advice when stealing your contract forms / ISC meeting /Party Invite November 11, 2025

KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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advice when stealing your contract forms / ISC meeting /Party Invite
November 11,  2025

You're invited: K&K 2025 HOLIDAY PARTY WILL BE ON DECEMBER 4, 2025 6 PM Old Westbury, NY. RSVP only if coming with Kathleen Lampert at 516 747 6700 x 319 or KLampert@Kirschenbaumesq.com or Diana Henriquez at 516 747 6700 x 328 or email dhenriquez@kirschenbaumesq.com. Space limited so be sure to RSVP if coming asap
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Private meetings at ISC EAST
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ISC is almost here; reserve your private meeting.
To arrange a private meeting with K&K and staff at ISC East on November 19 or 20 please contact Kathleen Lampert at 516 747 6700 x 319 or KLampert@Kirschenbaumesq.com or Stacy Spector,Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304 or SSpector@Kirschenbaumesq.com. We are planning half hour appointments between 10:30 and 4:30 on November 19 and 20. If you think you need more time let us know. We look forward to seeing you at ISC; meetings will be outside the hall at the food court area.
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advice when stealing your contract forms
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Ken,
   We just performed a contract review as part of a due diligence and the seller stole the contracts from another company. We know that they did because they forgot to change the alarm company name and the document contains several incidences in which the initials of the alarm company are in the text. For example. the seller was “Best Alarm Company” and throughout the document it says stuff like “BAC takes no responsibility for failures of communication devices.”
   I want to send you a tongue in cheek email along the following lines:
Ken,
   We just completed a due diligence and the Seller is going to have to get all new contracts (1,200 of them) because they obviously stole the contract from another company but didn’t copy it correctly. If any of your readers want to save a few bucks on their contracts by stealing one from another company I want to make a few suggestions.
   Make sure that you change the name of the alarm company that you stole the contract from throughout the document. Most contracts reference the name of the alarm company in several places, so, if you want to save a few bucks on the most valuable asset that you have, take a couple of extra minutes to read through the entire contract and change the name wherever it occurs, not just at the top of the first page and in the opening paragraph. Be very careful because the original alarm company may do some tricky stuff like using abbreviations. For example “Best Alarm Company” may put BAC all through the agreement instead of their name. You may think that this is some sort of legal terminology, and even though an attorney would tell you otherwise, why spend the money.
   Many contracts have a provision for the governing law and for venue. This is so that if you end up in court there is agreement as to how and where the case will be tried. If you are stealing a national company’s agreement, it may have one, a local company, not so much. Just be careful because the local company that you have stolen the agreement from may have stolen it from a national company. Changing the venue can be very important because, for example, if it is an ADT Agreement calling for Florida law and Palm Beach County venue, and you are in South Dakota, it is going to be very expensive to travel to the small claims court in Florida if you have to sue a client. If that isn’t bad enough, think of how expensive it will be when a customer’s insurance company sues you for a loss and you have to travel to Palm Beach in high season. The insurance company most certainly has an attorney who is there already, thus avoiding the $600 a night hotel.
   Another issue is that if you have stolen the agreement, you most probably have to re-type it. Very few companies are willing to hand out their monitoring agreements in Word version. If you are re-typing the agreement, be sure to be very accurate. There was a case a few years ago in which the Defendant re-typed the agreement but, instead of typing “Alarm Company does not assure police response,” they typed “Alarm Company does assure police response.”
Be careful if the contract that you are stealing is too wordy. Provisions should be direct and to the point, don’t elaborate too much. Industry attorneys monitor cases and verdicts and are able to adjust language when there is a court decision. Make sure that the agreement that you are stealing was written by a competent industry savvy attorney, and was written recently, so that you can make sure that you get the most up to date, second hand, free, legal advice.
Be sure that you use the same stolen copy and not multiple ones. It is very embarrassing to have provisions 1 – 7 on the front page, and provisions 5-9 on the back page, especially if there are two complete different sections 5-7.
   If you are going to use the agreement for a residential install, be sure to study the federal and state law regarding auto-renewal, recission, and other consumer protection measures. If the law changes and your stolen contract doesn’t reflect the changes, consumer protection agencies, juries, and Attorney General offices are not going to be very forgiving. Call around to the Appeals Courts to see if any cases have resulted in decisions that may affect your contract. The clerks in these courts typically have nothing better to do than to talk to random people who call in with questions.
   If you use AI to write an agreement keep in mind that the AI is only as good as the computer code which may have been written by contract programmers in a third world country.
If it is a commercial install, be sure to up your liability limits to $30 million or more so that when the building burns to the ground and the insurance company comes after you, the claim doesn’t bankrupt your company.
   Like it or not, your monitoring agreements are your most valuable assets. I speak with many owners who tell me that they have great relationships with their customers and don’t believe that they will ever be sued. This approach seems reasonable until there is a loss and the customer files a claim with their insurance company. Insurance companies don’t have any relationship with their customer’s alarm company. The also have an obligation to spread around the risk when there is a claim. Even if you manage to make it through your career as an alarm company owner, consider that these agreements represent a lot of money. Even a small group of agreements can be worth a quarter million dollars or more. Having bad agreements diminishes value. Saving a few thousand dollars on monitoring agreements could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in diminished multiples.
Mitch Reitman
817 698 9999 XT 101
Reitman Consulting Group
Fort Worth, TX
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Response
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   Since this is tongue-in-cheek, sad as it is, let me ask this? Are there really company owners or those in charge of getting contracts dumb enough to steal one or write their own? I thought the last holdout, Andrew [last name and whereabouts not to be disclosed - but he knows], finally broke down and got the Kirschenbaum Contracts TM. And I might add, he hasn't even complained or asked to revise them.
   Seriously, the Kirschenbaum Contracts TM are constantly being updated throughout the year. Copying an existing contract is not likely to be the latest update. Furthermore, as Mitch points out, those copying or stealing contracts rarely prepare them properly, and of course they are "on their own" trying to figure out how to use the contracts.
   The most important asset in your business should be treated as such. Additionally, the security and fire contracts have become so complex and prospective customers are becoming more and more difficult when it comes to agreeing to their terms, or flat insisting that the customer contract be signed, you need the Concierge Program to assist you with contract negotiations and re-drafting contracts. The Concierge Program is the most economical way to get legal assistance when it comes to legal matters in the security and alarm industry.
   Penny wise and dollar foolish doesn't begin to describe the security, burglar and fire alarm integrator who doesn't realize the importance and value of the contracts. When the best is also likely the cheapest, except for Midnight Sales or DIY contracts, the choice is simple and certain. www.alarmcontracts.com For on-going assistance: Concierge Program.
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STANDARD FORM AGREEMENTS: To order up to date Standard Form Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com