Norfolk House Sitters - Professional & Friendly

Colin Hall (Frontline Ops), Beverley Hall (Accounts) & Spencer Jackson (Sales, Marketing & Support Ops) are Norfolk's newest House Sitting Service. Combining Respectful Service, Professional Industry Qualifications and High Tech Security Equipment, we feel that our carefully designed house sitting services are perfect for anyone who is leaving their home for any length of time and is concerned with maintaining security while they are away. Why not contact us to discuss your particular Norfolk house sitting requirements?

Introduction - Added Insurance for your Home

House Protectors are a new, small and fresh house sitting service that aims to raise the quality bar within this growing industry. Our professional house sitting service is specifically designed to offer protection to countryside properties which do not have overlooking neighbours and therefore are vulnerable to burglary when the property is left empty. Please read on and please feel free to call us for if anything is unclear.

Norfolk House Sitting Services

As with many growing industries, house sitting seems to be undergoing a distinct move towards a more professional service. Times have changed during the last 15 years, house prices have risen and the need to protect property and possessions has become a real concern for all home owners. Some security firms have modified their services to accommodate the need for a more professional house sitting service, yet there always seems to be some compromise between the hours of active service possible for an affordable fee. At House Protectors we hope to offer a house sitting service that raises both the quality of service and the level of cover for our clients.

Although the main purpose of a house sitter is to maintain the occupancy of a property, many times the house sitters will live as they would normally at home. Casual house sitters may come and go during the day, visiting the shops and exploring the surrounding area. Professional house sitting services may only provide actual cover for a set amount of hours per day and rely on their physical presence to dissuade intruders from attempting to trespass on your property.

A security focused house sitter should be onsite for the full duration of the contract, providing obvious signs of continual occupancy to deter any opportunistic passers-by from entering. They should be patrolling, checking perimeters and there should be measures in place to draw the attention of the security operative, even during comfort breaks and sleeping hours.

There should be backup plans for walking pets, shopping for supplies and other necessary absences that still leave the property occupied.

We feel that our house sitting services offer more cover than other professional providers and more value than casual house sitters:

Colin Hall ( Frontline Security Operative )

Colin holds an HABC (Highfield Awarding Body for Compliance) Level 2 Award in Security Guarding and an SIA Security Guarding Licence for Frontline Security Operatives in the UK. Colin is also holds a current Criminal Record Certificate in accordance with sections 113A & 114 of the Police Act 1997.

At 45 years of age, Colin has a long working history of providing security for shopping centres, leisure industry sites (night clubs, restaurants and sports) and private residences. Colin's training covers a variety of building security issues including conflict management, assessing and planning the safe protection of property and grounds, trespasser removal, incident reporting techniques and all manner of other building security skills.

With long experience of CCTV operations, Conflict Management and Building Security, Colin is the ideal house sitter for your property. Working with his wife Beverley, they offer the professional standards of a high end private security service along with the friendly house-sitting services provided historically by couples.

The protection of the home of a client presents several important priorities to the house sitting specialist. Colin is acutely aware of the importance of preserving his client's privacy, as well as protecting the security of the home and property within. By hiring House Protectors to care for your property you can rest assured that we will protect your property, privacy and peace of mind at all times.

As House Protectors grows we will be adding to our frontline staff, but during our early growth period Colin & Beverley will be your house sitters. Their maturity, professionalism and self control makes them the ideal house sitters for medium to large house sitting designations.

Colin is also available to hire for holiday and sickness cover for your security staff - Please follow this link for more information.

To contact Colin directly please feel free to email: colin@houseprotectors.co.uk

Beverley Hall ( Business Services )

Beverley is our secret weapon when it comes to house sitting for our business owning clients. Whether you are breaking for a holiday or travelling abroad on business it is always a chore to manage your paperwork, appointments and accounts while you are away.

Beverley is an FIAB licensed bookkeeper with over 13 years of bookkeeping experience and a further 10 years experience in PA / Secretarial. She has managed accounts and administration for a variety of companies ranging from large complicated partnerships to sole traders.

While away from your desk you can rest assured that you will be kept informed of all important issues, while being free from the drudgery of dealing with the telephone calls, the post and payment chasing etc.

