How to Choose a Property Guardian Scheme Provider

Start with the exposure you are buying down

A guardian arrangement responds to a defined risk, so define that risk first. On a site in the planning phase, it may be repeated break-ins and the clearance that follows. On a building under refurbishment, it may be stripped materials, an unsupervised site or insurance conditions that assume someone is in occupation. On a building awaiting disposal, it may be a buyer who walks away after finding squatters inside. A guide to vacant property insurance sets out how insurers tend to view empty buildings, which helps when you write your list.

If you already pay a security contractor, start there. A patrol checks the building at intervals. A person living in it is present at all hours and will notice a broken window in the night. These are different risks, and a written list will show which one your current contract covers and which it leaves open.

Ask who will be living in your building

Guardians are key workers and young professionals, and each one is vetted before placement. That is the start of the answer. Ask each provider how selection works, what the vetting covers, who makes the decision and what happens when a guardian breaks the agreed terms. A straight answer describes a process you could repeat to your board. Reassurance about the people involved does not.

Residents become a liability when selection and removal are weak, so removal deserves as much attention as entry. If a guardian is not right for the building, you need to know who decides and how that decision is carried out. A provider that cannot explain this is asking you to carry the occupancy risk on trust.

Check accreditation and independent scrutiny

Live-in Guardians is PGPA-accredited and places emphasis on safety compliance and independent audits. Treat that as the start of your own questions rather than the end. Ask any provider which accreditation it holds, which body audits it, how often that happens and whether you can see the outcome of the most recent audit. A finding from a body with no stake in the contract will carry more weight with a board than the provider's own account of its standards.

Read the audit questions alongside the vetting questions. If the audit covers the building but not who is selected to live in it, you only have half the picture. For background on how safety is handled for people living in these buildings, see is it safe to be a property guardian.

Understand the full fee structure

Compare what the owner pays with what the guardians pay, because the two sides are priced differently. Live-in Guardians charges owners no management fee, and guardians pay below-market rent for their accommodation in prime London locations. Other providers may structure things differently, so do not assume. Ask every provider to set out in writing each charge that falls on the owner, each charge that falls on the occupiers, and which of those can change during the arrangement.

Owner-side costs are where a saving can quietly disappear. Ask directly who pays for utilities, who bears the cost of repairs and whether reporting or site visits carry a charge. If a line is not written down before you sign, treat it as an unknown cost. To see what an empty building costs before any protection is applied, read the true cost of vacant commercial property and set those figures beside the provider's written schedule.

Test how the provider responds when something goes wrong

Ask who you call when there is a problem, how it is logged, how you are told and how you are kept informed until it is closed. Then ask the provider to describe that process step by step. A general promise of good service gives you nothing to check. A described process shows where things could stall.

Test it with a specific scenario: a water leak found on a Friday afternoon, or a neighbour reporting someone at a rear window. Who makes the first call, who attends and what do you receive afterwards? The answers show whether you keep control of the asset or spend your time chasing the provider for updates. The vacant property services we provide is a useful reference point for the range of work a provider should be able to describe.

Check the arrangement against your programme

Planning, refurbishment and disposal each run to different timelines, and none of them runs to plan. Ask how the arrangement starts and what must be in place before anyone moves in. Ask what happens if your programme shifts, whether that is a delayed planning decision, a contractor starting early or a sale that falls through.

Then ask how the building is returned when the phase ends, what condition it should be in and who signs it off. Agree the exit as carefully as the entry, because owners who cannot get a clear answer on exit tend to discover the terms only when they need to leave. For a provider that handles the whole arrangement, including day-to-day management, look at guardian property management and check how that work is described in the contract.

If you are holding a vacant building and want to see how this would work on your site, get in touch with Live-in Guardians to request a protection quote. Bring the risks you identified in the first section and your current programme, so the conversation starts from your building rather than a generic offer.