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 white list ken@kirschenbaumesq.com ****************************** You are contracted for fire alarm inspection and customer tells you someone else did the inspection July 24, 2021 ************************** You are contracted for fire alarm inspection and customer tells you someone else did the inspection ************************** Ken We have a client that we have installed a fire alarm and provide monitoring service, repair and testing for about 16 years now. We have a signed Fire Alarm All in One contract in place since February 2017. We also have a security system (Kirschenbaum commercial security contract in place dated also 2-2017) for them as well and both are five year service agreements. Their annual fire alarm testing has come up here in July and when I called to schedule it they said it was already done. Apparently the fire extinguisher company they use offered to test it last week and the maintenance man there said ok not knowing about our agreement in place. I advised them that we have the contract for testing and that the test conducted by the other company was not valid. I checked the central station records and found that all the other company did was pull the manual pull stations. They never tested the 16 duct smoke detectors that would have required a ladder and more time to do. There are other testing items such as ground fault, dialer line 1 and 2 fail test, battery missing, ground fault, etc. required in NFPA 72 that was not done by the extinguisher company during their "test" not to mention the fire alarm connection to a computer server room suppression panel that was never tested. I brought this to our customers' attention and they said they would get back to us. Two days later they are saying that the manager that signed the All in One contract never ran it past their legal department and they are not sure what to do and will have to get back to us in two weeks because the person that handles these matters is out of the office. They are clearly stalling on this as the extinguisher company put them in a bad spot. Boiling it all down to the All in One Fire Alarm agreement we have with them, I noticed where it says the customer shall test this system and report any issues immediately. Does this language or any other language in the All in One Fire Alarm agreement allow them to conduct this test and to refuse our contracted testing of this system? What action if any should we take? ANONYMOUS ************************* Response ************************* If the customer had another company tamper with the system within the warranty period for a new installation the customer would risk loss of the warranty. Here the warranty period is long past. Your Fire All in One includes Inspection Service and that's exactly what you should be offering to do, ignoring the other company's inspection. You should schedule your inspection and if the customer refuses to permit the inspection notify the AHJ. If the customer stops paying your RMR charges then you will declare them in default and send the contract to K&K for collection proceedings, which will be a Demand for Arbitration. Don't wait because this customer can likely be saved once they understand the error of their ways. If in fact the manager had to show the contract to legal before signing that's his problem and the company's problem, not your problem. I suppose another perspective should be mentioned. Both you and your central station [not to mention your insurance company] depend on alarm systems operating properly, and fire alarm systems are so important the law typically requires them, dictates the specifications and requires periodic testing and inspection. I suspect that your central station would not be happy knowing that your fire alarm systems have not been properly inspected. You should take action to enforce the contract and if the customer refuses the inspection but continues to pay, at the very least, you should document this in correspondence with the customer and the more prudent approach would be to consider defaulting them and refusing to continue monitoring. But as I mull this over, I do see another issue; I suppose you can be contracted to provide monitoring but not inspection and service. But that's not your contract here, so I won't change the scenario. *********************** To order up to dateStandard 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. *********************** NOTICE: You can always read our Articles on our website at ww.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-articles *********************** THE ALARM EXCHANGE
This area is reserved for alarm classifieds, alarm company announcements, solicitations, offers, etc. There is no charge to post a listing here.Include your contact information, phone, email and web site. If you would like to submit a post, please send an email to ken@kirschenbaumesq.com. To create a reciprocal link to our website, click here. ************************************************ 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
