A residential property is home to many people, and therefore must be kept extremely safe and secure. Access control systems are key to ensuring that your property is secure and protected from unauthorized visitors.  

They should be installed to provide you with the peace of mind that your home is secure, safe and protected. But oftentimes, residential properties continue to use access control systems that are decades old, and can often leave room for security breaches, intrusions or malfunctioning doors.  

It’s important to consider changing your access control system if any of the following points apply.

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‍You can no longer read the names on the doorbell

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The purpose of an access control system is to control the access to your property.  

Visitors will use the intercom on the entrance of the property to call you or the resident that they need to talk to. Often when an access control system is old, there have been several names added to or removed from the doorbell as people have moved in and out of the property.  

This can make it extremely difficult to read, and therefore locate the correct doorbell of the resident the visitor wants to speak with. A risk of this could be that if the names are too illegible to know who is who, the visitor could call the wrong person or call anyone in the property to gain access to the property, who may then grant them access.  

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No remote access features  

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Most people have experienced the pain of missing a delivery by a few minutes and having to schedule a new delivery time or go somewhere to collect the order.  

With traditional access control systems, there is no way to grant access to the delivery person, or to speak with them from a remote location to organize an alternative delivery time. Having a system that does not allow you to grant access to visitors from a remote location is a sure sign that you should update your system.

With remote access control technology, life is made much easier for controlling access to your home.  

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The system keeps breaking

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When access control systems are particularly old, they begin having problems; the technology begins malfunctioning and breaking and it could prevent visitors or residents from entering the property. Once these problems begin arising, usually they become more and more frequent, and the system requires servicing regularly.  

Having to call someone to service your access control system regularly is a hassle and can also become extremely expensive. Replacing your system might be a large expense upfront, but it prevents the regular expense of getting your old system serviced and fixed.  

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‍You are still using physical keys

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We’ve said it once, and we will continue to say it.... physical keys are a thing of the past for access control. Physical keys are not only redundant in this technological era, but they are also a security hazard.

Using physical keys for your property means that anyone who gets a hold of your key can access your property.  Not only this, but previous tenants or estate agents could also be in possession of a key to your property.

For most people, changing the lock isn’t the first thing they think of doing when moving into their home, which means that if a previous tenant or estate agent still has a copy of the key, they can enter the property, creating a security risk.

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No central administration

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With properties that have several apartments, being able to oversee who has access to the property is a great benefit of modern access control systems. In the case of a tenant moving out, their access to the property can simply be removed via a web administration portal, the same way that if a tenant moves in, they can easily be granted access.  

It gives property managers the assurance that no unauthorized individual will have access to the property, and they will always have a real-time overview of who has access to the property at any given time.    

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Like many technological systems, access control has advanced a lot over the past decades, and now offers excellent features that make every tenant’s life easier, simpler and safer. If any of the reasons above are relatable to you, it is worth considering changing out your access control system.  

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At Defigo, we offer an all-in-one access control system as a service. This means you get a modern, digital system, with remote access via app and our web administration portal included in your subscription. Having an access control system as a subscription gives you the peace of mind that your system will be updated when new hardware becomes available, and software updates will always be included.  

So, you can future-proof your property, and protect yourself from regular service checks, or replacing locks every time someone moves out!  

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Read more about access control for residential properties

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