Conditions of Service

Conditions of Service

Definitions

  1. "Alarm New Zealand" shall mean Alarm New Zealand Limited or Alarm New Zealand and/or any agents or employees thereof.
  2. "Customer" shall mean the customer, any person acting on behalf of and with the authority of the customer as per the Billing Information Schedule, or any person purchasing goods or services from Alarm New Zealand.
  3. "Goods" shall mean all goods, chattels supplied by Alarm New Zealand to the customer and shall include any fee or charge associated with the supply of goods by Alarm New Zealand to the customer.
  4. "Services" shall mean all services provided by Alarm New Zealand to the customer and shall include, without limitation, the provision of all alarm systems, installation and maintenance, monitoring response, services and supplies, all charges for labour and work, hire charges, insurance charges, or any fee or charge associated with the supply of services by Alarm New Zealand to the customer.
  5. "Price" shall mean the cost of the goods or services as agreed between Alarm New Zealand and the customer, subject to clause 14(f) of this contract.
  6. "Alarm" means an installation of apparatus, which performs specific fire, security or safety-related functions in response to the operation of a device, detector, manual call point, mobile phone or other input, as defined in relevant NZ Standards.
  7. "FENZ (Fire and Emergency New Zealand)" means the New Zealand Fire Service or its appointed agent.
  8. "NZP" means the New Zealand Police or its appointed agent.
  9. "Service Agent" means a party that is contracted by the customer to maintain and repair the customer's alarm.
  10. "System" means the collection of equipment, software, transmission links and processes necessary to transport messages between alarms and the customer, its service agents and, if required, FENZ.
  11. "Lease Equipment" shall mean all goods supplied by Alarm New Zealand to the customer where a rental fee or one-time lease fee is applied to the transaction. All such goods referred to as Lease Equipment shall remain the property of Alarm New Zealand.
  12. "Business Day" means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or public holiday in New Zealand.

2. Connection

  1. Alarm New Zealand does not guarantee that connection of the Alarm to the System will be continuous or fault-free but will take all precautions to ensure the best possible service and will attempt to notify the Customer immediately upon any fault or disconnection of service.
  2. Circumstances beyond the control of Alarm New Zealand may cause the connection to be interrupted. Interruption to the connection may also be required to comply with legislative requirements or in order to repair or work on equipment.
  3. The Customer must comply with all applicable statutory requirements and codes of practice.
  4. The Customer must, on 24 hours' written notice, grant access to FENZ (Fire Emergency New Zealand), NZP, or Alarm New Zealand personnel to inspect the Alarm and the Protected Premises at reasonable times during normal working hours.
  5. Prior to the connection of an Alarm to the System, the Customer must provide to Alarm New Zealand all data specified by Alarm New Zealand necessary to allow contact to be made at any time by Alarm New Zealand or FENZ/NZP. If, during the term of this agreement, any of the data changes, the Customer must immediately inform Alarm New Zealand of those changes.
  6. If, in the opinion of Alarm New Zealand, the Customer's power supply and/or batteries are found to be insufficient for the supply of services under the monitoring agreement, the connection fee may be varied, or a separate one-off maintenance invoice may be created and sent to the Customer to cover the cost of installing a new power supply and/or replacing system batteries.

3. Access

  1. The Customer must supply to FENZ/NZP master keys or sets of keys (or equivalent, e.g., access cards or codes) allowing access to all parts of the Protected Premises. The number of keys in the set shall not exceed six.
  2. The Customer must immediately advise Alarm New Zealand of any changes to the security for which keys, access cards, or codes have been supplied and supply any further keys, access cards, or codes as necessary.
  3. Where access to the Protected Premises is through part of a larger complex which does not have alarm monitoring, keys for those outer areas are also required.
  4. Alarm New Zealand will provide the Customer with the address of the FENZ/NZP station to which the Customer shall deliver the keys, and in which the keys will be held.
  5. The Customer acknowledges that if it does not provide keys in accordance with clause 3(a), FENZ/NZP may force access to the Protected Premises in the event of a call-out. Any damage to the Protected Premises as a result of such forced access shall be at the cost of the Customer.

4. Alterations

  1. The Customer shall give prior notification to Alarm New Zealand of any intended alterations to the Alarm or any material factor that may in any way affect the operation of the Alarm.
  2. Alterations to the Alarm shall comply with the relevant New Zealand Standards.
  3. The Customer will allow FENZ or NZP to inspect any alterations to a Fire Alarm.
  4. The Customer shall give 20 Business Days' notice in writing to Alarm New Zealand prior to any change in ownership of the Alarm, or any change in the level of protection afforded by the Alarm.
  5. The Customer shall give Alarm New Zealand immediate written notice of any change to its Service Agent.

5. Disconnection / Cancellation

  1. Alarm New Zealand may disconnect the Alarm from the Monitoring System following at least fourteen (14) days' written notice to the Customer:
    1. For repeated false alarms that result in the attendance of FENZ or NZP personnel and vehicles;
    2. If testing is not carried out satisfactorily and any abnormalities in the Alarm are not remedied by the Customer promptly, to the satisfaction of Alarm New Zealand;
    3. For failure to comply with relevant New Zealand Standards relating to Alarms; or
    4. Alarm New Zealand shall, without liability and without prejudice to any other rights it may have at law or in equity, have the right by notice to suspend or cancel, in whole or in part, any contract for the supply of Goods or Services to the Customer if:
      1. the Customer fails to pay any amount owing after the due date (except where the amount is genuinely disputed and Alarm New Zealand has been notified accordingly); or
      2. the Customer commits an act of bankruptcy as defined in section 19 of the Insolvency Act 1967.
  2. Any cancellation or suspension under clause 5(a) shall not affect Alarm New Zealand's right to claim any money owed at the time of cancellation or suspension, nor will it affect Alarm New Zealand's right to seek damages for any breach of the contract or for any other obligations the Customer owes under this agreement.
  3. If either party wishes to terminate this agreement, that party shall give at least three (3) months' written notice to the other party. The agreement shall expire at the end of that notice period. If the Customer fails to give the required notice, they agree to pay Alarm New Zealand a sum equal to three (3) months' monitoring charges from the date of termination.
  4. The Customer's Alarm may be disconnected immediately if it is adversely affecting the use of the Monitoring System by other customers or impacting the overall efficiency or security of the Monitoring System, and the Customer is unwilling to fix the Fault causing the issue.
  5. The Customer acknowledges that if the Alarm is disconnected, it may be required to be certified prior to reconnection.
  6. This agreement shall not be deemed terminated until the communication device connected to the Customer's Alarm ceases to communicate with Alarm New Zealand.

6. Protection of equipment on property

  1. The Customer shall immediately notify Alarm New Zealand if there is any issue with equipment owned by Alarm New Zealand on the Protected Premises.

7. Alarm Data Information

The Customer must, during any investigation by Alarm New Zealand, FENZ, or NZP into the cause of a false alarm, provide Alarm New Zealand and/or FENZ or NZP with:

  1. Access to the Protected Premises during normal working hours;
  2. Any information requested by Alarm New Zealand, FENZ, or NZP relating to the false alarm;
  3. Any assistance reasonably required by Alarm New Zealand, FENZ, or NZP.

8. Customer Notification

If a critical event or system failure occurs that is unlikely to be resolved within the service level response times outlined in Section 24, Alarm New Zealand must notify the Customer of both the failure and the resumption of service. This notification shall be made by telephone using the Customer's contact numbers or via email, so that a mutually agreed contingency plan can be implemented.

Sample Notification Order Table:

Name Position Phone Email
1st
2nd
3rd
4th

Note: This Order may be adjusted by the Customer at any time.

9. Customer Acknowledgements

  1. The Customer acknowledges that any data collected by Alarm New Zealand and forwarded to FENZ may be used by FENZ in furtherance of its statutory functions, and no recompense shall be due or payable to the Customer. FENZ will not divulge the identity of any individual Customer.
  2. The Customer acknowledges that FENZ shall not be liable in law for any direct or indirect losses, damages, or claims suffered by the Customer or any third parties in the event that:
    1. where a Fire Alarm is disconnected in accordance with this Agreement;
    2. where continuous connection to the Monitoring System is not provided; or
    3. where FENZ terminates its contract with Alarm New Zealand.
  3. In the event that FENZ terminates its contract with Alarm New Zealand, Alarm New Zealand shall notify the Customer immediately.

