October 5, 2011

 

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Question re ownership of equipment after an eviction

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Hi Ken

First I want to say thanks for all your emails they are very informing.

After completing a Town approved Fire Alarm system our customer (the tenant) failed to pay us the balance of the contact ( of course your contract) then the landlord had the Sheriff evicted them. I asked the landlord if we could remove our equipment and he said no that the equipment now belongs to him! Do I any recourse with the landlord?

Yours Truly

Jeff Bertuccio Sr.

Alarm Tech Security Systems Inc

Hauppauge NY

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Answer

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If your equipment was leased then you still own it; the eviction does not divest you of title. If you sold the equipment then it belongs to your subscriber, not the landlord. If you filed an UCC-1 then you have a lien on the equipment; you are a secured creditor and come ahead of the landlord. You could bring an action to recover the collateral. You could also sue the subscriber, get a judgment, and issue an execution asking the Sheriff to attach the equipment, assuming it's still there. This advice by the way, is because you are in New York. I know some jurisdictions do give landlords certain priority and attachment rights against property left by tenants; NY however does not.

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Arguments re licensing

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To those favoring licensing:

Oh please do preach to us about the benefits of licensing! An honest assessment is that the functional purpose of licensing is to exclude people from a profession until they pay the money and time to jump through the hoops put into place by a State, allows for the Government and politics, not the marketplace to pick the winners. How can you assert that a gal from Georgia cannot just move to Ohio and be able to go to work and install burglar alarms, without an Ohio license? To even argue that any man needs a license in each State is to argue that your driver's license does not give you the right to drive in other States! Oh, but the alarm laws are different, yes, and so are traffic laws different from State to State, turn right on a red light, some States OK, in others it's an infraction. The concept is called personal responsibility coupled with Liberty.

Do you comprehend that if both of our daughters were hair stylists ( one of mine is) and your daughter moved to California and mine moved to Maryland, neither one could legally cut anyone's hair without taking 2000 hours of State approved classroom instruction and passing a test, so tell me that level of licensing somehow guarantees a good haircut, you know from your own experience is does not. Reciprocity should be in effect for all profession/trade licenses. Many States realize that licensing is no assurance of correct or quality work, so they have not instituted licensing until pushed to by the associations ( read guilds, for those lacking historical knowledge to connect the two, research what a guild is). Anyone reading this could write pages of stories about the slack, sloppy negligent work that they have seen, from LICENSED companies, some will even acknowledge that they have seen it from techs that have worked for them. The problem is not a lack of knowledge, the knowledge is available, we all can choose to learn, or not learn. The problem is people, we are by nature lazy and self-centered. When people act that way they ignore doing the job correctly, not because they do not know how. Same holds true if I was to accept a job for which I lacked the skill, or knowingly assigned it to a tech who lacked the training and skill.

For those who claim they have trouble competing with unlicensed installers, may I suggest that those operations would of course be minimal operations without any long term foundation, not exactly tough competition. If you cannot outbox a one armed blind man, GET OUT OF THE RING!

Bruce Boyer, Lone Star Security

CA

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Ken,

Regarding the September 10 e-mail newsletter¦

Dusan writes, Is this true? Hiring a licensed alarm contractor thru an unlicensed contractor is contrary to the law. How then would general contractors stay in business?

A brief internet search makes it apparent that most States require General Contractors to be licensed. My own State of FL has strong laws regarding unlicensed contractors of every type. Unfortunately, the FL Department of Business and Professional Regulation does not, can't or won't enforce the laws very well. Their standard reply when questioned is that, were understaffed; we don't have the budget to do our job, etc. Two years ago, I actually spoke with a FL 'super lawyer' regarding his obviously unlicensed contractor client. I had threatened to turn his client in for unlicensed activity. He said his client was licensed for the same reason the client stated – he had paid a County contractor permit tax (which doesn't make him a 'licensed' contractor in FL) and followed up by stating that it didn't make any difference because the FL DBPR didn't have the resources to deal with the issue. And, of course, he threatened me.

By the way, in FL, the statutes state that a licensed contractor who knowingly fails to turn in an unlicensed contractor faces penalty of fine and more.

Dusan, respectfully, here is your answer: Why would we care if an unlicensed General Contractor stays in business? That unlicensed contractor takes food from the mouths of a licensed General Contractor's family...a licensed contractor that meets a higher standard, who carries insurance and workers compensation, and more. Unlicensed General Contracting is a violation of most State law/s and can be a gross misdemeanor and in some cases a felony. Ask yourself, why isn't that contractor licensed?

The unlicensed General Contractor is no different than the unlicensed security system trunk-slammers I read about in this forum. What makes the General Contractors so special that they should be able to operate without a license?

My suggestion to all of the licensed contractors reading this is that it is time to report all of the unlicensed activity and don't work for unlicensed General Contractors.

Yes, I have turned in unlicensed activity. Have the offending parties been dealt with or fined? Some of them have received fines up to $2500 and a felony if it occurs again (back to the DBPR on that issue).

Now, we have a new subject, 'Business Ethics'. Are you a slave to the $$ in this economy, or are you motivated enough to report the offenders, to do the right thing to protect your business and industry?

Steve Joos, President Safe & Sound Security & Fire Systems

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audio in Texas

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Question

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Hello Ken,

Where can I find law in Texas on the following:

Is it legal to use audio with my video cameras at a place of business?

Is it legal to use video in Medical rooms, or Medical training facilities?

Sincerely,

Al

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Answer

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You can begin your search here https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/avstatutes.htm