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COMMENTS ON CODE COMPLIANCE - ACCESS CONTROL AND SMOKE DETECTORS FROM SEPT 18, 2015 ARTICLE
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Ken:
    Adding to Joel Kent's recent statement.
    In the past when teaching numerous courses the attendees (guys in the trenches) did not have an NEC 70 code book or in many cases not a current copy.
    Maybe one per company, regardless of the number of employees.
    Connecticut requires a yearly four hour CEU class to renew your license. As part of the board that reviews the criteria we now require a current copy of the NEC 70 as one of two tickets for classroom entry.
    We will in future low voltage classes require current copies of the NFPA 72 in addition to the NEC.  For the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone can install a fire system and not have a copy of this code. Some companies don't even own one, let alone one per employee.
I constantly hear that the reason for not buying the book is it "costs too much money".   
Think of how much you will spend in legal costs defending yourself (if at all possible) when telling a judge or jury you install fire systems but, don't own a code book telling you how.
Respectfully,
John W. Yusza, Jr., President
Monitor Controls, Inc.
Wallingford, CT 
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Ken
    Of course you're right Joel with a correction, and possibly you're 100% correct in your world. For example in my world the fire marshal along with all his/her minions do inspect and sign off. The wiring is inspected by the building department and they sign off.  Maybe these guys are unusual, but they do come to job sites and sign off. I actually appreciate it in the sense that on occasion they will find a wire or smoke that's not exactly right. For me it's like a second set of eyes. Let's not forget that these folks i.e. Fire Marshals and Building Inspectors are getting paid by our tax payers dollars to do their job so I have no reservations calling them to do just that. 
    Now the important issue is lawyers, insurance companies, and money right?  So when we're fully signed off and in compliance with the city and county, where does liability fall?  It falls on municipalities. What special feature do all municipalities have? Immunity against prosecution. Unless of course an insurance company finds their behavior so outrageous as to warrant an investigation. In our line of work this probably isn't going to happen unless it can be proven that the fire marshal and building inspectors have a history of not doing their job. In other words instead of inspecting, they're at home napping and rubber stamping the inspection process. 
    Just to make clear, I have silently cussed more than a few inspections that I deemed to be petty B.S.  Something I'll never understand though is the all or nothing policy. Well I take that back after reading Ken's column I do understand and I answered the answer to this question above. 
Dennis
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QUESTION ON ACCEPTING PERSONAL PAYMENT ON CORPORATE ACCOUNT
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Ken
    I have a commercial fire alarm customer that wants to pay via a personal credit card. Are there any concerns with using a personal credit card or check to pay a business expense?
Ross Chadwell
Florida Alarm
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RESPONSE
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    You can accept the personal payment from the individual.  Your subscriber is a business and that's who should be on the contract.  Identify the entity, corporate LLC or other, and be sure to get the title of the person signing on behalf of the entity so you don't run into trouble later when a claim is made that the person had no authority to bind the entity.
    Though I am giving the green light on accepting payment from the individual the better practice would be to have the individual guarantee the entity's obligation.  The Commercial All in One and the Commercial Fire All in One forms provide for a personal guarantee.  Though the personal guarantee is not necessary to bind the entity to the agreement, in this case you know that payment is coming from someone other than the entity.  The potential downside is the same as I have discussed when you accept payment from any entity other than the subscriber named in the agreement, the possibility that that the paying entity, or person, will at some time file bankruptcy and the Bankruptcy Trustee will claim that the payments had no consideration and are therefore fraudulent transfers.  The Trustee may not win that claim but trust me, you don't want to get involved in litigation with a Bankruptcy Trustee in bankruptcy court.  Those of you who have had to return money deemed a preference know what I am referring to.  So if the person paying is obligated by guarantee the payment is appropriate.
        I suppose another issue could be that the individual may later claim that he, she or it, was a third party beneficiary of the alarm contract, despite the provision that states that there are no third party beneficiaries, because of the payments and your knowingly accepting those payments.  The claim, as specious as it might seem, will be that the paying party is entitled to the protection of the alarm system but not subject to the terms of the agreement, particularly the protective provisions that you will need to rely on if you are defending your company from a loss claimed to be a consequence of alarm system or alarm service failure.
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