Security and fire equipment finance

How do businesses finance security and fire safety equipment?

Businesses generally split this category in two. CCTV, access control, sprinklers and fire suppression become part of the building once installed, so they are usually funded through an unsecured business loan or a loan secured on the property rather than standard asset finance, while breathing apparatus, fall arrest kit and other portable equipment are moveable and financed in the normal way. Purchases here are usually driven by a compliance deadline rather than a planned upgrade, which is why financing rather than waiting is the norm.

Buyers are businesses across every sector adding or upgrading CCTV, access control, alarm and gas detection systems, fire suppression and sprinkler installations, or equipping staff with breathing apparatus, fall arrest equipment and emergency lighting. Purchases in this category are usually driven by a specific compliance deadline, an insurer's requirement, or a landlord's condition of lease, rather than a planned refresh cycle, which means the equipment often needs to be funded and installed to a fixed date rather than whenever cash allows.

The honest way to think about this category is as two different kinds of purchase. Installed systems such as CCTV, access control, sprinklers and fire suppression become part of the building once fitted, and are usually funded through an unsecured business loan or a loan secured on the property rather than through asset finance built around a machine a lender could remove and resell. Portable or wearable equipment, such as breathing apparatus, fall arrest kit and mobile detection units, is genuinely moveable plant and can be financed through more conventional hire purchase or leasing in the normal way.

On a leased site, no lender wants a finance agreement running past the length of the lease, since there is little point holding security over a system fixed inside a building the business may not occupy by the time the agreement ends. A tenant financing an improvement to a landlord's building is a genuine complication here, and it is worth agreeing early in the process, both with the landlord and the lender, whether the tenant or the landlord ultimately owns the installed system and who is responsible for it if the tenancy ends.

The mistake we see most often is applying for standard asset finance against an installed system as though it were moveable equipment, when a lender assessing a security or fire installation will usually want to understand the length of the lease, who owns the building, and whether the system is genuinely separable from it, before deciding whether an unsecured loan or a property-secured facility is the more realistic route. Raising this early with a broker generally shortens the process compared with applying for the wrong product first.

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