In addition to working for many years for other businesses, Beverley has 3 years experience in running her own successful bookkeeping business. She has received praise from her peers in industry magazines, she has built a large contact list which is essential when building a business and, above all, she has achieved all this while building trusting relationships with her clients.

Professionalism, Trustworthiness and Loyalty are the main attributes that Beverley brings to our high end house sitting team.

Beverley's administrative services are available to all of our business clients at very reasonable rates. We usually find that we can include these services into our basic house sitting charge (less than 2 hours per day).

To discuss these services in more depth please feel free to contact Beverley at beverley@houseprotectors.co.uk

Spencer Jackson ( Sales & Marketing )

Spencer has over 20 years experience in sales and marketing and he is responsible for our face to face marketing at local business clubs and also for our online advertising using Search Engines and Social Media Websites.

Twitter, Facebook and Linked will be a major focus for Spencer over the next 12 months. Please contact him for more info.

In his spare time he enjoys martial arts and is a fully qualified fitness instructor and nutritionist.

Our next 12 months will see Spencer working hard to deliver the House Sitting services of the House Protectors to Norwich and Norfolk areas. By showcasing the quality and dedication of the House Protectors team, we hope that his efforts will help us grow into one of the regions favourite house sitting service providers.

Spencer is also responsible for our off-site backup operations, ensuring that Colin and Beverley have third party cover should they need it. This important role is essential in maintaining the safety of our frontline security operatives, providing them with a single button alarm system for emergencies and also a remote manager for contacting emergency services in the rare instances that they are required.

For any information regarding our public relations, sales and marketing please contact Spencer at spencer@houseprotectors.co.uk

We may be just at the beginning of our journey as partners in this new and fresh house sitting team, but we feel that our skill, drive and passion will help us to prove that house sitting has entered the 21st Century.

We are able to provide high level house sitting services to the following Norfolk towns & surrounding areas: Acle, Attleborough, Aylsham, Cromer, Dereham, Diss, Downham Market, Fakenham, Hingham, Holt, Loddon, North Walsham, Rackheath, Reepham, Sheringham, Stalham, Swaffham, Thetford, Watton, Wells-next-the-Sea, Wroxham & Wymondham. In addition to these local areas we can easily house-sit in the Cambridge and surrounding areas.

Please note that we can travel further to care for your property, but this will involve travel charges for both the miles travelled for any preliminary meetings and also the journey to & from your property. Charges will be reflective of the miles travelled and will be agreed in advance of any dealings.

To discuss your particular house sitting assignment please either call us on 01603 866606 or Email at enquiries@houseprotectors.co.uk . For last minute bookings or matters of urgency please call Colin on 07787 910918.

What makes our House and Pet Sitting Services unique ?

A Personal Quality Service

A dedication to your security, privacy and peace of mind is at the core of our philosophy. Our aim is to provide you with a professional house sitting service, specifically tailored to provide security for your property and belongings, privacy to your lifestyle and the peace of mind that comes with a house sitting service that you can trust and rely upon. We try to offer all of the benefits of a friendly house-sitting couple with the professionalism of a qualified and licensed security guard.

Protecting a remote property requires some measures that other house sitters may not feel comfortable undertaking. At House Protectors we provide 24 hour occupancy, which means that the property has someone onsite all of the time providing continual signs of occupancy (lighting, movement, sound etc). We cover areas of vulnerability with CCTV IR-cameras which are linked to movement detectors and also cover areas around ground floor windows with PIR Movement Alarms, providing a shrill alarm, drawing the house sitters attention should anyone attempt to gain entry. We also undertake frequent patrols of the property and grounds checking for signs of tresspass, damage and maintenance issues. Our patrols are set at irregular times, changed daily and even extending through the night time hours. By planning irregular patrols we keep the dishonest onlooker on their toes as they puzzle as to when we would next walk by.

Mobile CCTV with Movement Activated Alarms

It is impossible for one house sitter to cover every angle at all times. We believe that by using our specifically designed mobile CCTV system that we can provide constant cover to the weakest areas of your property. Our CCTV cameras record 24 hours per day and utilise the latest in movement technology technology which record all movement occurrences and draw the attention of the house sitter.

