What Happens When Your Monitored Alarm Goes Off?

A monitored alarm does more than make noise. It puts a trained team between your property and whatever is happening, even when you are asleep or on the other side of the country.

Here is exactly what happens from the moment your alarm triggers to the moment someone responds.

Step by Step: How Monitoring Works

Step 1: The alarm triggers

A sensor detects movement, a door opening, glass breaking, or a tamper event. The alarm panel activates and immediately sends a signal to the monitoring centre. This signal goes through your phone line or network connection, depending on your setup.

Step 2: The monitoring centre receives the signal

A 24-hour monitoring centre picks up the signal within seconds. The operator pulls up your account, which shows your property address, contact details, emergency contacts, and your response code.

Step 3: They call you first

Before calling anyone else, the monitoring centre calls you. This is where your response code matters. You will be asked for a code to verify it is really you. The default code is 1, but you can set your own during setup.

If you answer and confirm it is a false alarm, nothing more happens. If you confirm it is real, or if you do not answer, they move to the next step.

Step 4: Escalation

If you do not answer or cannot be reached, the monitoring centre works through your emergency contacts in order. These are the people you nominate when you set up your account. They also have a voice code on file, a word or phrase that only you and your nominated contacts know. If someone answers but cannot provide the voice code, the centre treats it as a real event.

From there, they can contact police, a guard response service, or both, depending on what you have set up on your account.

Daily Fault Reports

One thing people do not always know about monitored systems is the fault reporting. The monitoring centre does not just wait for alarms. It monitors the health of your system continuously. If your alarm panel stops checking in, which it does on a regular schedule, the centre flags it as a fault and contacts you.

This means a tampered system, a cut phone line, or a power issue gets noticed before you find out the hard way that your alarm was not working.

The Pocket Secure App

With a monitored system through Access Alarms, you get access to the Pocket Secure app. This lets you arm and disarm your alarm from your phone, check the status of your system, and receive push notifications when an event is triggered.

You do not need to be at home to arm up before you leave, or to let a tradesperson in while you are at work.

Monitoring Pricing

Getting set up with alarm monitoring through Access Alarms costs 95 for the SafeDial installation. Ongoing monitoring is 35 per quarter. If you want a printed monthly activity report posted to you, that is .50 per week added to your account.

There are no lock-in contracts. If your needs change, you are not stuck.

Find Out More

Alarm monitoring is one of the most effective things you can add to an existing alarm system. It costs less than most people expect and it means someone is always watching, even at 3am on a public holiday.

Read more on our alarm monitoring page or call us on 1300 049 969 to add monitoring to your current system.