Home Security Installers near you

With a monitored system, the control panel sends each alarm to a monitoring centre staffed around the clock. An operator checks the signal, usually tries to reach you or your contacts, and can call emergency services if needed. The service comes with a contract, and the centre keeps a record of events that can help if you ever need to file an insurance claim.

A self-monitored system sends alerts to your phone instead. You decide whether to call a neighbour, check a camera or contact emergency services yourself. It avoids a monitoring contract, but the protection depends on you seeing the alert and being able to act: a phone on silent, a dead battery, a flight or a lost connection leaves the house unwatched. Some systems let you switch between the two, or add professional monitoring only while you travel.

Wired systems connect each sensor to the panel with low-voltage cable. The devices don't depend on batteries and the system is very dependable, but cable is easiest to run in new construction or during a renovation, when walls and ceilings are open. In a finished house, the installer has to fish wires through walls, the attic and the basement, which takes longer and can leave small patches to repair.

Wireless systems use battery-powered sensors that talk to the panel by radio. They go in quickly with little damage, move with you if the equipment is yours, and suit condos and rented homes. The trade-off is battery replacement and the need for a solid signal between each sensor and the panel, which thick walls or a large house can make harder. Many older homes end up with a hybrid: the existing wired sensors stay and new wireless devices fill the gaps.

In Quebec, the Bureau de la sécurité privée (BSP) oversees the private security industry under the Private Security Act. It lists electronic security systems among the regulated activities, including the installation, repair, maintenance and continuous remote monitoring of burglar and intrusion alarm systems, and anyone who carries out a regulated activity must hold an agent licence. The BSP's public registry of licence holders shows the status of a licence in real time, so you can check the technician's name before the visit.

Agencies need a licence too. Elsewhere in Canada, rules for alarm installers vary by province, and some municipalities have their own alarm bylaws, so ask the installer what applies where you live. Whatever the province, if the panel needs a new circuit or an added outlet, that part of the job goes to a licensed electrician.

A monitoring contract can run for a fixed term or be open-ended. In Quebec, the Office de la protection du consommateur explains that a fixed-term contract cannot change essential elements such as the price or the length, that the provider must give written notice at least 30 days before an amendment takes effect, and that an unfavourable amendment lets you end the contract without charge. A fixed-term contract longer than 60 days cannot renew automatically for another fixed term, and the provider must tell you the end date in writing at least two months in advance.

If a salesperson signs you up at your door, or visits after a phone call, Quebec gives you 10 days after you receive your copy of the signed contract to cancel it in writing, without fees or reasons. In Ontario, the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 also provides a 10-day cooling-off period for contracts signed at home, starting when you receive the written agreement. Wherever you sign, confirm whether you own or lease the equipment, what happens if you move, and how the warranty covers devices and labour.

Many panels accept monitored smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, so the monitoring centre can call for help even when nobody is home to hear the alarm. That is a valuable layer for a house left empty all day, a cottage or a pet home alone, but it does not replace the smoke and CO alarms that fire and building codes call for in your home. Keep those alarms, and check with the installer that any detector added to the system carries a Canadian certification mark.

Health Canada recommends a smoke alarm in each bedroom, in the hallway outside the bedrooms and on each level of the home, including the basement, testing smoke alarms every month and replacing any smoke alarm more than ten years old. For carbon monoxide, it names hallways outside sleeping areas as the most important location and advises testing CO alarms regularly.

False alarms tie up police and firefighters, and some municipalities bill the owner or the alarm company after one. In Montreal, for example, the fire department states that the building owner is responsible for the fire alarm system and pays the fees after a false alarm. Rules and charges vary from city to city, so ask your municipality or the installer what applies to you.