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 ********************** Contract – customer questions; additional insured; termination notice / Concierge Program September 4, 2023 ************************* Contract – customer questions; additional insured; termination notice /Concierge Program ************************ Ken, I have a couple of questions, 1st. Per the K&K contracts it states that the homeowner shall name us on their insurance as additionally insured. My customer asked why as she is the owner of the equipment as well as the home. 2nd. What is the proper procedure to go about discontinuing monitoring due to non-payment? Is there a form to be sent out to the customer? This is a resident of Rhode Island. AG ****************************** Response ****************************** Additional insured has nothing to do with who owns the equipment, which is the customer on a sale, not a lease. It has to do with providing insurance coverage for the shift risk for liability. The customer assumes all risk and this is your way of protecting the customer by making sure the customer has insurance that is consistent with the alarm contract. That’s one explanation. Another is that the customer has agreed to indemnify you and you don’t want the customer exposed to that risk without having insurance coverage. Another explanation is that you want to make sure the customer’s insurance carry can’t come after you for a loss. If this is the only challenge to the contract you can waive the additional insured language; there is plenty of other protective provision to rely on in the K&K contracts. There is no K&K ‘form” for cancelation and the reason is that cancelation can be for a myriad of reasons. The cancelation notice, whatever the reason, should contain one common provision; that provision is a termination date that is certain, precise, unequivocal and irrevocable. There can be no “if, and or buts”. Thus a proper termination notice will state “our services will terminate on September 20, 2023 at 3 PM. Be sure to terminate your services on that date and time because you no longer have a contract with this customer and no alarm services should be performed without a proper contract in place. If you decide to “reinstate” the customer then you will need to retract the cancelation notice or enter into a new contract. There is one more issue that should be addressed in the cancelation notice and that is whether you intend to hold the customer to the contract payment obligation. Be careful how you word your cancelation notice if you are going to hold the customer to the payment obligations. Essentially you are terminating your services, not the contract, which the customer remains liable on pursuant to the default provision in the contract [assuming the cancelation is because of a default; keep in mind that you might be sending the cancelation notice because you don’t want to automatically renew for some reason and not because the customer has defaulted]. Review of and assistance drafting a cancelation notice in a particular situation is a legal service covered by the Concierge Program under the monthly contract review credit; take advantage of it. If not a Concierge Client, join now for this and all the other benefits. ********************* 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
