August 13, 2011
********
*************
Ken,
thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and give feedback.
This is a great news blast to help us learn more about the legal issues that we face in our industry. It’s also nice to know that your contracts address these issues that get raised.
At the time of installation the building is a three flat rental property in which the owner does not reside. The Owner signed a separate contract for each unit however the units are vacant. When those units are rented out, is the alarm company liable to any loss or claim from the tenants who will now be a user or perhaps even a beneficiary of the effects that the system is supposed to offer. If so, is there language that the building owner can include in the lease to eliminate the tenant having to sign any type of contract.
We simply would like to tender the tenant with the new emergency call list instructions for the central station. Because the tenant does not pay the bill they would probably not agree to signing a term contract. Besides we have the building owner as the responsible party, why would we want the tenant.
What if we have no contact with the tenant, can the landlord just put language
in the lease? What if the landlord provides the emergency call info?
Our customer is the building owner, we would like to keep it that way and have
no obligation to the tenants.
Thanks
Brett
Security Solutions
***********
another question on liability re employee company trucks
**********
This may be off the beat and path but useful.
What is the liability that one has if installers take trucks home for usage that is not work related. You can't police usage when they are off work. Also if the employee is driving from job to home and home to job is he technically on the clock. It seems what is intended to be a convenience for the installers can have harmful effects. Perhaps your employee contract can address these things.
Brett
Security Solutions
***********
Answer
***********
This is a popular topic and gets covered from time to time. If you remember a few basic principles you will understand the issue better. Since the goal is "contracting away liability for your own negligence" it is essential to have a contract with any potential claimant. While you can't anticipate every member of the public who may suffer a loss at the premises, owners, landlords and tenants are easily identifiable, usually.
The owner or landlord is hiring you to install a system and therefore is the appropriate party to sign a sales and installation contract. If the owner wants to pay for the alarm system monitoring and service, then the owner signs contracts for those services.
However, if the tenant is going to be the user of the system, the one to provide codes, or know the codes so that alarms can be canceled, or call for service, then the tenant is the proper party to the Monitoring and Service contracts. If the owner is paying for those services then the owner signs those contracts with the payment terms, and the tenant also signs those contracts but the contracts provide that payment is being made by the owner.
If an owner / landlord incorporates the terms of an alarm contract in a lease for the premises, that would be OK. The problem is that you can't count on it and can't depend upon it. Get your own contract signed by the tenant.
As far as employees taking company trucks home, I believe in all jurisdictions both the owner and operator of a vehicle are liable for damages caused by the operation of the vehicle. So a company owned truck or car involved in an accident is going to result in the company being named in any lawsuit, and it doesn't matter if it's on the job or private use. If the vehicle is owned by the employee then its another analysis for another article.