How to read a security guarding quote, line by line

Law 2518/1997, art. 4 §1α, as amended by art. 159 of Law 5187/2025, requires the company name to include that phrase and the company’s documents to show its operating-licence number. A quote is a company document — so the first thing to look for is whether it has them.

• Legal name and tax number (ΑΦΜ): the company writing the quote must be the one that signs the contract and sends the guards.
• Operating-licence number: the licence is valid for five years and renewed only if the conditions still hold (art. 2 §3), so ask for its date too. How to check it is covered in checking a security company’s licence.
• Date, validity and signatory: who commits the company, and until when the quote stands.

Each post should be one line with a name and location (“main gate”, “perimeter patrol”), days, start and end times, and how it splits into shifts. “24-hour guarding” with no breakdown is not a line; it is a promise.

1. Add up the hours per week. A gate Monday–Friday 07:00–19:00 = 5 × 12 = 60 hours. A post covered round the clock every day = 168 hours.
2. Divide by 40. Full-time work in Greece is 40 hours a week (Labour Code, art. 189). 60 hours is 1.5 full-time positions; 168 is 4.2 — before leave, sickness and replacements.
3. Mark the premium hours. Hours between 22:00 and 06:00 carry a 25% premium (art. 150), and Sundays and public holidays 75% (art. 219). A 19:00–07:00 shift has 8 night hours out of 12.

That total is the yardstick for the whole quote: it tells you how many people it should list and whether the price holds up. How many guards your own site needs is covered in how many security guards do I need.

• Team size: compare it with the full-time positions you worked out from the hours. If 168 hours are “covered” by two people, ask who works the rest.
• Each guard’s work licence: security staff need a personal work licence, category A or B, valid for five years (Law 2518/1997, art. 3 §1 and §6). The quote should state the category and commit to the numbers.
• Declared staff: every month the company reports its staff to the police, with each person’s work-licence number and post (art. 4). So the numbers exist; there is no reason not to share them.
• Stability and briefing: that the team is stable, and that every new guard is briefed on the post orders before taking a shift.

• Supervision: the supervisor’s name or role, how often they visit or check, and what trace they leave (a logged check, a note in the report).
• Patrols: route, frequency and checkpoints, so you can see when the guard passed where — see checkpoint patrols.
• Reports: shift report, incident report and a periodic report to you — with frequency and format.
• Replacement: the maximum time from a guard failing to show up to someone else being on post, and who tells you.

At OVIT, patrols, incidents and reports are logged in the Guardly platform, so the client sees the same picture as the operations team — not just what the quote says.

• The company’s equipment: uniform, means of communication, torch, patrol-logging device or app — included or charged separately?
• What you provide: guard room, access to cameras or alarm, keys. Who receives them and how they are returned.
• Civil liability insurance: Law 2518/1997 does not require it, so the quote should say whether it exists and what it covers. What to ask for is explained in liability insurance for a security company.
• Contract terms: duration, price review, subcontracting, termination and handover. The clauses to include are set out in security contract terms.
• Exclusions: whatever is not included, stated explicitly — not discovered on the first invoice.

This is where the total from the hours section comes in: hours per week, the matching full-time positions, the night hours and the Sundays. Ask the company to show, line by line, how its price pays those hours lawfully, together with the supervision and reports it promises. If it cannot, reject the quote: the difference is missing somewhere, usually from the guard. What gets cut in such a quote is shown in when to reject a guarding offer that is too low.

Among the quotes that pass this test, you choose on legality, people, supervision and reporting — not on price. What drives the cost of guarding is explained in security guard costs in Greece.

• No operating-licence number: the company does not put on its document what the law requires it to.
• “24-hour guarding” with no table of hours: you do not know what you are buying, so you cannot know what is missing.
• Fewer guards than the hours require: someone will work more than is declared, or the post will be left empty.
• No mention of the guards’ work licences.
• Supervision and replacement with no numbers.
• One lump sum with no lines: you cannot check either the hours or the premiums.
• Not a word about civil liability insurance.

An incomplete quote is not always rejected on the spot; ask in writing for the missing lines. For what to ask next, see the questions to ask before signing, and when you are ready, request a proposal from OVIT for your site.