10. False Alarm Charges

  1. The Customer acknowledges that the Fire Service Act 1975 enables FENZ to impose false alarm charges on the Customer in accordance with a scale laid down by the FENZ Commission. Notwithstanding section 47C(4) of the Fire Service Act 1975, where the Customer is a body corporate as defined under the Unit Titles Act 1972, the Customer agrees and acknowledges that it is liable to pay any charge levied by FENZ for attending a false fire alarm at the Protected Premises, whether or not that false alarm occurred in the common property or within any particular unit of the Protected Premises.
  2. The Customer agrees to indemnify FENZ against all costs incurred by FENZ in recovering any money owed by the Customer under this Agreement. This obligation shall survive the termination of this Agreement.

11. Acceptance

a) Any instructions received by Alarm New Zealand from the Customer for the supply of Goods or Services shall constitute acceptance of the terms and conditions contained herein.

12. Collection and use of information

a) The Customer authorizes Alarm New Zealand to collect, retain, and use any information about the Customer for the purpose of assessing the Customer's creditworthiness or enforcing any rights under this Agreement.

13. Price

a) Where no price is stated in writing or agreed to orally, the Goods or Services shall be deemed to be sold at the current amount charged by Alarm New Zealand at the time of the contract.
b) The Customer shall be responsible for all onsite utility charges, such as telephone and power, required by or associated with the supply of Goods and Services by Alarm New Zealand.

14. Payment

a) Unless prior arrangements have been made, payment for Goods or Services relating to installation shall be made in full on the 20th day of the month following the date of the invoice ("the Due Date"). Payment shall be made by automatic payment or direct debit.
b) The Customer shall pay Alarm New Zealand's fees for monitoring services by quarterly payments made in advance.
c) Receipt of a cheque, bill of exchange, or other negotiable instrument shall not constitute payment until such instrument has been cleared and paid in full.
d) The Customer shall not be entitled to retain any portion of payment by way of retention, except where a charge is genuinely disputed. In such cases, the Customer may withhold only the disputed portion pending timely discussion and resolution of the dispute.

15. Quotation

Where a quotation is given by Alarm New Zealand for Goods or Services:

a) The quotation shall be valid for one (1) month from the date of issue; and
b) The quotation shall be exclusive of Goods and Services Tax (GST) unless specifically stated otherwise; and
c) Where Goods or Services are required in addition to those listed in the quotation, the Customer agrees to pay for the additional costs of such Goods or Services.

16. Risk

a) Risk in the Goods remains with Alarm New Zealand until delivery to the Customer. However, once title passes to the Customer pursuant to clause 18(b) of this Agreement, the Goods shall be at the Customer's risk, whether or not delivery has been made.
b) Delivery of Goods shall be deemed complete when Alarm New Zealand gives possession of the Goods to the Customer, or when the Customer receives the Goods from a common carrier instructed by Alarm New Zealand.

17. Agency

a) The Customer authorizes Alarm New Zealand to contract, either as principal or agent, for the provision of Goods or Services under this Agreement, but only with the Customer's prior written consent (which shall not be unreasonably withheld).
b) Where Alarm New Zealand enters into a contract of the type referred to in clause 17(a), such contract shall be read with and form part of this Agreement, and the Customer agrees to pay any amounts due under that contract.

18. Title

a) Where the Goods are ascertained and in a deliverable state, title in the Goods passes to the Customer when the Customer has made payment in full for all Goods supplied by Alarm New Zealand.
b) Where the Customer has not paid for any Goods or rental fees for Lease Equipment in its possession:

(i) ownership of such Goods shall remain with Alarm New Zealand; and

(ii) the Goods shall be held by the Customer as bailee.

If the Goods are attached, fixed, or incorporated into any property of the Customer, through any manufacturing or assembly process by the Customer or a third party, title in the Goods shall remain with Alarm New Zealand until full payment for all such Goods has been made.

19. Return of Goods

a) The Customer shall be deemed to have accepted the Goods supplied and Services provided unless the Customer notifies Alarm New Zealand otherwise within seventy-two (72) hours of delivery of the Goods.
b) No Goods will be accepted for return by Alarm New Zealand without prior written approval.

