KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE You can read all of our articles on our website. Having trouble getting our emails? Change your spam controls and whitelist ken@kirschenbaumesq.com ********************** Buddy needs advice / comments on trouble even when using contracts August 11 2023 **************************** Buddy needs advice / comments on trouble even when using contracts **************************** Ken, One of my buddies who had an alarm company for about 35 years is selling his accounts and retiring. Part of his deal is that he'll be retaining 5-10 accounts for his family, church, and a few charitable organizations. The normal monitoring fees that would be charged to these customers will be waived as this is his way of 'giving back'(he'll pay the nominal central station cost out-of-pocket himself). My question is how can he protect himself against future exposure if there is an occurrence at one of those premises? He doesn't want to have to take out insurance, etc. for these few accounts considering he's not charging anything here. Is there a waiver he can have these accounts sign to protect himself from future exposure? Jerry ************************** Response ************************** Let me see if I grasp the whole picture here. Your buddy has been in the alarm business for 35 years, doesn’t use Kirschenbaum contracts, doesn’t read my daily articles, isn’t using K&K for selling his accounts and you want legal advice for him. Does that about sum up this situation? I happily provide advice to the alarm industry and particularly to K&K clients and K&K Concierge Clients. I don’t mind answering an interesting question for someone in the alarm industry on this forum because I need the questions and comments for interesting articles. Your buddy is obviously beyond help or redemption; hopeless might best describe him. He is lucky to have survived in this business for 35 years and I’m surprised he has more than the 5 to 10 accounts to sell, let alone retain after he sells. Recently I was asked to review a case where an alarm company employee decided to provide his church with an alarm, so the employee signed the alarm contract for the fire alarm in his own behalf and paid the charges. Church burned down and the Church’s insurance carrier made a claim under its subrogation rights for close to one million dollars. The K&K contract that the employee signed was essentially useless because the Church never signed it. There was a central station error and of course the alarm dealer is required to indemnify the central station. Quite the mess and one more example of the adage “no good deed goes unpunished”. I hope that little tidbit answers your inquiry. If not I’ll make it clearer. Every customer must sign a proper alarm contract before services are performed. Your buddy needs to buy K&K contracts,, the Residential All in One and the Commercial All in One, and the Disclaimer Notice, and be sure all his “subscribers” sign the proper contract. If he doesn’t want to incur the expense he should probably crawl back under the rock he’s been hiding in for 35 years. **************************** Comments on alarm dealer can still get in trouble even with K&K Contract from article on July 28, 2023 ****************** Ken The issue i found with the emails is the DNS records from the email service you're using. Jason Alcock ************************* Ken A very hard lesson learned from a sloppy install. That is why every single alarm we install (and have installed) transmits every open and close signal, sends a daily test generated by the alarm panel and the radios auto send a monthly self-test. This is for every account, whether residential or commercial and whether or not the subscriber wants all of this or not. RFA ESS *************************** Ken, I agree with you. Complete negligence is why the insurance settled. There is no excuse for not fully testing an alarm system upon installation and verifying all signals at the monitoring center. Standard Operating Procedure. Isaac Hayden Dynamic Security Professionals, Inc **************************** Ken An unlicensed rep, no signals sent, and a customer with a huge safe with 6 figures worth of content. Something says the customer has ‘more dollars than sense’. If it causes premiums to rise, maybe they will recognize and omit the companies that have a long history of NOT letting this sort of thing happen. Zeke in Oklahoma *************************** STANDARD FORM AGREEMENTS: To order up to date Standard Form Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com *************************** CONCIERGE LAWYER SERVICE PROGRAM FOR THE ALARM INDUSTRY - You can check out the program and sign up here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/concierge or contact our Program Coordinator Stacy Spector, Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304. *********************** ALARM ARTICLES: You can always read our Articles on our website at www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-articles updated daily ************************* THE ALARM EXCHANGE - the alarm industries leading classified and business exchange - updated daily. https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-exchange ************************* Wondering how much your alarm company is worth? Click here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/what-is-my-alarm-company-worth ****************************** Getting on our email list / Articles archived: Many of you are forwarding these emails to friends or asking that others be added to the list. Sign up for our daily newsletter here: Sign Up. ************************** 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
