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 ****************************** What to do about challenges to your contract April 13, 2024 ************************ What to do about challenges to your contract ************************ Ken If our company is using your contracts - What do you suggest when a customer with multiple contracts wants to eliminate several lines in the contracts? How would you proceed- or should we walk away! Renee *************************** Response *************************** There may be good reason to walk away from a job, but a request to modify your Standard Form Agreement is not one of them; at least it shouldn’t be a steadfast rule for you unless you have a “mass’ market approach and you don’t want to spend any time with a customer who wants to ‘negotiate” your “free install and $16 a month monitoring deal”. By the way, you frame your question with “If our company uses your contract”. If you don’t use a K&K contract then don’t bother calling me to discuss that contract or changes to it; I don’t know what your contract states and you don’t want to have me spend at least an hour trying to figure it out. K&K supports K&K Standard Form Agreements for a few reasons: * K&K Standard Form Agreements are known to use; we wrote them * We enforce thousands of K&K agreements in arbitrations and litigation yearly * We negotiate K&K agreements daily assisting our clients get their contract signed * It’s simply not cost effective for K&K or you for K&K to work with your contract, and we prefer not to, a choice we can easily make because half the alarm companies in the US use K&K contracts. You don’t or you don’t keep them updated? Mistake, one you can correct today by ordering new K&K contracts. I do believe that every paragraph, every sentence and every word in the Standard Form Agreements is important; changing any provision will reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of the Agreement. Nevertheless, many of the provisions are “business” in nature, which is always your decision and you can be flexible. Other provisions, and you should be able to distinguish them, are “legal” and there for reasons you may understand or may not fully understand or appreciate. Changing the legal provisions can seriously reduce the effectiveness of the Agreement and can seriously compromise the “value” of that account. An account base with too many accounts with changed contracts may scare away potential buyers of your accounts, may cause a central station to refuse to monitor those or all of your accounts and may cause an E&O carrier to refuse to write your coverage, non-renew your coverage or dump you as an insured. Why not, your too much of a risk taker and they don’t want the exposure. The Concierge Program is designed to assist alarm companies in many ways and contract negotiations is one of the most used benefits of the program. You get a free half hour each month for contract review and negotiations. That’s typically all the time it takes for me to review and when necessary negotiate contract changes. There’s still room for you to join the Concierge Program so join today. We are soon approaching a “waiting list” to join. Contact K&K Concierge Coordinator Stacy Spector,Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304 or SSpector@Kirschenbaumesq.com There are at least 5 “protective” provisions in the Standard Form Agreements and modifying or even striking one or two is possible without completely decimating the contract’s protective features. It’s not the kind of change in the contract you should be doing on your own. The only time there is no reason to seek counsel when your contract is challenged is when: * the customer has made it clear that it’s take it or leave it, and * you want the job and will agree to anything to get it Yes those situations arise all the time and dealers have different levels of tolerance for risk [probably different levels of greed mixed with either sense of adventure or stupidity]. It’s not a lawyer’s job to make these decisions for you, but it is a lawyer’s job to point out the risks and possibilities so you can make the most informed decision you are able to. Unless your attorney wrote your contract and negotiates it every day of the week I suggest you consider joining the Concierge Program or at least having my phone number on speed dial. ************************* 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 ************************** 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
