Who can I nominate as a keyholder?

Anyone you trust who can get to the property reasonably quickly, has keys and the alarm code, knows the ARC password, and is willing to be called at any hour. Most providers ask for at least two nominated keyholders so there is a fallback when the first cannot be reached.

The usual candidates are a partner, an adult family member nearby, a neighbour, or for a business, a manager and a deputy. The test is not formal, it is practical: will this person answer the phone at 4am and actually go?

Set expectations with them honestly. A keyholder should not confront anyone. The job is to look from a safe distance, and call the police if something is obviously wrong. Anyone who would feel obliged to be brave is the wrong choice.

Keep the list current. Keyholder details going stale — a changed mobile number, a neighbour who has moved away — is the most common reason a monitoring contract fails to produce a response, and it is entirely avoidable. Review it annually, and whenever someone on it moves or leaves.

If nobody suitable is local, that is the case for a paid keyholding service.