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 ****************************** Attend our free round tables at ISC / Can contract provide for shut-out rights July 16, 2021 *************************** ISC round tables - call to attend and participate *********************** Meet with experts. Check for openings at the Round Tables. Don't miss out on these free educational participation meetings. Contact Stacy Spector,Esq at 516 987 8428 or SSpector@Kirschenbaumesq.com for availability to participate Confirmed round tables: Monday July 19 from 2-3pm Ron Davis - discussion on selling and listing with broker Tuesday July 20 from 11 am to 12pm Troy Iverson, Avantguard. Central station issues and what's new at Avantguard Tuesday July 20 from 2-3pm Mitch Reitman. Selling, taxes and structuring issues Tuesday July 20 from 4-5PM Morgan Hertel, Rapid Response. What's new at Rapid and exciting in central station operations Wednesday July 21 from 10 -11am. Shawn Iverson, The Insurance Center. E&O coverage and insurance issues for alarm industry Wednesday July 21 from 2-3pm Ken Kirschenbaum. Contracts and how to respond to contract challenges Wednesday July 21 from 4-5 pm Ken Kirschenbaum. Buy - sell considerations from legal perspective. How to plan for it and what to expect ********************** Can contract provide for shut-out rights ********************** Ken Is there any provisions that can be added to the contract to give us the right to shut down and lock out the equipment? Such as 1) selling the equipment with a limited license for use only with the installing company and contractually obligating the equipment to be locked out upon termination of services? 2) selling the equipment under the understanding that the programming and/or software is our intellectual property and the system is inoperable without the programming. (Like an apple phone. You can have the phone but if it has no software it’s an inoperable paperweight) If the contract is completed successfully release them from these provisions or not depending on the attitude of the installing company? I’d like from an installing company perspective to have to right to brick the alarm equipment should they cancel services, frankly that’s a great incentive to not cancel. Especially if they did not complete their contractual obligations and failed to finish out their contract. From the free or discounted equipment perspective, that should be a recourse that we could exercise. Especially when someone can choose to have a different provider at a cheaper rate because they were not providing free equipment. We need some better protections! Because you can sue the hell out of a turnip but if they don’t have anything what are you going to get? If nothing else we should be able to lock the equipment down so they don’t get a free ride with the next company. Name withheld ******************* Response ******************* I think there is a simple solution to this issue; lease the alarm system, don’t sell it. If leased the system remains your property and if payment isn’t made you do have the right to terminate all service, rendering the devices useless. It’s hard to have those same rights when you have sold the system and all the customer is paying for is monitoring. When payment isn’t made you can terminate monitoring but you can’t shut down the entire system; the customer is still entitled to the local system assuming there is some local system. I suppose a cloud based system that requires recurring charges by the customer, when not paid, can be shut down, but even that system may have some local features that have been paid for in the sale. The All in One form agreements do allow termination of service if there is non-payment and no notice is required. Just about every alarm company will want to give notice in an effort to get paid from the customer. The tricky part comes when you have had enough and want to terminate service but you do it in a way that could be construed as confusing to the customer. Had do you know if you’re clear enough? There are a few tell-tail signs you can watch for in your letter of termination. By the way, you can send all the letters you want saying that money is due and services will be canceled if not paid. The actual termination letter should not have any “if” “and” or “buts”; no “unless”; no “on condition”. The termination letter is very clear and concise: “Your alarm services will be terminated on August 5, 2021 at 3 PM”. Can the customer be saved after you send that notice? Yes, but you need to be careful how you do that too. You would have to rescind the termination letter or you would have to require the customer to sign a new contract [because the old contract is now terminated]. Caution: you cannot continue any service after the termination date. Why? Because you no longer have a contract, and you should never do any security or fire alarm work without a proper contract. ********************* 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
