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 ****************************** certificate of service for unit owner in condo January 13, 2026 ***************************** certificate of service for unit owner in condo ***************************** Ken We are a Fire Alarm Contractor. We get requests from Condominium Associations to provide a Certificate of Monitoring from the central station for individual condo owners for an insurance discount. The insurance companies are want the individual unit number on these certificates. Our agreement is not with that individual owner but with the Condo Association itself for the building as a whole. Sometimes these units have devices that attach to the fire alarm system of the building and sometimes they do not. I feel it would be a major liability to our company, and perhaps fraudulent activity, to issue a certificate for a specific unit number the way the accounts are set up. Can you please shed some light on this? Thank you for your time and I'm sure I am not the only contractor that is faced with these requests. By the way, I love your content and dedication to our industry. You have my permission to use this in your forum if you wish. I read the articles daily and will see my answer there. Have a great day. ********************** Response ********************** This is an interesting question and I am curious how alarm companies, particularly fire alarm companies, handle these requests. This is the first time I am offering an opinion on the issue. K&K has a standard form Certificate of Service which you would issue to your subscriber that confirms service to that subscriber. This question pertains to a fire alarm in presumably a high rise condo building; not dissimilar to a rental building with multiple tenants. It's a building wide fire alarm; it's one fire alarm with multiple zones, I suppose one for each unit and parts of the common area. Only the condo association is invoiced and pays for the monitoring services [and inspection and repair service too]. Unit owners don't turn a fire alarm off and on [unlike an intrusion system, for example]. Other than complain that the smoke or heat detector in their unit [or apartment] isn't working they have nothing to do with the fire alarm system. The relationship between the fire alarm company and the condo association should be established by the Fire All in One. That standard form agreement makes it clear that the condo association is the subscriber and that there are no third party beneficiaries of that contract or the fire alarm company's services. Whether that holds up is another matter for another article. However, issuing a Certificate of Service to the unit holder isn't going to help the position that the unit owner is not a third party beneficiary of the services. In fact the Certificate of Service will establish that the fire alarm company acknowledges that it is providing monitoring to that unit owner. The question of whether the unit owner is bound by the Fire All in One signed by the condo association is questionable, and you don't want to find out the answer in a lawsuit where your company is at stake. You can still accommodate your subscriber, the condo association by carefully indicating on the Certificate of Service the extent of your service, i.e., building fire alarm system with smoke and or heat detectors in units, including the unit owner who asked for the certificate. Don't stick your neck out more than that. ********************** STANDARD FORMS 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 ww.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-articles updated daily ******************** THE ALARM EXCHANGE - the alarm industries leading classified and business exchange - updated daily ************************* 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 / Email 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. You can read articles and order alarm contracts on our web site www.alarmcontracts.com Sign up for emails from our Mail Chimp service: http://eepurl.com/i-Opgw ************************** 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
