I want to comment on a recent legal article in SDM. A court reportedly held that an alarm company had no duty to notify its subscriber that monitoring was being terminated. You should be clear that in that case the subscriber did not have a contract with the alarm company and had not paid for monitoring services. The subscriber had taken over the premises from a former subscriber who had a non assignable alarm contract. The new tenant had declined to sign a new alarm contract. Notice to subscribers of termination of monitoring service is a tricky subject. There are many different factual scenarios that can change the final decision on notice. Prudence would suggest that you give some form of notice that monitoring is going to be terminated and another notice once it has been terminated. The form of this notice can be by any means that you can establish if necessary. Have the clerk or secretary who sends the notice prepare an affidavit attesting to the notice and save it in a file. I am not a fan of certified mail because it's costly and time consuming, and doesn't prove what was in the envelop anyway. Email or fax, especially where you can get a receipt, or a recorded telephone call is fine. Causing the key paid to read "monitoring terminated" may also be something you can do, at least for several days. You should be aware what your contract with your subscriber requires regarding monitoring termination and notice. You can follow the dictates of the contract unless your locale has governing statutes or ordinances that you are required to follow. In some areas for example you must notify the local fire department if you are terminating monitoring. Be careful if you have provided monitoring without a contract. This can occur when you install and monitor without a contract, a new tenant comes in and doesn't sign a contract, your contract with the subscriber expires, doesn't have a renewal clause or your don't comply with a statute that requires some notice before the renewal clause will be enforced. Once you have provided monitoring without a contract your termination of that service will not have any guideline, such as the terms of a contract. I have counseled alarm companies to use common sense and provide notice before terminating. Unless there is a governing law, and I am not aware of any, other than for fire possibly, I think you are on safe ground once you know the subscriber is aware that monitoring is terminated and has had a reasonable time to replace the service. This is days, not weeks or months. If a new tenant takes over space or a house, and you don't know about it, but you have continued to provide service, then you need to terminate that service immediately upon learning about the new occupant. Even then you should provide some notice if you know the new occupant has relied on your service. Better safe than sorry. You don't want to find out if your termination without notice was proper only after a lawsuit.
Ken Kirschenbaum, Esq