Two of the eleven exemptions in Insurance Code § 6002.155 do most of the work in practice, because they are the two that cover people already on a construction site. One is for a business in building construction that installs electrical wiring and devices where the work may include, in part, installing a fire alarm or detection system. The other is for an individual holding a license or other authority issued by a municipality to practice as an electrician. They are built on completely different foundations: the construction exemption turns on what a CONTRACT says, and the electrician exemption turns on what the DEVICES are. Neither is a status you hold. Both are conditions you meet on a particular job, and either collapses the moment one condition fails.

The construction exemption’s conditions have to be read a word at a time. The contractor must be party to a contract providing that the installation will be performed under the direct supervision of, and certified by, a licensed employee or agent of a firm registered to install and certify such a device — and that the registered firm assumes full responsibility for the installation. On top of that, the contractor must not plan, certify, lease, sell, service, or maintain fire alarms or detection devices or systems. So the exemption is a paper condition as much as a site condition: an arrangement everyone on the job understands, but which no contract records, is not this exemption.

One phrase in that condition deserves its own attention, because the same words appear elsewhere in this book with a word added. Insurance Code § 6002.155 requires the installation to be performed under the “direct supervision” of the registered firm’s licensee. 28 TAC § 34.616 requires installation, and maintenance or servicing, to be performed by or under the “direct on-site supervision” of a licensed technician or superintendent for the work that license permits. The statute’s exemption and the rule’s general requirement are not the same standard, they sit in different instruments, and they can amend independently of one another. When a passage in this book says direct supervision, check which instrument it is quoting — because a registered firm supervising a contractor’s crew under Insurance Code § 6002.155 and a registered firm supervising its own crew under 28 TAC § 34.616 are being measured against different words.