ADT is a leading and popular home security company in the United States that offers its services to homeowners. Rest well knowing that since 1874, they have been securing homes and businesses and offering monitoring services. Another thing that is frequently asked by the majority of homeowners who are willing to install an ADT home security system is ‘do they charge fees or penalties for false alarms’. More often than not, yes, ADT does charge fees and penalties especially when the home alarm is tripped by accident within a given period. Nevertheless, the precise rates are dependent upon several factors.

What Does ADT Consider a False Alarm?

In all the home security companies that are available out there, you first need to know what constitutes a false alarm. A false alarm can be described as a situation in which the security system is activated by mistake, and the monitoring center receives an alarm signal when none is expected from the home. This may occur due to different factors such as wrong configuration and installation of the system either by the supplier or the owner, movement of animals, natural factors such as winds, and, accidentally, people might tamper with the devices or even damage the sensors. It is important to note that security alarms can be an irritating intrusion for both authorities and security providers in particular. That’s why most of them have conditions that require extra fees for such cases of frequent false alarm occurrences.

The ones that are excluded from being categorized as false alarms are those coming from actual crime or an emergency in progress. They also do not include alarm signals brought about by power loss or other natural calamities such as storms or floods. They have to operate by triggering in situations that imply no actual threat or when activated due to a malfunction. Also, it is still important to remember that security companies such as ADT usually provide homeowners a probationary period at the start of their contract where the homeowner is allowed to fine-tune any factors which might result in false alarms. Fees are usually charged after a set time of repeated false alarms or false alarms that are deemed to be too many by the system.

ADT's False Alarm Policy

What exactly does ADT home security company have as policy as regards false alarms? Which, like any security company, their rates and limit may differ in certain areas due to the laws and regulations in their jurisdiction for security services. But in general, here is how ADT typically handles false alarms: 

  • Included in the ADT package is the fact that there is always one false alarm per calendar year allowed without charges being incurred. Depending on some local contracts, it is possible to have more than one.
  • Once an alarm is sounded in any given calendar year, and the police respond, ADT can charge anything between $25 and $100 for the false alarm. You get to know the exact fee that you will be charged by the security provider based on the contract as well as the rules on penalties of security providers in your region.
  • Moreover, false alarms are not encouraged; if ten or more false alarms occur in a calendar year, then ADT can stop the services as well as the contract. This is never actually practiced, it is only listed in their standard customer agreements.
  • In addition to monetary fines being charged per False Call, frequent false alarms could also incur supplementary surveillance fees and service charges on the subsequent monthly bills when numerous occurrences are identified. So, false alarms can be expensive in more than one way: financially, that is.

Possible Additional Charges for Unnecessary Alarm Trips

In addition to the quoted prices above, customers of ADT alarm system monitoring may be charged by the city or town in some areas civic fines, penalties, and inspection in worst-case scenarios due to the occurrence of false alarms. Security providers and business owners can be protected by most of the local governments if they do not exceed 10 false alarms in a calendar year besides penalties like this.

So above and beyond what ADT itself charges for too many false dispatches, your home monitoring customers in some cities may also be required to: 

  • The facility or the owner is required to pay additional fines and assessments to the city or county government in case there are 10 or more false alarms in the year to compensate for the wasted resources of public safety. These can be as low as $50 to as much as $1500+ in some cases for repeat offenders of false alarms especially those that are habitual.
  • Required to go through security systems checks at their own cost if the alarm has been triggered falsely a certain number of times. An inspector will check the positions of the required sensors, and having detected the problems that cause the false alarms, will fix them. If there were any upgrades or repairs that would be needed, which they would identify, would generally also be billed to the customer.
  • Stop outputting service for a specific time like three to six months once reaching the maximum yearly false alarm frequency.

These local government repercussions show that the problem is not simply in having false alarms as often and as frequently as many security companies do, but that such false alarms are not just a nuisance but can become extremely expensive – not only to companies like ADT and their customers. That’s why it is beneficial for both partners to define false alarm patterns on time and stop them all along the process.

How to Prevent ADT False Alarms?

As with most other security providers including ADT, the best way to ensure that you do not spend money on false alarm fees is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. 

To ensure proper reading from the sensors, closely follow installation guidelines the first time you set up your system and ensure all sensors are well placed. The two most common types of security alarms that are frequently triggered are the motion detectors and the door or window contacts, which are usually installed in the wrong position.

Explain to all occupants of the home including children and other people who may visit the home, how the system works and what sorts of movement or kinds of damage the sensors can accidentally register. Studies show that about 60 percent of false alarms are attributed to accidental activation, particularly to security monitoring firms.

Make sure to activate and deactivate your system as needed, conduct periodic checks, replace old batteries, add or change your alarm keypad codes, and tell ADT anytime that you will have houseguests or visitors, contractors or repairmen, maids or cleaning personnel, pets or anything that could accidentally set off a sensor.

Also, plan around the environmental factors like seasonal high winds or storms that might shake doors or windows and come a bit close to the pixel-based detection sensors sometimes causing an alarm.

In the event of any problem with the system such as any function problems or false alarm triggers, call ADT right away. Through their technicians, they can determine the current settings of your equipment, update the software if necessary, replace a damaged component, or check the sensitivity of the sensors and adjust them to minimize the occurrence of wrong signals in the future. It’s also imperative to state that the longer a chronic false alarm situation persists, the more penalties a building will be subjected to over time.

Be sure to avail of the ADTs once a year free of false alarms that might sometimes happen even if precautions were taken and prevention made. Next, track your alarm levels within your system and home activities so that you do not exceed the penalty alarm limit that is normally 10 per year in most service contracts.

The Bottom Line

In the final analysis, it is worth stating that although fees and provisions for contract termination for too many false alarms may sound rather unfair, security companies such as ADT have to set and apply these standards. If there are no penalties that apply in such cases, it means that there is no motivation that would encourage customers to maintain equipment properly or teach their families what actions may trigger false alarms. And constant fake alarms are trying on the monitoring centers and community emergency resources and services.

This is to mean that in most instances, false alarm penalties are preventable by individuals who own security systems or even the relevant agencies that oversee the security systems. The measures formulated to avoid accidental triggering of the alarms are useful for ADT customers to enjoy the Home Monitoring protection service without worrying about incurring fines or charges for false alarms each month.

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