20. Liability

a) Alarm New Zealand will make every reasonable effort to avoid performing any negligent acts and shall indemnify the Customer for any direct losses incurred as a result. Alarm New Zealand also agrees to indemnify the Customer for any direct losses caused by breaches of contract resulting from deliberate, wrongful, or negligent acts by its directly employed staff.
b) Without limiting the generality of clause 20(a), Alarm New Zealand shall not be liable for delays or losses caused by:
  • the actions of third parties not contracted by Alarm New Zealand,
  • vehicle accidents or breakdowns,
  • power failures,
  • earth movement,
  • faulty sensors, wiring, or
  • other occurrences beyond the control of Alarm New Zealand.
c) In addition to the provisions of clause 20(a), it is understood and accepted by both parties that:

(i) Alarm New Zealand is not an insurer, and any insurance coverage shall be obtained by the Customer at their own cost; and

(ii) Alarm New Zealand does not represent that the monitoring systems it uses cannot be circumvented, but will exercise all due care to prevent this.

21. Consumer Guarantees Act

The guarantees contained in the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 are excluded where the customer acquires goods or services from Alarm New Zealand for the purposes of a business in terms of section 2 and 43 of that Act.

22. Warranty

Alarm New Zealand does not provide any warranty for the NAD installation until all signals have been tested through to the Fire Service and there are no remaining faults or installation errors with regard to the NAD (Network Access Device).

New parts installed are warranted to be free from defective workmanship and materials for a period of one (1) year from the date of delivery, provided such parts are correctly installed by a qualified person and used under normal conditions. However, no warranty shall exceed the manufacturer’s warranty provided to the Customer at the time of purchase.

23. Service Availability & Support

Alarm New Zealand aims to provide a high level of service availability, with no planned outages during business hours (8:00 a.m. -- 5:30 p.m., Monday to Friday). Most services remain available outside of business hours; however, only a limited number are supported during this time. After-hours support is provided for Severity 1 -- Critical incidents only (refer to the Priority Table in Section 24 of this document). The following table outlines the availability and support coverage for each service:

Service Business Hours Available Business Hours Supported After Hours Available After Hours Supported
Add/Delete/Modify Service
Modify Personal Details
Emergency Service Dispatch
Functionality Test of Service
Fault Support
Hardware Support
Software Support
Training
Internet Access
Advice, Guidance & Information

24. Service Level Response Times

This section describes the priority levels and response times for all calls logged with the ITS Service Desk.

Priority Levels:

Priority Definition
Severity 1 - Critical Problem or outage affecting a large group of customers (>50), business critical functions or essential services
Severity 2 - Urgent Customer cannot perform normal business function due to problem, or customer needs assistance to complete time sensitive task.
Severity 3 - High Customer is significantly inconvenienced by an issue but can work around it until resolved
Severity 4 - Service Request Customer requests a service.

Resolution Time:
Resolution time is the time taken from logging a call in the Action request tracking system, to the restoration of the service.

Note: Where the resolution is dependent on the services of an external provider, the request may be given a status of "On Hold" for a reasonable period of time Alarm New Zealand will ensure that resolution by an external provider is not unreasonably delayed, but cannot guarantee the timeliness of the external provider's response. Alarm New Zealand will ensure updates are received from the external provider and will communicate these to the customer as requested.

Service Levels:

Business Hours - Alarm New Zealand attempts to achieve the following service levels

Measure Critical Urgent High Service Request
Resolution Time 2 hours 4 hours 24 Hours 3 Days
Percentage Met 90% 90% 90% 90%

After Hours - Alarm New Zealand attempts to achieve the following service levels

Measure Critical Urgent High Service Request
Response Time 1 hour 2 hours 4 Hours 3 Days
Percentage Met 90% 90% 90% 90%

25. Reporting Requirements

The following sections outline the reporting provided as part of customer specific service level agreements. Reports can be provided online for download from the ALARM New Zealand web site at any time. Please note charges may apply.

Performance Measure Reporting Requirement
Device Management Lists of all Device events by Customer
Incident Management Lists of Priority events by Customer
Service Requests List of all Actions Requested by Customer
Response Policies List of all Response Plans Required by Customer

Note: A detailed service policy guide is required to be provided by the customer to ensure the response plans are matched with their specific needs. If this is not provided, the default Alarm New Zealand response plans will be used.

26. Miscellaneous

27. Acceptance

Once this document or another Alarm New Zealand contract of service has been signed or the customer begins to pay Alarm New Zealand for the service, the terms and conditions contained within this document are deemed to be fully in force. Unless the Customer advises otherwise at the time of each connection Alarm New Zealand are authorized to notify existing electronic alarm service providers on the Customers behalf that their services are to conform to Customer's or the Alarm New Zealand default policy guide.

Please refer to AlarmNZ's terms and conditions agreement here.