Police, fire department or emergency service response is obviously
something that is not within your control. Yet, your subscribers come to
expect immediate response, and when they are disappointed they look to you
for explanation, sometimes blame. What, then, is your responsibility for
police response?

Almost without exception your relationship with your subscriber is created
and governed by your contract. It's the contract terms that spell out what
obligations you are assuming to perform, and what happens when you fail to
perform those obligations, perform those obligations in a negligent
manner, or through no fault on your part the security you contracted to
provide does not prevent the loss which the system was installed to
detect.

If you prefer to conduct your business without contracts, and
unfortunately some security business owners still do, you are leaving
yourself open to interpretations and opinions of your obligations and
responsibilities, certainly different than what you would find in a
properly drafted security contract.

Every security contract that provides for monitoring and dispatching
municipal authorities should clearly provide that such services are beyond
your control; that you are responsible only for providing notice once you
receive a signal; that you are not guarantying or responsible for actual
response time.

Police, fire department or emergency service response is obviously
something that is not within your control. Yet, your subscribers come to
expect immediate response, and when they are disappointed they look to you
for explanation, sometimes blame. What, then, is your responsibility for
police response?

Almost without exception your relationship with your subscriber is created
and governed by your contract. It's the contract terms that spell out what
obligations you are assuming to perform, and what happens when you fail to
perform those obligations, perform those obligations in a negligent
manner, or through no fault on your part the security you contracted to
provide does not prevent the loss which the system was installed to
detect.

If you prefer to conduct your business without contracts, and
unfortunately some security business owners still do, you are leaving
yourself open to interpretations and opinions of your obligations and
responsibilities, certainly different than what you would find in a
properly drafted security contract.
Every security contract that provides for monitoring and dispatching
municipal authorities should clearly provide that such services are beyond
your control; that you are responsible only for providing notice once you
receive a signal; that you are not guarantying or responsible for actual
response time.

My contracts also cover the situation where the municipal authority
refuses to respond to your subscriber's premises, for whatever reason. The
subscriber remains responsible for payment under the contract.
Although you may think that this type of provision is common sense, it is
necessary because when subscribers suffer losses you will find that their
reliance upon and expectations of your services and system far exceed what
you [and the subscriber] originally intended when the price and scope of
the system was first discussed.

Standard form contracts are available for order at www.alarmcontracts.com