Apex Alarm / Monitronics:
"Apex Alarm LLC" of Orem Utah is a Monitronics Authorized Dealer. Apex Alarm LLC sells/installs Ademco Lynx systems during the summer months May-August. It routinely assigns its 36 month @ $~40.00/mo subscriber monitoring agreements to Monitronics International Inc of Dallas TX, which pays, we are informed, around $1,400 for each one.
When hearing that Monitronics re-assigned one of those agreements back to Apex Alarm LLC, I am thinking that it could be due to the unenforcibility of the agreement.
This could be due to the fact that Apex Alarm LLC, in Calif at least, is unlicensed (no burglar alarm license; and no fire alarm license), a condition the Calif Dept of Consumer Affairs and the Calif Contractors State License Board are investigating. Monitronics is aware of this no-license problem, too.
Also Apex Alarm LLC is not registered with the Calif Sec of State, a requirement for doing business in Calif.
Further, Apex Alarm LLC has been Sanctioned in Virginia for alarm license violations, and just recently cited in Utah for other license problems.
One wonders how that re-assigned system will actually be monitored.
Or perhaps it was due to the fact that an ADT system may have been replaced by Apex Alarm LLC (as opposed to an entirely new system installation), and because Monitronics apparently does not want to pay for takeover accounts.
Our reading of Calif law is that alarm monitoring agreements obtained by unlicensed alarm dealers are unenforcible in court (one wonders if the limitation of liability provisions are enforceable either). We believe that Monitronics may have acquired over 10,000 such California agreements from Apex Alarm LLC. Monitronics is aware of these problems as well.
Let's do the math: 10,000 x $1,400 = a significant number.
Norm Mugford wrote: