12.5.24 – SSI – Jeff Zwirn.
If you don’t care about deleting zones on a subscriber’s alarm system or do it without checks and balances, you do so at your own peril.
Oftentimes, subscribers ask alarm contractors to delete zones on their alarm system due to false alarms, construction or a multitude of other reasons. Invariably, this could be via a telephone call or during a service call.
Against the foregoing backdrop, I have investigated cases and claims across the country where multiple zones were deleted; and when a count is made as to how many initiating detection devices were on each zone of the system, it included many more areas of the premises than what the subscriber was requesting to be deleted, or that is the position which the customer took.
Did the technician know or did he/she make an assumption that if the subscriber is asking for Zone 11 to be deleted, he/she must have a reason and it was just never questioned?
Nonetheless, there are many times when no documentation is created for this task, and/or if there is documentation, the technician might state, “reprogrammed the system at subscriber’s request,” with no specificity as to what was actually done and/or performed. Moreover, the request might be temporary, and at other times, it is a permanent instruction.
Why Deleted Zones on Alarm Systems Are Important
With this in mind, the sum and substance of the conversations between subscribers and alarm technicians is not something that is usually documented, and other times either the subscriber and/or the alarm contractor may forget that a zone(s) was only to be deleted for a certain period on a temporary basis. Yet, it stays that way and is never programmed back into the system.
Fast forward to a loss, if zone(s) on the alarm system that were expected to activate do not, and it is forensically determined that the reason for the “failure” is based upon the zone(s) being deleted, of which, this task could only have been accomplished by an alarm contractor, they will be targeted.
Surely, the next prong of the investigation will be to determine why the system was left this way and/or who authorized this change. To the extent that the subscriber does not remember, then what? From the alarm company side of the equation, the focus will be on what, if any, documentation exists as to what the alarm company did and/or did not do.
Having said that, if the alarm contractor is unable to produce any authoritative documentation as to this fact pattern, it will, in all likelihood, increase their liability.
In the meanwhile, if the zone or zones of the alarm system that were deleted included a fire zone(s) then the analysis broadens in that most authorities having jurisdiction (AHJ) only allow fire alarm systems to be on-test for no more than eight hours.
On the other end of the fire code spectrum, if an alarm contractor deletes a fire zone(s) and it is off-line for more than eight hours, this act would require notification of the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) and the reason(s) why would have to be explained, especially if the household was occupied.
To the extent that a fire happens and the premises burns down with either no fire alarm system activation or what is quantified as a late alarm, and/or if occupant(s) in a home suffer serious personal injury and/or death as a result of fire alarm system failing due to deleted zones, it should not take any imagination to realize the magnitude of the liability for the type of fact pattern.
In a case like this, the alarm company was knowingly monitoring an impaired fire alarm system and the actions that they took likely violated the adopted fire code and the statutory duties in the state where they held themselves out to the public as experts in NFPA 72.
Fast forward to today and alarm system litigation cases and claims are based on the fact pattern, the duties of an alarm contractor, a breach of that duty or not, proximate cause or not and damages.
In closing, the focus of the information being presented here starts off with your policies and procedures for deleting zones on subscriber accounts in your customer base and making sure that you understand the criticality of these actions.
Always comply with your duties as an alarm contractor and the mandatory minimum standards that govern all professionally installed fire alarm systems, such as system design, installation, programming, inspection, testing, maintenance and remote station monitoring.
About the Author
Jeff Zwirn, SSI Contributor
Jeffrey D. Zwirn, CPP, CFPS, CFE, SET, ITFAS-I, ITFAS-II, CHPA-IV, NFPA 3000 (PS), MSYL, MBAT, SSI Hall of Fame, writes Security Sales & Integration’s “Security Science” column. He is also president of IDS Research and Development, an alarm and security consultation, expert witness and training authority providing nationwide services on all issues related to alarm and security matters. He can be reached at 800-353-0733.