Vacant property security

• Stripping of fixtures: copper pipes and cable, boilers, air-conditioning units, taps, doors. Taking another’s movable property to appropriate it unlawfully is theft (Penal Code art. 372).
• Occupation: someone gets in and stays; the longer it goes unnoticed, the harder it becomes for the owner.
• Vandalism and graffiti: they make the property “look” abandoned and invite more.
• Fire: from people who got in, from rubbish that built up, or from an electrical fault.
• Water: a burst pipe or an open roof floods floors before anyone sees it.

Signs of abandonment — an overflowing letterbox, weeds, a broken pane never replaced — are an invitation. A vacant property must look as if someone is looking after it.

• Openings: locks in good order, shutters down, ground-floor windows reinforced, access from roof, light well and basement closed.
• Water: whether the main is shut off is decided with your technician — for example, if a fire-suppression system needs water.
• Power: usually only for the alarm, cameras and security lighting; other circuits are switched off.
• Gas and fuel: off, unless the technician says otherwise.
• Flammables and rubbish: removed; nothing stays piled next to doors and windows.
• Letterbox and entrance: emptied and cleaned regularly.

What is decided goes on a property sheet: what is off, what is on, and why. The guard follows that sheet on every visit.

1. External round: doors, windows, shutters, the roof where visible, signs of forced entry, signs of presence (mattresses, fires, rubbish).
2. Checkpoints: scans at fixed points, so it shows when the guard passed — see the guide to checkpoint patrols.
3. Photos from the same points, at the same angle: comparing with the previous visit shows what changed.
4. Internal check, only if agreed and only with no sign of forced entry: leaks, damp, meters, panels.
5. Close-out: confirm everything is locked and the alarm re-armed.

If the external round shows forced entry, the guard does not go in. They stay outside, report, and follow the procedure in the section on occupation.

• Monitored alarm: the signal goes to an alarm receiving centre and from there to a response guard and the keyholder.
• Cameras with remote monitoring: they allow verification before anyone is sent; what they can and cannot do is set out in the guide to remote guarding.
• Power and connection: battery backup, and a connection that does not depend on the account of a tenant who has left.
• Water and smoke detectors: in an empty building they are often more useful than one more motion sensor.

What happens when the alarm goes off — verification, when the police are called, who goes — is set out step by step in the guide to alarms and the police.

• Key register: who holds which key, since when, and why.
• Lock change after every tenant or contractor who held a key.
• Third-party visits logged: agents, valuers, technicians, prospective tenants — who, when, accompanied by whom.
• Handover and return of keys signed for or logged in the app.

After every third-party visit, the guard checks the property was left as it was: doors locked, shutters down, alarm armed.

The Greek Penal Code punishes anyone who enters unlawfully, or stays against the will of the entitled person, in another’s dwelling, in a space that person uses for work, or in an enclosed space they possess (Penal Code art. 334 §1). Prosecution, however, requires a complaint (§3), and the Code of Criminal Procedure does not allow an arrest for such offences unless the complaint has first been made (art. 275 §2). The decision belongs to the person entitled to the property and to the police, not to the guard.

1. Outside and at a distance: the guard does not go in, not even to “see how many there are”.
2. Call [100](https://www.astynomia.gr/amesi-epikoinonia/) and the owner: address, what can be seen, how many people, any fire or danger.
3. Record: time, photos from a public spot, signs of entry.
4. Guide the police when they arrive, and report the same day.

Security companies must not infringe citizens’ constitutionally protected rights (Law 2518/1997, art. 4 §1(στ)). So the guard does not change locks while someone is inside, cut off utilities or put belongings out. Whether the law covers the specific case, and what the owner does next, is for the police and the owner’s lawyer. The guard’s general limits are explained in what security guards can and cannot do.

A guard never evicts or removes anyone from a property. In a real incident, the police decide; for the case itself, take legal advice.

• Time and length of the visit, with the checkpoints recorded.
• Photos from the fixed points, next to the previous ones.
• Findings: nothing, or what changed — prioritised.
• Actions: who was told, what repair is needed, what is outstanding.
• Monthly picture: visits, incidents, recurring signs, recommendations.

For portfolios of many properties — bank- or servicer-owned assets, for example — the report should be identical for all of them so they can be compared. OVIT brings visits, photos and incidents together on the Guardly platform, so the owner sees every property in one picture.