Stopping a monitoring service, and who has to be told first

10.6

Ending monitoring

Almost every duty in this subchapter is discharged after the fact. This one is not. Under 28 TAC § 34.616, if the monitoring service provided under the subchapter is DISCONTINUED BEFORE THE END OF THE CONTRACT with the subscriber, the monitoring firm, central station, or service provider must notify the owner or the owner’s representative of the monitored property AND the local AHJ A MINIMUM OF SEVEN DAYS BEFORE TERMINATING the monitoring service. Advance notice, two recipients, and a floor rather than a target — seven days is the minimum, not the requirement.

Read the rule’s own list of who owes it, because it is broader than the party a subscriber would think of. The duty falls on THE MONITORING FIRM, CENTRAL STATION, OR SERVICE PROVIDER — three descriptions covering the arrangement § 10.5 set out, where the firm holding the customer contract and the firm actually watching the signals may be different companies. Any of them discontinuing the service triggers the notice. And the trigger is discontinuation BEFORE THE END OF THE CONTRACT, which is the situation where a building is least likely to be expecting it: a contract running to its natural end is a date the owner already has.

One carve-out applies, and it follows the boundary this book has used since Chapter 4. IF THE MONITORED PROPERTY IS A ONE- OR TWO-FAMILY DWELLING, NOTIFICATION OF THE LOCAL AHJ IS NOT REQUIRED. Note what the exception does not touch: the owner or the owner’s representative must still be told, and still seven days ahead. What falls away is the second recipient. Within this rule the residential carve-out drops the notice to the authority and leaves the owner’s intact — which is worth noticing precisely because the residential boundary does not work the same way everywhere in the subchapter.

Key terms

Discontinued monitoringSeven daysOwner’s representativeOne- or two-family dwellingService provider

In review

Servicing means inspection, maintenance, repair or testing, and maintenance is measured against the system’s ORIGINAL design or intent — which a servicing firm may never have seen.
On the owner’s request a registered firm must provide ALL passwords, including those for the site-specific software. It may wait for a liability waiver it provides itself, and it may not refuse.
A firm billing a customer for monitoring is in the monitoring business whoever watches the signals. Each central station location needs its own technician licensee; its dispatchers do not.
Both ends of a monitoring connection must be registered — you may not monitor for an unregistered firm, and you may not connect a system to a service that is neither registered nor exempt.
Subcontracted monitoring must be disclosed to the subscriber unless the contract reserves the right to subcontract at sole discretion, and a central station reporting a signal owes five items at a minimum.
Ending monitoring before the end of a contract needs seven days’ notice to the property owner and the local authority — the authority half falls away for a one- or two-family dwelling, the owner half never does.