Alarm takeover and switching provider

Can a monitoring company take over an alarm someone else installed?

Usually yes. A takeover means an approved company inspects an existing alarm, confirms it meets the required standard or specifies what needs changing, and then maintains and monitors it. It is normally much cheaper than replacing a working system, and it is the standard route when you move into a property with an alarm already fitted.

The inspection is the crux. The company has to be willing to put its own certification behind a system it did not install, so it will check the panel's age and type, detector coverage, whether documentation exists, and whether confirmed activation is achievable if you want police response.

Outcomes are usually one of three: taken over as-is; taken over after specified remedial work, which might be as small as repositioning a detector or as large as a new panel; or declined, typically because the panel is obsolete or unsupported.

If you have just moved in, be aware you may have no history for the system: no documentation, no engineer code, no knowledge of what has been changed. Say so up front, because it affects the survey.

A takeover does not inherit the previous occupant's URN automatically, and a poor false-alarm history at the address can still be relevant.

Can I switch alarm monitoring providers?

Yes. You are not obliged to stay with the company that installed your alarm, and switching monitoring provider is routine. The practical constraints are your current contract's notice period and whether your existing signalling device is locked to your current Alarm Receiving Centre.

Two things need to move. The monitoring contract itself, which is a matter of notice and paperwork. And the signalling, which is a technical question: some communicators can simply be re-registered to a new ARC, while others are locked to one provider and need replacing.

If you have police response, the URN also needs handling. It is issued to the address but administered through the approved company that applied for it, so a switch involves the new provider taking that over with your force. A competent incoming provider will manage this, but ask specifically how continuity of police response will be maintained during the changeover.

Before you commit to switching, get from your current provider: your contract end date, the notice required, whether the communicator is owned or rented, and any outstanding charges. Get from the new provider: whether your existing hardware can be reused, and what the total cost of changeover is including any new communicator.

What happened to BT Redcare, and what replaced it?

BT closed its Redcare alarm signalling service in 2025, after announcing its withdrawal in 2023. Systems that used Redcare had to be migrated to an alternative signalling provider — the main UK options being CSL, WebWayOne and Chiron — and any system still described as Redcare-signalled has either been migrated or is no longer transmitting.

Redcare was, for decades, the default UK alarm signalling path, and it was closely associated with the analogue phone network it grew up on. Its withdrawal was part of the wider retirement of that network.

If you have an older monitored alarm and have not heard from your provider about a signalling migration, that is worth chasing. The failure mode is quiet: an alarm whose signalling path has gone still sounds its siren locally, so a property can look protected while nothing is reaching an ARC at all.

The check is simple. Ask your monitoring provider, in writing, which signalling provider and path your system currently uses, and when it was last successfully polled. A monitored system is polled regularly by design, so they can answer that precisely.

Because this migration coincided with the phone network switch-off, some properties needed both a signalling change and a change of connection type at once. Treat any pre-2024 monitored alarm as needing confirmation.

How does the phone network switch-off affect my alarm?

The UK's analogue phone network is being retired and replaced with digital voice over broadband, which means alarms that signal over a traditional phone line stop working reliably. If your monitored alarm uses a landline, it needs migrating to broadband or mobile signalling — this does not happen automatically, and a failed path is silent.

The old analogue network, the PSTN, carried its own power and stayed up when the mains failed. Digital voice does not: it runs over your broadband router, so it goes down when the power or the internet does. An alarm that dials out over a line like that has a much weaker path than it used to.

Some older alarm communicators also simply do not work over digital voice, because they expect analogue signalling tones. In those cases the alarm can appear entirely normal while being unable to reach the ARC.

The switch-off has been rescheduled more than once, and communications providers are migrating customers in batches, so the date that matters is the one your own provider gives you for your line. Do not rely on a national date.

The action is the same either way: ask your alarm monitoring provider to confirm in writing what your system signals over now, and whether it is affected. If it is, the fix is normally a new communicator using broadband, mobile, or both.