KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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can you charge for collection fees
May 6, 2026
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can you charge for collection fees
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Ken,
Does our contract allow us to charge collection fees for people who are past due and going to collections? Specifically, court fees or additional expenses. Essentially we would like to bill them back to the customer and be collected in the collection proceedings.
Thanks,
Joe
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Response
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The Kirschenbaum Contracts TM provide for recovery of legal fees and expenses once the delinquent subscriber is referred to an attorney for collection. If you are using K&K for your collections, which you should be doing, K&K knows to add the legal and collection costs to the demand made to the subscriber. Any settlement or recovery will include those fees. The arbitration forum that the Kirschenbaum Contracts TM specifies also provides for recovery of collection fees and costs.
If you do not refer the delinquent subscriber to a lawyer then the contract does not specify legal fees. So, for example, if you pursue a delinquent account internally you can not add collection charges to your next invoice. The Kirschenbaum Contracts TM do not authorize legal fees if you do not refer the account to an attorney; so if you send it to a Collection Agency you can't charge legal fees unless it ends up going to an attorney. The contract language reads as follows:
"The prevailing party in any litigation or arbitration is entitled to recover its legal fees, costs, and disbursements so that the party is made whole from the other party. In the event a party commences a proceeding to confirm an arbitration award, the prevailing party shall be entitled to attorney fees, costs, and disbursements for such proceeding."
In other words, you must commence litigation or arbitration to be entitled by contract to recover the legal charges. You may be in a state that permits legal charges even if not in a contract, but the statute is likely to require a lawsuit. Note, the Standard Form Agreements do not provide for late fees as currently drafted.
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STANDARD FORMS 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