When a home alarm system is removed should the monitoring company have discovered on their own via monitoring?
February 3, 2010 by
Filed under american alarm company
I moved a few years ago. I was renting an apartment and removed the alarm system. Now, three years later the monitoring company claims I did not notify them of the removal and wants to be paid for monitoring per the auto renewal contract provision even though they provided no service. My position is when the system was removed they should have been aware, had they been monitoring per the contract.
I don’t think you’re chances are good but I’m not a lawyer. If your contract said you needed to inform the company, you should have. Since you removed the equipment I have to assume you owned it. You do have a counter argument in that the company didn’t provide due diligence in noticing that the system was no longer working. Not good for an alarm monitoring company. You could argue that this shortcoming meant they weren’t doing their job and didn’t uphold their end of the contract. I don’t know how much they say you owe. It might be cheaper to pay them off and learn one of those “hard knock” lessons rather than hire a lawyer. They’re probably banking on this, but it’s a fact that you may come out ahead unless you can act as your own attorney and it doesn’t cost you to take the necessary time off from work.
Ah this is bad because you did not notify them.
Seriously though, they knew. I was a Monitoring Operator for years and you can tell. 1. The system would have stopped sending daily test signals. There was their first clue. 2. They would have received some sort of panel tamper when you removed the system. 3. They definitely would have received a communication trouble.
Were you under some sort of contract? Did it state they need notification to end the agreement? If not, screw them.
Bottom argument: They were not providing a service for the past 3 years. Sounds like they’re just trying to get money out of you. And even if you were still connected, they weren’t providing a very decent service if they couldn’t tell your system was not communicating.