefits of hiring an apartment security agency are:

Guards from an apartment security agency will be well trained, and many guards will come in shifts.
These guards will maintain detailed logs on the activities that occur in and around the complex and will patrol through the complex all through the night.
These apartment security agencies will also compensate for any loss of infrastructure that occurs due to their negligence.
All guards from an apartment security agency will be well equipped, with flashlights, tactical pens, and many modes of communication (pagers, cell phones, landline connections) and in some cases, arms and ammunition.

These are some of the advantages of hiring professional guards, over hiring temporary patrolmen who serve no purpose at all. Every apartment association should conduct a search on the best agencies and choose one among these for hire.

ApnaComplex is an apartment managment software. We are offering a 30-day no obligation free trial for every complex. Go ahead and register your complex and see how you can manage your complex more easily, efficiently, and effectively.

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ApnaComplex
October 29, 2010

Apartment Association Security Tips – What to expect from an Apartment Security Agency?

Every Apartment Owners Association has a permanent headache: The Right Apartment Security Agency.

Finding the right apartment security agency for your community is very important, as proper security is one of the primary concerns that people look into, when moving into an apartment complex. Apartments are relatively safe to live in, as people reside well within accessible distances from each other, but adequate security measures should always be taken in order to avoid any slip ups or mishaps.

There are many facets involved in filtering out the best apartment security agency, and these are quite easy to follow and implement. Once you properly list out and analyze your expectations from an apartment security agency, you will well be on your way to finding the right one.

Looking for a security agency to gaurd your apartment complex?
Check out supplier database from ApnaComplex and request for quotations from multiple security agencies at the click of a button.

#1- Proper Background Check

Every Apartment Association must think of the security guard as an extended member of the apartment community. Wouldn’t you like to trust your security with someone who is well qualified, with all the necessary credentials?

This is why an apartment owner’s association needs to do a routine and comprehensive background check on every applicant. While contracting security guards, make sure you keep an eye out for off duty policemen, because they’ll have a lot of experience in the field. It is important to have security guards on the rolls, who have prior experience doing night duty, patrolling and log maintenance.

Go through their profiles; see the amount of experience they have garnered over the years, see how adept they are at tackling tricky situations and hire them based on all these points. You can ask the security agency to do this for you, but you’ll need to follow up with them regularly. If the agency does not have these profiles or make them available to the Apartment Association, then it is definitely advisable to move to the next agency.

Who you should not hire!

#2 – The Importance Of Effective Equipment

An apartment security agency will provide all guards with a pager, but this will hardly be effective in helping the guard take immediate action.

You’ll need to include a section in the contract demanding that all guards from the agency should be properly equipped with radios, cell phones, flashlights, notebooks, pens (tactical or combat ones) and vehicles. Providing the security guard with a list of emergency contacts and a phone line will also prove useful. Dress code and attire/uniform is also extremely important. Security guards need to have an aura of confidence and authority, and shabby people do not exude that, however big their moustaches may be.

This will make things a lot easier for the guard supervisor in an emergency situation, but increase confidence and bring relief to the welfare association and the residential community as well.

Ex-policemen and ex-servicemen make great apartment gaurds!

Ex-policemen make great apartment guards!

#3 – Maintaining A Log

Asking your guard to maintain a log of his activities is a very good way of keeping track of your guard’s productivity. This should be properly and clearly mentioned in the contract as mandatory.

Anyone can maintain a log in a generic way, writing abrupt entries like:

“10 PM to 11 PM – Roads are clean. No sign of trouble.”

This should be avoided as far as possible. Entries like these will hardly help you keep track of what your guard’s been up to. Mention in the contract that the entries in a log should be more detailed. A sample would be:

10 PM: Checked the south-side gate, generator room, swimming pool entrance and toilets. All locks intact.

10.10 PM: A black Maruti, Number plate: XYZ has been allowed into the complex, heading up towards Block C. Signed an entry to meet Mr. Kishore, apartment no. 392. Sent two security personnel to escort him to Mr. Kishore’s apartment. Awaiting response and confirmation from guards via walkie talkie from Apartment 392, C Block.

Entries likes these will help during a post mortem analysis too, if there’s been a problem and all instances and clues need to be brought onboard.

#4 – Contract Issues

Apart from the above mentioned clauses in the contract, you will need to make sure that through the contract, the guard or the agency should be held responsible for any losses that occur due to negligence on his/their part. This will provide you with indemnity, and will make the guard take his role even more seriously. This will also increase the commitment of the agency involved.

Certain contracts may also have an indemnity clause that works in the favour of the security agency, so every apartment association keep an eye out for such lines.

Good security guards are a necessity for any apartment complex that touts of being a safe haven for its residents. Get the insights of every person from your apartment association while framing certain clauses of your contract, and once an agency has been selected, open all channels of communication between the residents and the guards in order to make things smoother and easier for both parties.