comment on fire alarm systems with problems and duty to notify the authorities / subscriber unreasonable demands July 18, 2018

KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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comment on fire alarm systems with problems and duty to notify the authorities / subscriber unreasonable demands
July 18, 2018
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comment on fire alarm systems with problems and duty to notify the authorities and others
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Ken
    The comments and responses on so called duty to notify the authority having jurisdiction and the surrounding tenants/property owners took on a life of its own. From what I have seen in many codes and city/town charters the property owner or his officially designated representative (lawyer, management firm etc.) are the responsible party, and in limited cases, the tenant. There are some cases that in certain jurisdictions that others have an obligations to do so but those are limited. From what was stated if you want to believe it, a firm like Jiffy Lube, when they do a $25.00 oil change and free 10 point check of other things such as brakes, tire ware, need for alignment or other related safety factors, should report to the state motor vehicle authority if you chose not to correct them and left, thereby putting your family and anyone else that may come in contract with your car in peril on the road correct? 
    Can you imagine if that applied to everything not limited to a house inspection that termites were found and not taken care of but the a need to report this to the local township, a contractors called in to give an estimate on a side walk that was broken and the owner decided not to fix it reported to the local building department, an asbestos investigator that find asbestos in the building during the inspection but not in the area that the work is going to be performed in and is required to reports this to ACS because there are children occupying the building. Where would it stop? 
    As far as the discussion to notify tenants or building owners next to a building that the fire alarm monitoring has ceased and should that be the responsibility of the firm that provided such service. Those others were not a party to the service or agreement to provide such to begin with so why? If a card store is located between a jewelry store on one side and a precious coin and stamp dealer on the other side should the alarm firm be required to notify each of them in case someone could break in to the card store first and then break into either one of these stores if the card store stopped his alarm monitoring? Where would this all stop if this was the case? 
    These questions and discussions on this have taken things to extremes that should rarely come into the picture except in unusual cases of which none were stated. This went over the top and beyond what should have been.
  Got my head you know where 
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Response
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    When I was a young lawyer I had the advantage of consulting with my Dad. He was a well regarded lawyer and scholar of law. I guess I said "I never heard of that" too many times in support of one of my arguments. He told me never to use that in an argument because the fact that I never heard of it doesn't mean it isn't the case, and all that it could mean is that I am just too ignorant to know what I should have known.
    Why did I bring up the topic of notifying the AHJ and even adjoining neighbors? You never heard of such a thing or such a requirement and you think it would be rare and unusual and none of those unusual situations were mentioned. Think they don't exist?
    How about the adjoining jewelry store who sued the landlord because the adjoining store was empty and no alarm was working - burglars came through the adjoining wall.
    How about the adjoining property owner whose house burned because the neighbor's home had a fire and the alarm company didn't call it in soon enough to prevent the spread of the fire? Because I've had a few cases like that.
    One of the first alarm defense cases I ever had was an alarm on a lobster tank that was supposed to notify the alarm company if the water stopped flowing in the tank, thereby cutting off air supply. Well the alarm didn't catch the shut down and all the lobsters died. Well, in that case no patron sued because they couldn't have a lobster that night, but that was a long time ago and cases against alarm companies are more ingenious now. 
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subscriber unreasonable demands
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Ken,
    Thank you for the daily emails, very helpful to us. 
    Our company has a client that can be very demanding, burg/access/video. They have access to their video and burg system to run reports and even change programming. A month ago they couldn’t get into their office with their fob at 7pm, after they are closed. . They called us and got voicemail.     They do not have a service contract. 30 minutes later they call again irate, another voicemail. Our tech was charging his phone. 35 minutes after the first call our tech calls them back and gets their voicemail. No response. We noticed a competitor truck in front of their office a week later. Then their daily test and history went dead a week later. Assumed they made a switch. Funny, our stickers and sign are in front yet.  Their 3 year contract is up mid July. We’d like to be rid of them. What should we do? 
Anonymous
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Response
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    You mention that this sub doesn't have a contract and then you say there is a 3 year contract which ends mid July. Two thoughts.
    If you don't have a Service Contract and the sub called another company then that's on you. You should not be doing any service work without a Service Contract, which is part of the All in One agreements. If there is a contract and it expires soon then let the sub know you are not renewing it. Then be sure to cancel the service, which I guess is monitoring.
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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
516 747 6700
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com