Protection for your Sensitive Belongings

As well as protecting our clients property we also care deeply for their privacy. Leaving your home in the hands of strangers can be worrying and sometimes there are papers and belongings that you might feel more comfortable if they were inaccessible to strangers.

To help with this issue we can provide lock boxes for our clients to safely store their belongings during their absence from home. These boxes can be locked using a combination padlock which allows the client to ensure that they are the only ones who have access to their sensitive materials and thus give peace of mind during their travels away from home.

Peace of Mind

In reality, when a house is broken into, the items stolen or damaged are only 50% of the harm that is done to owners. The other 50% of harm comes from the ongoing feeling of vulnerability caused by having strangers force their way into their properties. Although the crime may have been committed by an opportunistic passer-by, the home owner does not know this and the ensuing sense of fear and need to protect themselves can become all-consuming and extremely destructive to their daily happiness.

Colin holds an HABC Level 2 Award in Security Guarding and a recently updated SIA Security Guarding Licence for Frontline Security Operatives. With a long work history of providing security for shopping centres, leisure industry sites (night clubs, restaurants and sports) and private residences. Colin is trained in conflict management, assessing and planning the safe protection of property and grounds, arrest and removal situations, incident reporting techniques and all manner of building security skills. His professionalism and self control makes him the ideal house sitter for medium to large house sitting designations.

Even when asleep our house-sitters are still in touch with the security of your property. In addition to our 24 hour CCTV systems, we also use battery powered movement detectors, flood detectors and smoke alarms, giving us security cover even if there was a power cut. We have tried our utmost to provide a system which will not only provide your property with great cover, but also give you peace of mind when you are away from home.

Simplicity

Put plainly, when you leave your property, you do so with the knowledge that systems are in place to protect it and in the rare event that an incident should occur we have pre-arranged a contingency to deal with it in your absense.

Trustworthy

In order to hold an SIA (Security Industry Authority) it is required that the holder be checked for criminal convictions by a government body. Thorough identity checks and background checks are secured at each stage of the application process, which ensures that the candidate is confirmed by licensed authorities. Personal references can be provided upon request.

Convenience

We aim to build long lasting and successful relationships with our clients and suppliers. We are a new service and we fully appreciate the value of regular loyal customers. Providing our house sitting clients with a trustworthy and reliable service is of the utmost importance to us. We will do everything in our power to fulfil your requirements and exceed your expectations.

All placements must be confirmed with a £100 non-refundable deposit unless the booking is last minute (always worth trying as we have only just started trading and therefore have plenty of vacancies right now).

For those wishing to arrange their own home security, please allow us to introduce you to our suppliers. We have their permission to list their security stock on our website, so please feel free to browse. Security Shop Link

Some House Security Considerations ...

It is very important to realise that your property is very unlikely to suffer a burglary while you are away on holiday or a business trip. The UK is still a statistically safe place to live and this is due [in part] to the high moral standards of its occupants and quality and legal range of it's police service. The crime statistics for Norwich show that the reporting of burglaries is 12.5% lower than the national average, making our area one of the nicest to live in the UK.

However, everyone knows that although statistics can sound positive, they only show zonal averages and rarely can these help to pin-point areas of hotspot criminal activity. In most cases the only people to know how crime is in their own area are the local residents themselves. Because of the nature of statistics, there is usually a period of public dissatisfaction with the local authorities before a spike in burglaries and crimes against property are reflected in the figures.

Local communities can help each other in these situations. Watching each others properties while they are empty, reporting security issues at regular meetings and being more willing to call the police when you see suspicious behaviour will raise your communities defensive profile in the eyes of the criminals and they will look elsewhere.

There are of course properties that are not over looked by close neighbours and this can make it very difficult to preserve security when they are left empty for any length of time. Norfolk is a large county and offers space and tranquillity for its occupants, but this privilege can present some difficulties when planning our holidays and undertaking our professional commitments. It is always hard to leave your home empty, but especially so when leaving the country, whether for leisure breaks or on business ... This is where the House Protectors team hope that our services can help.

We are in the process of collating crime figures for each Norfolk town and village - This is a work in progress, but you can see how we are getting on here ... Crime Figures for Norfolk.