Moving Into a House With an Existing Burglar Alarm: What to Do

Day one: codes and control

Change the user code as soon as you have it — previous owners, their cleaners and their trades may all know the old one. If no code was handed over, look for installer stickers on the panel, keypad or bellbox and call that company; they can verify ownership and reset it. Failing that, any competent alarm engineer can hard-default the panel and set it up fresh — for most domestic panels this is under an hour's work. What you shouldn't do is leave an unknown code in control of your house, or rip the panel off the wall (tamper sirens, and possibly an ARC contract you don't know about, will object).

Find out what you've actually inherited

• Identify the panel: brand and model on the keypad or inside the door tell an engineer everything — age, parts availability, app capability
• Check for monitoring: a sticker mentioning an ARC, or a phone/IP module in the panel, may mean a live (and billed) monitoring contract to transfer or cancel
• Test every zone in walk-test mode: opening contacts and walking PIR coverage shows what works and what's dead
• Check battery age: if there's no service record, assume the panel battery needs replacing
• Look for a police URN: paperwork or bellbox markings — URNs don't transfer automatically and lapse without maintenance

Keep, upgrade or replace?

A wired system under ~10 years old with a known brand (Texecom, Pyronix, Orisec, Honeywell) is normally worth keeping: an engineer take-over visit — default, recommission, new battery, service certificate — costs far less than replacement and many such panels can gain app control with a communicator module. Replace when the panel is obsolete (no parts, no app, unencrypted wireless), the layout no longer matches the house, or faults are chronic. We do take-over surveys for exactly this decision — and the wiring of an old system is often reusable, which cuts the cost of new substantially.