Comment On Dealer Asking Central Station To Insure The Dealer/Alarm Verification Not for All Alarms/Programming Question.
December 11, 2012
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Comment On Dealer Asking Central Station To Insure The Dealer
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Ken
One of the things that determines the cost of the premium is your gross sales, what I have seen dealers do is not state any of the revenue from monitoring or in some cases will specifically exclude monitoring from there E and O policy and then try to get the CS to write them as an additional insured.
I have talked at length with dealers about this in the past and their attitude is that the liability from monitoring is the central stations problem, you and I both know that in the vast majority of claims surrounding alarm systems they have little or nothing to do with central station performance or lack thereof.
Just thought you might be interested in some of the tactics some dealers have.
Anon
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Response
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Dealers need to report all of their revenue so that insurance premiums can be properly calculated. The last thing a dealer needs when facing a claim is to have the insurance company claim fraud and cancel the policy.
The facts of life in the alarm industry is that dealers indemify central stations, not the other way around.
But, I must take issue with your final statement that the vast majority of claims have nothing to do with central stations. That isn't accurate. Central stations make mistakes, just like alarm dealers do, and that's why both dealers and central stations need to be properly insured and also use properly drafted contracts.
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Alarm Verification Not For All Alarms
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Alarm verification, whether by multiple phone calls, video, audio or actual inspection, is not permited for some alarms in some juridictions. Here is a recent law enacted in a New Jersey town
On October 3, 2012, Ordinance # 12-15-1436 was passed and now became law. The passage for this ordinance reads as follows: "All persons and/or agencies responsible for monitoring automatic fire alarms and/or fire suppression systems located within the Borough of Cresskill shall immediately notify the Cresskill Fire Department upon activation of said alarm. It shall be a violation of this ordinance for any person to investigate or verify of said alarm prior to notification of the Cresskill Fire Department including one and two family dwellings. This requirement shall not apply to fire drills and routine testing and maintenance being conducted of said alarm".
This ordinance shall exceed the National Fire Protection Association by prohibiting any type of verification prior to notification of the Cresskill Fire Department including one and two family dwellings.
If you have any questions in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Christopher S. Ulshoefer
Chief of Department
Cresskill Fire Department
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Programming Question
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Ken
Once again love the everyday forums,they make the morning.on commercial fire alarms, if you just completed an install for a large chain store and after the install is done they inform you that they are going to use a national company to monitor the system is it safe to say that the programming and software belongs to me, to hold me harmless of others programming the alarm to there central station with my programming still in it would hold me some what liable, is it safe to put the panel back to factory with no contracts signed yet.
anon
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Response
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The programming that you do for a system is your property, though it can be sold along with the system depending upon how your contract reads. The Standard Form Contracts make it clear that programming remains property of the alarm company. If you're not going to be monitoring the system you can provide the pass codes so the communication system can be programmed, or you can default the system to factory codes. If you have anything to do with the system, such as inspection or service, then you should get a statement from the subscriber that the subscriber has requested the codes, that you provided the codes or defaulted the panel, and that you have no further liability regarding the system. You don't want to be responsible for the system if others are servicing it or have access to the programming.
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another programming question
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Ken
love reading you forum question about lockout codes is it safe to say that the software and programming belongs to the alarm company if we default the panels lockout code
Ira
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Answer
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Programming remains the alarm company's property. If your monitoring services come to an end you should provide the pass code or default the panel to manfacturer's code so that the subscriber can have the system reprogrammed. If you shut off monitoring do not shut off the system. The subscriber has the right to the local system without monitoring.
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