Three obligations outlive the installation, and the first attaches to the equipment before anyone touches it. Insurance Code § 6002.251 provides that a detection or alarm device, alarm system, or item of monitoring equipment whose purpose is to detect or give alarm of fire may not be sold, offered for sale, leased, installed, or used to monitor property in Texas unless it carries a LABEL OF APPROVAL OR LISTING of a testing laboratory approved by the department. Chapter 7 covered the other end of that chain — 28 TAC § 34.608 is how an organization becomes an approved testing laboratory. The statute makes room for what is already in place: equipment may stay in use if it complied with the law when it was originally placed AND has not been extended, modified, or altered. Alter it and that shelter is gone.

One narrower exception sits beside it and is often misread as broader than it is. Fire alarm devices that are NOT REQUIRED by the chapter or its rules, and that do not impair the operation of devices which are required, are exempt from the label and listing requirement — but only if they are APPROVED BY THE LOCAL AUTHORITY WITH JURISDICTION. Three conditions, and the third puts the decision in someone else’s hands. It is an exemption from labeling for equipment nobody required, granted locally, and it does nothing about licensing.

The second obligation travels with every sale and installation, and no exemption in the chapter reaches it. Under Insurance Code § 6002.252, a fire detection or fire alarm device may not be sold or installed in Texas unless it is accompanied by printed information supplied to the owner by the supplier or installing contractor. That information covers four things. Instructions describing the installation, operation, testing and proper maintenance of the device. Information to aid in establishing an EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN for the protected premises. The telephone number and location of the nearest fire department, INCLUDING NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES. And information that will aid in reducing the number of FALSE ALARMS.

The third obligation is the firm’s own file, and it is the one an inspector asks about years later. 28 TAC § 34.616 requires the firm to keep complete records of all service, maintenance and testing on the system FOR A MINIMUM OF TWO YEARS, available for examination by the state fire marshal or the state fire marshal’s representative.