January 19, 2011

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Audio question

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Dear Ken,

    What are the laws restricting video with audio in the state of North Carolina?  I have a friend that recently had service work completed on his vehicle and the entire transaction was recorded including audio by the vendor utilizing a remote camera and microphone that the individual was wearing.  My friend was NOT told that he was being recorded.

Your thoughts ??

Buena Silverman

Holicong Security

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Answer

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    Check audio statutes here http://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/avstatutes.htm

    Every state is either one party or all parties.  In a one party state your friend would not need to be told of the recording.

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Personal liability

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Question

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Hey Ken,

    Thanks so much for putting your knowledge out there.  I get a lot of ‘security’ related e-mails but yours is the one that I make sure I read!

    I am currently in negotiations with a Dealer Program (Reliance Protectron) to re-sign their new and improved contract.  They are insisting that the agreement has to be between their incorporated entity, my incorporated entity, and me personally.

    The reason I went through the trouble of incorporating my company was to mitigate personal liability.  It seems to me that by signing their agreement I put myself on the line and might as well be a proprietorship.

    I asked them to put their board of directors names and addresses on the agreement if they wanted mine but they didn’t think that was appropriate.

    Do you have any experience with a scenario like this?  Not every program wants me to do this and it seems like it is just another way of a program locking a dealer down. 

Warm Regards,

Kolin Lee

Canadian Security Alarms Inc.

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Answer

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    Your dealer program creates contractual liability and you are correct that you would not want to expose yourself personally on the contract.  But doing business as a DBA would expose you not only to your dealer program, all other contracts, but to claims of negligence by your business. 

    You should be checking to see exactly what personal exposure you are accepting by signing the Dealer Program personally.  If there are certain operating restrictions, non compete restrictions, and non monetary risk then perhaps the personal guarantee is appropriate.  However if your Dealer Program commits you to producing a certain level of business, and requiring you to pay fees and charges even if you don't reach that level of business, then you probably do not want to expose yourself personally.

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Personal liability

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Question

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Ken,

    I have a question, If I am an employee of the company such as Service Manager, even though I own my company wouldn’t the LLC still protect my personal assets?

Jeremy

Secure U, LLC

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Answer

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    The LLC will protect your personal assets for breach of contract issues.  However, if you are the one who is negligent then both you and the LLC can be sued and face exposure.  You will not be held accountable for acts of the LLC, only for your own personal acts, even if performed on behalf of the LLC.

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Personal liability comment

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Ken

    How do you protect your assets? Good question. Probably by not having any assets. Split them, put them on your kids names and pray that your kids let you live in "their" house. People lose homes all the time. What are they guilty of? Being poor? Not making enough to pay property tax? Not collecting public assistance?

Dusan

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End of Life Components comment

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Ken,

    With respect to the issue about residential smoke detectors needing to be replaced after 10 years, that’s not true.  Only smoke alarms are required to be replaced after 10 years.  Smoke detectors generally connect to a control panel that controls notification appliances, smoke alarms generally have a self contained notification appliance.

Thanks!                                                                                       

Daniel G. Decker, CFPS, CPP, SET

Safety Systems, Inc.