Found a surprising stat about false alarm fines in a city ordinance

I was looking up the local codes for a job in Springfield and saw that the third false alarm in a calendar year triggers a mandatory $150 fine (the homeowner pays it, not us, but still). I had no idea the threshold was that low, or that the fines were that specific. Do you guys usually warn customers about this when you do the walk-through, or is that more of a monitoring company thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery_white10d ago

Reminds me of a buddy who got fined because his cat kept setting off the motion sensor lol. He was so mad at the monitoring center for not telling him.

phoenix_grant3410d ago

Man, that's a rough rule. I always bring it up during the install, right when we're talking about testing the system. Tell them to call the monitoring center before they test anything, and to keep pets out of rooms with motion sensors. It saves a huge headache later. A lot of folks just don't read the fine print from the city.

ray_miller8410d ago

Yeah, that's a really low bar for a fine, and @emery_white's buddy's story shows why it matters. A lot of homeowners just don't know the rules their own town has. I make a point to mention it during the final walk-through because the monitoring company might not. It's about setting clear expectations so they're careful about testing and pets. Getting hit with a surprise bill makes everyone look bad, even if it's not our fault.